O'Canada

On the left, an Irish pay telephone. On the right, a Canadian one. Eircom in Ireland and Bell in Canada used to be the only phone companies but now things are broken up and there are competitors in both countries. If you’re wondering about “telefón,” that’s Irish for “telephone,” nothing to do with the Charles Bronson movie.

Canadian payphone provided by Bell Canada. Like many of them, it's out of order.

Irish payphone provided by Eircom

There are sculptures by English artist Henry Moore in both Dublin and Toronto, but Toronto wins this round. The Henry Moore Sculpture Centre at the Art Gallery of Ontario in downtown Toronto has more than 900 of his sculptures and works on paper. Large Two Forms, at the northeast corner of the gallery at Dundas and McCaul, is one of Toronto’s landmarks.

"Reclining Connected Forms" in Library Square inside Trinity College, Dublin

"Large Two Forms" outside the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

On the left, the Irish tricolour of green, white, and orange: green for Roman Catholicism, orange for Protestantism, white for the peace between them. It was first adopted in 1919.

On the right, the Canadian Maple Leaf, simple and memorable, adopted in 1965 and seen around the world on the luggage of Americans.

Canadian flag flying at half-mast on Remembrance Day, 11 November.

Irish flag flapping gently in the wind

The authors, have noticed some amusing differences in exit signs, between Ireland and Canada.

An exit sign, typically found in buildings in Ireland (note this isn’t necessarily an emergency exit sign!) is shown left. It stirs up a sense of urgency, and conveys a “run for your life” type of message. You’d better hightail it out of here, don’t even think of strolling or ambling, exit and exit fast, mate!

In contrast, the Canadian exit sign (shown right) is a whole lot less alarmist!

Exit sign in Ireland

Exit sign, Canadian style.

The city halls in Dublin and Toronto are very different architecturally. Politically and culturally, and what actually happens inside, I don’t know.

City Hall, Dublin is Georgian, finished in 1769. It’s a large, serious, grey stone building, with imposing pillars and other architectural features I couldn’t name. The building was built to be the Royal Exchange, “a meeting place for Dublin’s businessmen, where they could buy and sell goods and trade bills of exchange,” as Wikipedia puts it. It became the city hall in 1852 and has kept on ever since through all of the changes in Irish politics.

Toronto City Hall is a modernist building opened in 1965, and it’s one of this city’s most famous landmarks. It and the CN Tower are probably the two buildings here that are recognized all over the world. What we now call Old City Hall is across the street to the east and is now a courthouse. It’s a beautiful Victorian building. Out in front of Toronto City Hall is Nathan Phillips Square, a popular place festivals, protests, New Year’s Eve parties, and celebrations when The Team wins The Big Game.

Dublin City Hall

Toronto City Hall

Kavanagh: Oh Mister Gould! Oh Mister Gould!
Are you enjoying sitting there upon the bench?

Gould: I have my scarf on and my gloves
To keep me warm when it gets cold
But I find — do you agree? — that people put their arms ’round me
Which is intrusive and quickly becomes old

Kavanagh: Positively, Mister Gould!

Gould: Absolutely, Mister Kavanagh!

Statue of Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh looking out over a Dublin canal

Statue of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould in front of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation headquarters

In Ireland, that little man who lets you know it’s safe to proceed and cross the road really is green. In Canada he’s black with a dotted white outline. The authors observe that the Irish walk symbol man seems to be of the “stroller” type, while his Canadian counterpart, in contrast, seems to walk animatedly, with determined purpose and vigour.

And with practically every walk signal in Ireland, comes a pedestrian “push the button” affair. In Canada we find this is less the case.

Canadian visitors of Sophie Bury’s recently, commented on the ubiquity of these buttons, and the fact that they seemed to “have to” be pushed before one was guaranteed ever seeing the green man. Having discussed this with some Irish friends, it seems that, though it might appear pushing the button is always a must, this varies by intersection. Very often the lights are just preprogrammed. However, what we really admire about the Irish model of push buttons everywhere, is that they facilitate the combination of image and sound, so that whenever the green man appears, the visually impaired also benefit from a beeping signal (emanating from aforementioned button device),  to let them know that it’s safe to proceed across the road. In Canada, as far as the blog authors have observed, sound for the benefit of the visually impaired, is far less common at intersections with lights.

The walk signal in Ireland, features a green man.

Walk signal at an intersection in Toronto.

This is the type of button which pedestrians are encouraged to press at Irish intersections, to get the strolling green man light signal and auditory signal to spring in to action.

My knowledge of Irish history is tiny, and my knowledge of Canadian history isn’t great, so I put forward this comparison not knowing if it holds up at all: Daniel O’Connell (1775 – 1847) from Ireland and William Lyon Mackenzie (1795 – 1861) in Canada (or Upper Canada, as it was then; now called Ontario). Both politicians who fought against ruling Anglican elites, though with different means.

Daniel O'Connell (1775 - 1847)

William Lyon Mackenzie (1795 - 1861)

O’Connell was a Roman Catholic and battled the Protestant Ascendancy, the Anglican elite that controlled Ireland. Mackenzie wasn’t religious, but battled the Family Compact, the Anglican elite that controlled Ontario.

O’Connell was a peaceful man. He gained many rights for Catholics in Ireland, and tried but did not succeed to separate Ireland from the United Kingdom. Mackenzie was no pacifist. He led the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837, a small and confused rebellion that didn’t get anywhere.

Grand statue of Daniel O'Connell in Dublin. Photo taken by Martin O'Connell

Small statue of William Lyon Mackenzie in Toronto

The ultimate aims of both men were achieved in the end. Ireland became free and Catholics have full rights. Canada has responsible government, thanks to the Durham Report and concern over the Upper Canada and Lower Canada rebellions.

Interesting connection: I (William Denton) am descended from an uncle of David Gibson, who fought with Mackenzie. Gibson fled the country after the failed rebellion and lived in the States for over a decade, but was later able to return and built a house in north Toronto that is now a museum: Gibson House. The uncle was about Gibson’s age and they were good friends.

O’Connell photo source: Wikipedia. Mackenzie photo source: Wikipedia. Photograph of statue of Daniel O’Connell taken from Flickr, courtesy of Martin O’Connell.

In Ireland for travelling around a city, we tend to prefer two decks, when it comes to buses – the double decker type. You might have thought they’ve gotta be green, green, green. It’s Ireland, afterall! But you would be wrong. Most of our Dublin Bus buses, at any rate, are yellow and blue!

In Canada, city buses are typically single-tiered affairs and in Toronto they are run by the TTC and are red and white (how patriotic is that!). Do not be led in to thinking that the double-decker is exclusive territory of the Irish and British isles – the GO buses, the Greater Toronto Transit Authority, which connect Toronto with nearby suburbs and cities, are of the double-decker variety, and are green and white.

When it comes to intercity travel, the Irish tend to travel on Bus Eireann, and this like the Canadian Greyhound, is a single deck experience.

The Go buses connect Toronto and nearby suburbs and towns/cities.

Dublin Bus runs the buses that serve Dublin city. Like in Canada, advertisements often get plastered on much of a bus' real estate. We're reminded to bin our gum or face heavy fines.

This is one of the TTC buses which serves the city of Toronto.

Bus Eireann is Ireland's inter city bus service.

While we’re reminded by this posting on an Irish public garbage disposal bin (left), that litter is disgusting, at least, if you put it in a bin in Ireland, it’s getting disposed of. Not so in Toronto right now, where due to a strike, getting rid of waste is a tad problematic. Christie Pits (bottom right below) in Toronto was being used as a makeshift garbage dump for a while, but local protests put a stop to that.

Irish public waste bin

Canadian public garbage disposal unit. Out of order due to strike.

Christie Pits temporary garbage dump in Toronto.