1970's and 80's Dublin

[Garbage]

Fantastic pic of the cars leaving on the transporter. I remember this place before it closed down as my sister bought a house on Shanard Road in 1980. As a kid I was amazed at the rows of brand new cars lined up outside. Was McCairns located where the Omni Centre is now?

 

Yes it is. They kept part of the main building of the garage when building it too for some reason but it's been redeveloped even more since. I'll try and find those pics of it from when it was built. I only found out recently it was designed by Michael Scott, the same fella who designed Busaras.

[Garbage]

Here we go then. Apologies for the logo in the middle of the pics

 

 

[Garbage]

The stacked sign is roughly where the entrance to Omni is now. McDonalds would be just to the right of it. Sad it's gone alright but they were on their knees in the late 70s. The place always looked half empty by then.

[Guest Breadvan72]

I used to live in Dublin from 1998 to 2000 and at the time, the celtic tiger was already past its full swing. However, I was not aware of a scrappage scheme. People just bought new cars by the casepack and put the nice old chod that used to litter Dublin's streets up for sale in the local rags for stupid money, effectively making these two odd pre-NCT years heaven for an old shiter like me.

In no particular order I had a Granada MKII Ghia, a Zodiac MKIV hearse, several Granada hearses, a Toyota Carina II, a Sierra Sapphire 1.6, two Renault 4s, one of them an F6 van, a Toyota Crown Royal Saloon 2.0 supercharged, a 1964 Ford Country Squire and a 1966 Imperial LeBaron. Not bad, huh?

Cruising the Zodiac hearse decorated with pumpkins and lights up and down O'Connell Street on Halloween attracted the attention of the An Garda Siochana, believe it, or not.

Would you like me to continue with a list of cars I didn't buy in those two-and-a-half years?

 

 

FECK YEAH!!!!!

[sheffcortinacentre]

They would have been a rare sight here. I don't ever remember seeing many 2 door Mk 4 Cortinas. Maybe they tried selling a few when the car was launched and they didn't sell too well? They don't appear on my '79 price list. On the same price list there is a listing for a 4 door Escort Sport though which I have never seen anywhere. Could be a missprint I suppose?

the mk4 2dr was sold only as 1.3 base & L, as was the mk5 with late mk5's avl as 1.6 auto only ( mainly as part of the motobility scheme), the 4dr escort sport was very rare only avl for about 18 months.

[carlo]

Those garages actually look futuristic now!  Perhaps we'll have an architectural 50's revival soon.

[Junkman]

...Would you like me to continue with a list of cars I didn't buy in those two-and-a-half years?

 

FECK YEAH!!!!!

1960 Chrysler Saratoga

1961/1962/1963 Chevrolet Bel Air hearses

1964 Oldsmobile F-85 convertible

Wolseley 4/72

Wolseley 6/110 hearse

1964 Austin Princess hearse by Woodall Nicholson (NI reg)

1976 Opel Diplomat 5.4

1947 Chrysler Windsor saloon first owned by the Guinness family

1948 Chrysler Windsor hearse

Hudson Hornet hearse

1970 International Travelall

Opel Kadett C

Daihatsu Cuore

Nissan Kenmary Skyline

1984 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham D'Elegance

Various Chevy Caprices

Jaguar MKX

1982 Toyota Supra

[Junkman]

LHD import.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Looks like a toy car in that picture. Looks great! I thought the 5 door 127 was a European (Spain?) only model ?

 

 

I would tell you, but I know Jack about this subject, sozzer.

[Guest Breadvan72]

1960 Chrysler Saratoga

1961/1962/1963 Chevrolet Bel Air hearses

1964 Oldsmobile F-85 convertible

Wolseley 4/72

Wolseley 6/110 hearse

1964 Austin Princess hearse by Woodall Nicholson (NI reg)

1976 Opel Diplomat 5.4

1947 Chrysler Windsor saloon first owned by the Guinness family

1948 Chrysler Windsor hearse

Hudson Hornet hearse

1970 International Travelall

Opel Kadett C

Daihatsu Cuore

Nissan Kenmary Skyline

1984 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham D'Elegance

Various Chevy Caprices

Jaguar MKX

1982 Toyota Supra

 

 

 

AKA:  FAPLIST

 

ooh  errrr

[Junkman]

That's a car I'd love to see. I wonder where it is now? I also had a Kadett c. It was a 1.2s Coupe. A lovely car crying out for a decent engine. A friend of mine has a '77 Kadett GT/E with a 2.2 engine which is more like it.

 

The Diplo was raced in Rosegreen by the Ballymun boys, although with a Ford V6, while the original engine/box went into a '67 Impala convertible.

The Kadett C is a pristine pov-spec 1.2 2-door saloon in Regatta blue. It is still in immaculate condition and resides in the collection of a friend of mine in Baile Atha Cliath, who bought it the same day I told him about the car in 1999. We got it from 'Da Cuntree' (aka Twilight Zone) in an epic collection trip what with my culchiephobia and shit.

[Junkman]

I predominantly used hearses for travels to the Twilight Zone. Driving a hearse had the same effect on the culchies as garlic has on vampires, it's eerily unnatural how scared people out there are of commercial vehicles used by the funeral trade, lemme tellyas.

 

I believe there is still loads of stuff out there. Just look at what I managed to dig up in the short time I was there, and I'm a foreigner. However, the latter can work to one's advantage in Eire, I noticed. After a while, I had gained some notoriety for collecting chod, so people started to tip me off. It often amounted to a race between me and the Rosegreen crowd.

 

List of what I've seen going to Rosegreen while I was there:

 

Pristine(!) 1956 Dodge hearse by Duffy's

A Nissan President(!)

Several DS420s

Jag MK 7/8/9/10s

1957 Imperial four door sedan with rare single headlight option

1959 Plymouth limousine

Volvo 262 Bertone

Daimler Majestic Major

Daimler DE36 hearse with coachwork by Denby & Sons

Several early 60s VDP Princess limos and hearses

Mercedes W100 non-Pullmann, ex Swiss embassy

The usual array of Granadas, Cortinas, Trummies, Farinas, P4s and Ovlovs by the casepack

 

 

On a different note, photos from the towns in the Twilight Zone of the era would yield an even bigger array of shite than those from Dublin.

[Junkman]

Strange folk indeed, I could write a book about my encounters in rural end of second millennium Eire, especially since my own perception was impaired by either being totally pissed or severely hungover most of the time.

Naturally there would be a lot less chod out there nowadays. Much of the old and unsual stuff was actually saved and I pride myself of being a (although admittedly small) part of this chapter in Irish motoring history. I became friendly with a lose group of car nuts in Dublin and saw their collections multiply during that period. We are talking hundreds of cars here.

[Junkman]

Hundreds of old paper photos. All of it being in a big box that fell behind my bookcase a while ago. I will need to dismantle part of it, a task I haven't yet managed bringing myself towards.

Autoshiters are invited for assistance, liquid refreshments provided.

[Junkman]

I promise that I'll take care of it one of these days.

The pics of course need scanning, too. But I'm not too computer savvy.

[Largactil]

BTTT 4 A REAL FRED!

 

There's a thread on backroads.ie which ties in nicely with this - Amazing what was rolling about Dublin at this time.

 

***Warning - Exotic / sportscar content, but look at what's in the background*** 

 

http://www.backroads.ie/forums/showthread.php?10075-Dublin-in-the-1990-s-The-cars/page1

 

(Shame that the scrappage / insane road tax killed off most of the interesting stuff).

 

Whoever bought a 780 Bertone gets a thumbs up in my book.