‘Fairfield
Memories’ Artwork © Paul O’Brien When I was born my parents lived in a rented downstairs room on
Fairfield Avenue and this is where I spent the first year of my life. They
then moved to a house around the corner on the West Road, beside McArthur’s
‘wee’ shop. As a child I played on the Fairfield football team in the local
street leagues and many of my school pals lived there, it was also part of my
paper round. I was fascinated by the first twenty ‘apartments’ or flats on
the avenue, small and very unusual for the area, indeed for Dublin. They are
known locally as the ‘Scotch Buildings’. These apartments were built at the
beginning of the twentieth century to house Scottish immigrant workers who
came to work in the Dublin shipyards, though I was not aware of that then. I
felt, and still feel, an attraction to this part of the street perhaps simply
because it is so unique and in a way represents my childhood. I visit the
avenue regularly to wallow in the memories of the boy I was when that area
between the railway and the sea was my whole world. This is a collection of songs that are linked to this area and to my
family members. Some I wrote many years ago, some more recently. All of them
are based in one way or another on the feeling I get whenever I walk along
Fairfield Avenue. The older songs are songs that I have not previously
recorded but I had regularly played
with my brother Gerry, who passed away in 2013. I felt it was time to make
them available to all. |
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