River Run

by Patrick J. Heneghan (The Meandering Milesian)

The River Dodder in quieter times

What are the chances of seeing all the rivers of the County and City of Dublin simultaneously running overground?  Not just the obvious ones, like the Liffey, the Tolka and the Dodder, but ALL of them.  What are the chances of having two children in a family having the same birth dates, as in our case, August 25th?  What are the chances of these astronomical sets of odds coming together?  Maybe about the same as having a bet on a long-odds winner of the Grand National coupled with a bet on a long-odds winner of the Derby.  Maybe higher!  I leave it to the  mathematicians to supply the answers.

Which brings me to 25th August 1986.  The younger of our two birthday children, Padraic, was celebrating his 21st. We were living in Templeogue in South County Dublin, between the River Dodder and the River Poddle.  Nothing would do “She Whose Word is Law” but to book the eight of us who comprised the family for a meal and a show that very night in a hotel in Portmarnock, where one Anne Bushnell was presenting a cabaret entitled  “A Night with Edith Piaf”.  

One does not like using the “p” word in polite family literature, but that is the word that comes to mind to describe how the rain performed all that particular day, from early morning until after midnight.  The non-stop rain was combined with a hurricane called “Charlie”.  It was a working day in Dublin, so the plan was that we should set off for Portmarnock in two groups of four each, shortly after 6 o’clock that evening.  The male members of our entourage, quite unchivalrously, were to go in the family car, probably because that side of the family would include Padraic, the “Birthday Boy”, who was 21 on that day, as well as his younger brother, who was only 13 at the time.  The female group, the three girls (the eldest of whom, Clare, shared the birth date with the main celebrant) with Mom in charge, were to go downtown on the bus to Sutton, and then go to Portmarnock by the DART (our very efficient electrified rail system, the Dublin Area Rapid Transport service).