REAL PEOPLE—Characters of Dublin in pictures and verse
The Diceman
Johnny Fortycoats
Dancing Mary
Dublin Characters Now Gone, by Ken Duffy
Thomas Dudley, known as Bang Bang From CIE buses, he used to hang Four inch key, did he use for a gun A John Wayne wannabe, just having fun Dancing Mary, on O’Connell Street A lady very nimble on her feet The word of God, is what she sold Come sunshine, rain or bitter cold Patrick Marlow, Forty Coats to you Had a labyrinth of pockets, quite a few His pockets held, comic books and toys Give us a decko, shouted girls and boys The Hairy Lemon, a dog catcher he His characteristics, named him you see Sallow skin, with bald head and beard He had a face, most children feared The man on the bridge, camera in hand Arthur Fields, made couples stand From Kiev he came to the Emerald Isle To capture the Irish, with a happy smile Thom McGinty, by the Diceman known Had an expressionless face, like a stone On Grafton Street, he was mostly seen Miming his way from Stephens Green Dublin characters, that’s not the whole The Bird Flanagan, and Billy the Bowl The Toucher Doyle, and Tom the Moon No longer with us, all taken too soon.
Bang Bang
The Bird Flanagan
The guy with the pointy ears and the pint is “Toucher Doyle”, who got the name from scrounging pints in pubs around Dublin. It is said that this painting of him by Harry Kernhof in O’Brien’s Pub in Upper Leeson St. was the inspiration for Star Trek’s Mr. Spock
Next Month - Full feature on Arthur Fields, The Man on The Bridge, with new poem by Ray Phoenix
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