By Lisa Ramsden
PEOPLE, pride and a sense of place were at the heart of a recent event in Dundrum, when countless memories were shared.
Villagers gathered to celebrate the past and the present, as well as to look to the future, at the ‘Dundrum Voices’ event on Saturday 28 March.
It featured tales from residents who have called, and in many cases still do call, Church Avenue ‘home’.
Anna McCallum, a member of Dundrum Village Association (DVA), took the lead in this nostalgic project.
Her exhibition featured a short film, drawings, maps and photographs from the past.
Anna took to the floor of the packed Creative Village Dundrum hub, providing a potted history of the land on which the future homes would be built and sharing her passion for the project, before letting her film do all the talking.
The short film featured one of the first residents to move into Church Avenue, Patsy Forsythe, along with one of its newest, Lakshmi Arun, who settled in the village three years ago after she and her family left their native Kerala.
It had a thread running through it which showed that no matter how long you have had a bond with Church Avenue, it means a lot to you.
Patsy outlined how he, his parents and siblings moved from a traditional cottage on the outskirts of the village to 1 Church Avenue in January 1952.
He described the family’s new home as “a palace”, which was “beautifully decorated” by their landlords.
Recalling his initial years living in Church Avenue, in his interview Patsy also spoke of former neighbours and family members.
“It was just like moving into a mansion, from a wee country house with no facilities of any great description,” he said.
Paddy added that their landlords, a Mr and Mrs John McKibbin from the Hollybush Road, “made all the curtains for the house and [Mrs McKibbin] would not take a penny for all the curtains she made in that house”.
Describing them as “just the salt of the earth,” in his video Mr Forsythe said the McKibbins even paid for the family’s first week’s rent – sixteen and seven in old money!
Read the full feature in the currrent issue.
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