This article is from page 25 of the 2010-01-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 25 JPG
AN INTERNET posting that invites people to take a trip down memory lane has become a huge hit with 30 somethings from Ennis.
‘You’re a true 30-something from Ennis if you remembet…’ has so far attracted comments from 814 users of the social networking site Fa- cebook. Users are asked to submit their recollections of life growing up in Ennis. The thread, first posted in early January, catalogues the events, buildings and people that made up the social scene in the county capital throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Many of the comments posted on- line refer to former shops, pubs and fast food outlets.
One user recalls “Buying a blank video tape in Hurdy Gurdy’s for £13, taping the Friday night movie on RTE, watching it the following day and wondering, in awe, if technology like this could ever be equalled…”
Another writes that “you’re a true 30-something from Ennis if you re- member when the Queen’s disco gave a dinner of roast chicken, chips and peas, and gravy, and all for a fiver”.
Discos at the Cloughleigh Commu- nity Centre, Chapel Lane are also re- called, as is the Little Theatre Café, which one Facebook user says had the “best ice-cream in the world with the sweets on top”.
Another comments that true En- nis 30-somethings will remember “Smyth’s on Carmody Street and Broderick’s and Arthur’s on Parnell Street where you could buy loose eye N | Rae
Knox’s supermarket, Crubeens and a chip shop in Chapel Lane, Layden’s Pub in the market and Denis Moran’s — “the only place where you could buy net curtains and a bra at the same time” – are among the other old
Ennis businesses recalled.
One post remembers, “When Cheers (pub) first opened and they had the Cheers Ennis logo on all the pint glasses and the ashtrays, everyone had one! Place was robbed of glasses and ashtrays every night haahah.”
The price of fast food is a popular topic, with one post wistfully recall- ing when a bag of chips in Enzo’s cost SOp and another noting that a bag of chips in Oodles, formerly located at
Drumbiggle, cost 30p.
The heyday of bands like Bitter Harvest who made up the local mu- sic scene in Ennis is also remem- bered with one user commenting that “You’re a true 30-something in En- nis if you remember The Big G (Gen- erator) on bank holiday Monday’s in Henry J’s.”
Another person recalls, “Taking that long dark road to the rugby club to hear Bush Plant… and then trying
to find your way back.”
School memories also figure prom- inently throughout the list with one person recalling former principal of Ennis National School “Gary Stack giving a free for stupidity against you on the hurling field in the “Nash.”