Welcome to my homepage.  My name is Jim Leonard.  I was born in that part of Dublin which now glories (!) under the title of The Inner City. 

In fact I first saw the light of day in a tenement house in a street called Summerhill.  When I reached the age of 4 years I went to Rutland Street School.  Does anyone know the correct name for this school?  St Patrics NS, but I never heard it called by any other name than Rutland Street School.  At the time I attended, the headmaster was Mr Herbert, anyone reading this remember him?  In fact anyone, near or far, who remembers old Summerhill and all of the area around might like to contact me, we could go on a nice nostalgia trip.


Summerhill at that time was a vibrant, living community.  Everyone knew each other, and many were related.  Who can ever forget some of the shops;  Beginning at the corner of Summerhill and Upper Gardiner Street here are the one's I can remember.  First there was the pub which was called the Rose Bowl.  It was through the window of this pub that I saw my very first television set.  Further along was the cake shop,  then there was  Dick Mahony's shop.  Dick was a Barber.  Moving along we come to the shop where I bought and exchanged my comics as a boy, and my books as a man.  This shop was Paddy Clune's.  There was Cully's which had huge displays of eggs on a stand outside of the shop (try doing that today!)  and then Cluxtons the second hand furniture shop.  Then there was Kelly's Chemist shop, and then Huttons Lane.  This lane ran beside the bus garage and was used as a shortcut to the playground in Mountjoy Square.  But back to Summerhill; There was the mailyard, and Melinns which was the only shop which had it's owners name written in Gaelic over the shop."  Ahh memories of a street and a community second to none.