The official book launch of the Society’s annual Proceedings was expertly done by the Minister for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor on Saturday 11th January 2020 at Ceoltas, Monkstown, Co. Dublin. The Minister’s fulsome praise of the efforts of the Society to outline, preserve and disseminate the literary, cultural and historical aspects of life in Blackrock, and environs, was warmly received by an enthusiastic audience who were subsequently fortified by excellent food and wine as a buffer against the winter cold. See Photo Gallery from the Launch below.
L-R Chairman David Hussey, Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor, and Noel Tierney 
David Hussey – Chairman 
Paul Quinn – the Sociey’s Secretary with a copy of Proceedings 2019
A review of the 2019 Proceedings was heard on several local Dublin radio stations presented by Jim Scannell when he outlined some of the contents.
‘Blackrock Society – Proceedings 2019’, No.27, Editor Joe Carroll, published by the Blackrock Society, €7.50.
This excellent annual publication which contains a summary of the talks and lectures presented to the Society during 2019, was launched recently in Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Belgrave Square, Monkstown, Co. Dublin.
A strong feature of this excellent local history publication is the variety and diversity of the lectures presented to the Society during 2019 reflected in the articles based on them –
# Architect Robin Mandal in ‘ The Rebuilding of Dublin after 1916 – A Vision for Day’ discusses the plans advanced after the 1916 Rising for the rebuilding of Dublin including the Abercrombie plan, winner of the ‘Dublin of the Future’ competition in 1914 and published in 1922 which led to the Dublin Civil Survey of 1925 which proposed a Planning System for Dublin, concluding by reminding the reader that the planning of the city needs to be taken away from ministerial directives and taken over by the modern equivalent of the Civic Institute of Ireland which was disbanded in 1937.
# A very vivid picture of ‘Blackrock and the First World War’ is provided by Glasnevin Trust historian Conor Dodd in which recruiting in the area, information of some of those fought in this conflict, the hospitals in the area where casualties were treated, events during the Easter 1916 Rising, and the numerous war memorials located in churches throughout the area, are central to this article.
# By way of contrast ‘In How Safe is Flying?’, former airline pilot Ted McCourt discusses this topic, revealing that statistically aviation is the safest form of travel based on deaths per million miles travelled, and after recounting some experience from his long and distinguished career, concludes with the observation that it will take some time for pilotless aircraft to be accepted by the public.
# Leo Murphy in ‘Waterford Merchants and their Families on Distant Shores’ based on his book of the same title, provides brief histories of some of the Waterford families who emigrated to Portugal, Spain and France in the late 1660s and on some of the enterprises they became involved in.
# ‘The Metals’ is the name of a pathway that connected Dalkey Hill with Dun Laoghaire and ran alongside the current railway line between Dalkey and Dun Laoghaire for much of the way and used to bring granite blocks from the former to the latter during the construction of Dun Laoghaire Harbour, and ‘The Metal – from Dalkey to Dun Laoghaire’, Rob Goodbody provides an over view of it based on his book on this subject.
# By way of something completely different, writer Justine Carberry in ‘Spinning Straw into Gold’ discussed how memories of childhood can be used very successfully for creative writing purposes, that one should follow one’s own style and that drawing from memory can trigger one’s imagination and lead to greater creative writing and includes two poems ‘I Remember’ by Wendy Cope and Joe Brainard.
# In ‘Queen Victoria: Her life and Times 1819 -1901’, Frank Woods provides a brief biography of this British monarch, including her four visits to Ireland.
# The December 1957 Dundrum Railway accident in which driver Andy Larkin was killed, is recalled by James Scannell in ‘The Light That Failed‘ in which he provides details of this fatal accident at Dundrum on the Bray-Harcourt Street, Dublin, railway line which occurred 12 months before the line was closed on the grounds that it was unrenumerative.
# In the Blackrock Miscellany feature Billy Morrison recalls ‘Growing Up on Frascati Park in the 1940s and 1950s’ while Ronan Wilmot contributes his memories of ‘Growing Up in Williamstown’ in the early 1960s.
All in all, a really excellent publication and the Blackrock Society is to be complimented by getting presenters to the 2019 programme to contribute texts for publication in it.
(Webmaster’s Note: Unfortunately, Jim missed mentioning 2019’s last and very amusing lecture “Famous People and VIPs I nearly met” by Niall Henry Bracken which nearly saw the roof of the Ceoltas theatre being lifted off by the gales of laughter from the audience.)