Toys

Display in BOI, Dún Laoghaire, December 2024 on Toys influenced by Film and TV Shows in the 60s, 70s, 80s. Toys I received as gifts at Christmas “I grew up watching TV and going to the cinema every chance I got. There were plenty of repeats of The Lone Ranger on television in the 60s, through to the 80s. I loved watching the Lone… Continue reading Film & TV Toys

Rose with the red booboo car, and her mother, Berney in their garden in Limerick, 1961 Rose Doyle’s father made this wagon in the 1960s. It’s not a toddler walker, rather, he meant it as a robust alternative to the dolls’ pram, to be pushed or pulled by an older child in the garden containing whatever they happened to be playing with. This often… Continue reading Rose’s Red ‘Booboo’ Car

Photo credit: Clackers: Museum of Childhood Ireland, Músaem Óige na hÉireann Brenda Carey’s story, Dublin 1970s “I was out working by the age of fourteen, but I was still a child.  Clackers came in in the 1970s. I spotted them in a shop on Aungier St, just past Whitefriers St Church, on the opposite side of the road, near the George’s St end. Two… Continue reading Brenda Carey’s Clackers

“Here is the toy iron. It’s C.1910. and of French origin. The Dublin lady who gave it to me was 84 years old and said she got it when she was about 4 years of age. She recalled ironing alongside her grandmother and receiving it as a Christmas gift. She had no family to pass this on to. It was a treasured possession and memory… Continue reading Melissa Porter-Nolan’s Toy Iron

The Grubb family Cashel, Co Tipperary Toys belonging to Clodagh Grubb born 1938. Clodagh grew up on a farm eight miles from Cashel, Co Tipperary, in a Quaker family. “As it was war time* there were no metal toys available in the shops. Normally these came from England, Germany and Japan – but they needed all their metal for their war machines. My father… Continue reading The Grubb Family Toys

“Our father, who was from Co. Cork, met our mother while working in the City of Lincoln Hospital in England in the mid 1950s, and by the early 1960s they had settled in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, where my father was the County Hospital surgeon.  By that stage they had two small boys, myself Michael and my younger brother John.  Living in Donegal our mother… Continue reading John and Michael’s Toy Garage

A vintage toy model mangle*, made from pressed metal and wood. It is a Butler Series toy, made in England, and in working condition. ‘It’s like Mother’s’ *Mangles, also known as wringers, were a domestic item used in the home in laundry work, to squeeze or wring water out of washed clothes before drying. The original box would have been similar to this one… Continue reading Model Mangle Toy

Toy Collecting Growing up, watching TV was a big part of my childhood. Naturally, when Christmas and birthdays came around, I would ask for the toys associated with those cartoons and movies. Many hours were spent browsing toys in Banba Toymaster Dun Laoghaire, hoping that I could get the toys I wanted and those that I knew would be too expensive to even ask… Continue reading Richard Collier’s Toy Collection

Anna, in Co Wicklow and Rose, in Limerick, were both the proud owners of beautiful Irish made doll prams. Castle Brand, Nenagh. Irish Aluminium Company. Castle Brand is a tributary reference to Nenagh Castle. Photo credit. Brendan Treacy, Nenagh. With thanks to Tony Tierney.  The Irish Aluminium Company Ltd‘s first factory was established in 1934 by a number of local businessmen who had been… Continue reading Anna’s ‘Nenagh’ and Rose’s ‘Clonmel’ doll prams

Berney’s father made the dresser for her in the 1930s when she was a small child. It received new coats of paint in the 1960s and again in 1970s as it came back into use in the family, with Chinese blue Willow china crockery, and other dolls’ tea sets, on its shelves. Berney was born in 1929 and grew up in the 1930s-1940s in… Continue reading Berney’s little wooden Dresser and Tea Sets

” I loved this little sewing machine. Our mam, in those days, made a lot of our clothes and the machine reminded me of the Singer one that she used. We usually had special outfits made for us at Christmas and Easter by mam. It was more economical to make clothes than to buy them in the 70s and 80s, and I remember shopping… Continue reading Angela’s Holly Hobby Sewing Machine 1970s, Palmerstown

Sean Doyle and his acrobat, 1930s, West Clare This energetic little gymnast on a bar belonged to Sean Doyle, who was born in 1921 in West Clare. The toy dates from the late 1920s to early 1930s and was made in Japan. Sean was the eldest of a large family who worked a small farm and were not well off, so toys like this… Continue reading Sean’s Acrobat

Vintage, handmade wood and Venetian paper musical theatre box in the Commedia dell’ Arte tradition, bought on the Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy, at Al Sogno* the old toyshop, in the early 1990s by Rose for her mother, Berney, who had fond memories of playing with a similar toy theatre in her childhood in Ireland the 1930s. Berney Doyle, née Connolly, was born in 1929,… Continue reading Berney’s Music Box Theatre

Family Rose’s family lived on the Ennis Road in Limerick City from 1957 to 2023, in the same semi-detached house with gardens back and front. Rose was born in 1959 and she was a bit older than the next two siblings and more than a decade older than the youngest. She was careful with her special toys; she was allowed to play with some… Continue reading Rose Doyle’s toys & clothing

Triang toy pushchair manufactured in Belfast and played with by Máire-Ann Doyle, Mt Merrion, Dublin in the 1960s. Even with years of play the original label is still attached.  Lines Brothers, PedigreeWorks, Castlereagh  Watch beautiful Triang footage here, directed by Gael Linn 1963: Toys, Buy Now for Christmas – Amharc Éireann: Eagrán 201 Find more information on Triang here: https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/Category:Tri-ang Brighton Toy and Model… Continue reading Máire’s Triang pushchair

“Muffin the Mule is a marionette beloved in my childhood. I grew up in rural North Cornwall in a old house which creaked with age and charm. My family consisted of my father who worked in adult education, my mother who taught elocution and piano, my granny who cooked and loved us, and my sister Janet who was four years older than I. She… Continue reading Carole Cullen & Muffin the Mule

Peter in 1963, aged 9 I was born in England in 1953. Both my parents were from County Cork but had emigrated to Sidcup in the south of England after the war. My dad was a GP and my mother acted as his secretary answering the phone and arranging appointments. So both of my parents were pretty busy and I spent a fair amount… Continue reading Peter Craven’s Bayko & Meccano

The Fort ( and toy soldiers) was handmade by Tom Kelly, Glasnevin, Co Dublin in the early 1960s for his sons John and Michael Kelly, and played with until the 1990s by their nephew Mark O’Connor pictured below. Tom Kelly, the fort maker, with his daughter Lorraine The fort all set up for play at Tom’s house The instruction booklet is dated 1958

From January 2023, Star Wars on display at Bloomfields Shopping Centre, Dúnlaoghaire, Co Dublin.  “I first saw the Star Wars film ‘A new Hope” on TV at home in Drimnagh in 1982. I thought it was like nothing I had ever seen before.  In or around September 1981 or 1982, I was on my way to school* early one morning, and noticed a large… Continue reading Jonathan Kelly’s Star Wars Collection

Harry, from Co Wicklow, was given the toy circus in the 1990s as a secondhand toy handed down from his uncle, who had been given it secondhand by a neighbour when he was a child. Pull-toy with draft horses hitched to caged wagon holding a tiger. Driver sitting on rooftop bench. ‘OVERLAND CIRCUS’ embossed on each side of the wagon. 14″ long, 7.25″ H.,… Continue reading Harry’s Toy Circus, ‘Overland’

From late December 2022 onwards, see Action Force and Action Man pop-up exhibitions at Bloomfields Shopping Centre and Bank of Ireland, Dúnlaoghaire.  “I have a childhood collection of toys made by the British company Palitoy. Action Man was made by the same company but they decided to shrink Action Man down from 12″ scale to the new industry standard scale of 3.75″ at the… Continue reading Karol O’Connor’s Action Force & Action Man Collections

Patrick Dillon received his first View Master as a child in the midlands in the 1970s and subsequently added to his collection buying new and older secondhand pieces down through the years. View-Master, Museum of Childhood Ireland, McAllister collection. VIEW-MASTER’S 80th birthday! 1939-2019 View-Master is the trademark name of a line of special-format stero scopes and corresponding View-Master “reels”, thin cardboard disks containing seven… Continue reading Patrick’s View Master