WELCOME TO RAYTOWN
Wednesday 15 October 2014
We often forget that Dublin is not just one big splodge, it is made up of a series of wonderful old villages, each of which has a history and community of its own. Indeed, it's not all that long ago that Ballymun and Tallaght were farming areas and considered by Dubs as being 'in the country'.
Today, Ringsend is a highly desirable place to live, being very accessible to the city centre and also handy for people working in the tekkie industry in the nearby Google and Facebook offices. The wonderful thing is that there is a great mix of two communities - the long-standing Ringsend families - and the new young families, students and workers, who appreciate living in a real village community with the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker - as it were - they are all there. There is tremendous pride in Ringsend and now the 'Our Town Ringsend/Irishtown' project has been set up to restore prestige to the Ringsend and Irishtown area, tackle social problems with voluntary action, and regenerate the environment physically and economically. This was spearheaded by architect Felim Dunne, landscaper Diarmuid Gavin, and Padraic White, a founding member of the Irish Development Authority and Chairman of the Northside Partnership Programme.
The influx of new residents has also attracted new businesses to the area, including the recently opened Artisan Parlour & Grocery behind the Library. Martin Thomas and Venetia Quick told me it is their first venture into the foodie arena but they have succeeded first time in creating a wonderful atmosphere, where you can not only buy your Irish and Continental artisan produce - farm fresh eggs and butter - you can sit down over antipasti plates with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee. Martin told me about opening their new business and how they started with a simple menu.
"For us to get it opened, we needed to have an investor, and for us to get a backer, the investment price point had to be at a certain level. With my initial costing, people were going 'no, no, too much' so then I had to go back to the budget and draw many red lines through things. I learnt an awful lot about getting an investor, apart from the fact that they all want a business plan and a spreadsheet. If you want them to invest in a hospitality or retail business, you have to have the premises. You can have all the plans in the world, but until they see the location and they can drop figures into that location, the cost of regenerating the unit and the market you are aiming at . . . We have a local community here and there are also lots of office workers. We opened doing wonderful products such as antipasti boards, mezzes and sandwiches but now we will be adding more hot dishes."
Martin comes from a nightclub background but says he was passionate about getting involved with food. "We looked at our friends and there was a serious lack of places where a couple could go out and have a nice bite to eat with a bottle of wine for €50, so the menu is based on that kind of price point." artisanparlour.ie
A few doors down is Restored, where I met Des Campbell, who told me it is a community outreach centre run by a local Christian Assembly Pentecostal Church, Abundant Grace. Opened just 15 months ago and headed up by Pastor Sharon Perry, this is an amazing facility comprising a coffee lounge and a shop selling clothes, gifts, furniture and bric-a-brac. The first thing we noticed when we went in was that people were sitting around laughing and chatting.
"We do new and second-hand from here and we have the coffee outlet. People come in and socialize, sit down and have a chat. If there is anything they want to talk about or discuss, they talk about all things here, so it is a great hub. People talk about their problems, but we mostly listen. If it's something we can't deal with, we pass them over to the some of the professional bodies who would deal with that issue. The biggest problems would be 'lack' - lack of things for their homes, lack of food, lack of accommodation, lack of things in life in general that they can't afford. They come here to get a cheaper alternative and help, which is what we are about."
Des told me there is a lot of loneliness out there.
"When we first opened, we had a lady who hadn't been out of her house for two-and-a-half years because she had nowhere to go. She met neighbours and went out that day with a smile on her face. To see an elderly person having served all her years in the community going out with a smile was wonderful."
People don't have to pay for the coffee if they don't want to. Abundant Grace also work with homeless people and have a City Lights programme operating a soup run on Friday nights in the area and into the city centre. abundantgrace.ie
Clyne's Butchers has been in Ringsend since 1926, now owned by Jason Hyland and Aoife O'Toole, it was in the process of being revamped on our visit. It had been owned since 2001 by Aoife's father, Danny O'Toole, who also has a well-known butcher's shop in Terenure. "He retired from here in August and Jason and I took it over. It will be done out as a traditional butchers, but a little bit different," says Aoife.
"Clyne's has a great reputation down the years in the Ringsend and Sandymount area, so we are going to build on the history," adds Jason. This strip is getting done up and will be up and running before Christmas.
"The weekends here have quite a good footfall and it's attracting new people down from the apartments, and you have the Google people and that at lunchtime." Tel: 01 660-2091
On Thorncastle Street, facing the Catholic Church, is Ferrari's Takeaway, which has been there for nearly 100 years. Nunzio De Luca told me how it passed down the Ferrari generations before he bought it 22 years ago.
"When I came here the menu was very short."
He now has an extensive menu and emphasises that he likes to give a good service. A man after my own heart, Nunzio says: "If you buy good quality, you sell good quality and that's very important." Tel: 01 660-4914
Joanne Moran, who is from Ringsend, owns the eponymous Bridge Café, which has a nice little sun-trap area to the rear.
"I started working here 11 years ago and bought it seven years ago. It's great that we now have all the other new businesses around because it brings a lot of new people into the village, benefiting the whole area. We also get a lot of people if there is anything on in the Bord Gais Theatre, the RDS or Aviva - a lot of people will come down to Ringsend."
Joanne had lots of lovely salads but says the full Irish breakfast is also hugely popular all day. "Our breakfast is fantastic - small or large at €5.50 or €7.50. We also do a 'Slimming World' breakfast, with wholemeal bread, eggs, tomato, bacon without fat and baked beans at €5.50. You also get your tea or coffee with that."
Joanne also does a coffee morning from Monday to Friday "for all the ladies after morning Mass. They have their chat and tea and toast or cake which costs €2/€3." Tel: 01 667-1800
Nearby, The Oarsman is a long-standing pub cum gastropub. Owned by Michelle Cullinan, The Oarsman has been there for nearly 200 years.
"It's all original including all of the counter. It was known as Tunney's Pub and is mentioned in James Joyce's Ulysses. I took it over 14 years ago and we started doing food 18 months ago."
Ben Gorman, of the very popular former Mermaid Café in Dame Street, is now cooking here, serving lunch and dinner and brunch at weekends. theoarsman.ie
Derek Corrigan opened his very attractive butcher's shop on a corner facing the church just seven months ago.
He laughed as he said: "I was out of the meat business for 19 years. I am a 'recessionista', as they say. I went to Trinity when there was loads of money in the country and did a degree in history and political science. I came out of Trinity in the middle of the recession and had to get a job so I started managing butchers' shops again."
These are but a few of the great people in Ringsend - go down and meet them all.
First published in The Sunday Independent