NELSON’S PILLAR, THE Carlton Theatre, and little boys gazing in the window of a cake shop – they all feature, in living colour, in what appears to be a newly-released video of Dublin in the 1950s.
The footage, published by Dutch filmmaker Michael Rogge on his prolific YouTube channel, captures a number of the city’s landmarks.
Like Nelson’s Pillar…
and the Savoy…
But it’s people of the city who are the real stars.
Like these two lads staringly longingly in the window of a cake shop…
Cyclists, motorists, and horse-and-cart men battling for space on O’Connell Street…
What looks like a scene straight out of Mad Men…
And Dubliners of all descriptions strolling about College Green on a sunny day…
The footage also seems to have caught Arthur Fields, the legendary man on O’Connell Bridge, plying his trade as a photographer…
Rogge says in the video description that it’s 16mm amateur footage from 60 years ago, but as of yet we’re not exactly sure when it was shot, and by whom.
A short scene featuring strikers outside the Irish Assurance Company, however, would suggest at least some of the footage was filmed during the summer of 1956.
The audio track appears to have come from a rather more recent walk around the city, but for the most part provides a nice accompaniment to the warm, very high-definition images.
Curiously, the footage also seems to feature a few seconds each of the Cat & Fiddle pub in Macclesfield in Cheshire, and the famous crooked spire of the Church of Saint Mary and All Saints in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
Perhaps a leftover from a trip to England around the same time?
Never mind – watch the video for yourself. You’ll see why there’s so much to say about it…
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