JanieJohnson.jpg

JanieJohnson.jpg
Originally uploaded by LostCarPark.

This is the Jeannie Johnson, a famine ship replica that now moors in Dublin. It looks pretty on a frosty Sunday morning, but in its day, the original carried over 2500 people to America to escape the potato famine here. Conditions on board were relatively good - it was the only famine ship that didn't lose a single passenger. On some ships the chances of surviving the voyage were only slightly better than staying at home. The ship in now a museum, showing how life was during the famine, and how people travelled back then. I must take the tour when it opens in the spring.

Loop Line Bridge sans Advertising

Loop Line Bridge
Originally uploaded by LostCarPark.

Dublin's Loop Line bridge has been condemned as an eyesore, almost from the day it opened in the 1880s - largely for blocking the view of the Custom House from O'Connell Bridge, where this picture was taken. Until recently, it was covered in advertising hoardings, which I think were the real eyesore. Personally, I've always been a fan of the bridge. One of the best views of the city can be had by taking a trip on a DART across the bridge, as thousands of Dubliners do every day. Now that the advertising has been removed, the true splendour of the Victorian engineering can be seen once more. The lattice structure is simple, but incredibly strong, although it has been strengthened with modern materials in recent years. All it needs is a lick of paint and it will be almost as much an icon of the city as the Custom House behind it.