27 things that real Baldoylers will remember

DID you grow up in the Northside suburb of Baldoyle? Read our checklist to find out if you qualify as a true Baldoyler.

1. Your ma used to send you to the Tin Shop or give you 10p to spend in the House Shop in Marian Park.

2. The greatest disappointment you’ve ever experienced was walking all the way to Creedo’s chip van to find out that he’d already closed up for the night.

3. You were terrified to pass by ‘The Animals’ when they hung out at the green in Seagrange.

4. You lived in fear of ‘The Jets’ giving you a hiding.

5. You explored the ruins of Baldoyle Racecourse (unless the Animals or the Jets were there!).

6. You believed that Stapolin House was haunted.

7. Seeing Santa on the roof of the Racecourse Inn officially marked the start of Christmas.

8. You remember Westlife star Nicky Byrne wearing his St Neasain’s uniform.

9. His Da’ was in Nicky and the Studz in the Racer.

10. You got a treat in Slowey’s after school on Friday.

11. You played ‘Space Invaders’ in Molphy’s.

12. Mrs Dargan was the lollipop lady for your entire childhood.

13. In winter, the Willie Nolan Road was the longest, coldest walk ever.

14. The weekly disco in Baldoyle Youth Club required a membership card.

15. Seagrange Park had flooding before the rest of the country.

16. You had to ring the mot from the phonebox on Grange Road.

17. There was a terrible smell of pigs at the junction of Grange Road and Willie Nolan Road.

18. There was a lovely horse called Tramp on the site of where Baldoyle United now stands.

19. The ‘Hole in the Wall’ was your beach of choice.

20. You preferred going to Mass in the old church.

21. Sports Day in the Christian Brothers’ field.

22. Playing pitch and putt. If Christy let you.

23. You learned to swim in the ‘Little Willie Hospital’.

24. The parish priest lived in ‘a mansion’.

25. You saw the DART for the first time in 1984.

26. It was impossible to get a tennis court during Wimbledon.

27. Seagrange was called Jerusalem.