Image: Dining Room, Elise Sandes Soldiers Home, Curragh Camp (6683286357)

Description: Following on from yesterday's photo of soldiers in the Reading Room at the Elise Sandes Soldiers Home at the Curragh Camp in Kildare, this photo is of the Dining Room. Thanks to macabee2012 for the following: "This is the dining room of Miss Sandes Soldiers Home in the Curragh - one of over thirty such Homes attached to army locations all over Ireland, Founded by Elise Sandes of Tralee, Co Kerry, this network of Soldiers Homes was an evangelical missionary movement designed mainly to keep young soldiers out of the pubs and provide recreational facilities - as well as a bit of religion. The first Home was in Cork and later ones were in Queesntown (Cobh), Belfast, Parkgates Dublin, Ballykinler, Derry, among other towns; there were eight Homes in India in places such as Rawal Pindi, Quetta and Lucknow. See History Ireland, vol. 13, issue 4, July/August 2005..." This photo incidentally provides invaluable information about what the soldiers were eating at the time for their supper, and how much they were paying for their grub. A blackboard behind the counter lists dishes and prices. We're assuming the cost was in pennies rather than shillings. Here they are (those that were possible to read): Eggs & Bacon 3 Two Eggs 4/5? Bacon & Tomatoes 4 Bacon & Onions 3 Bacon & Chips 3 Rissoles & Chips 3 Rissoles & Onions 3 Desserts Apple Tart & Custard 2 Treacle & Custard or Rice 1 Blancmange & Jelly 2 Rice Pudding 1 Gorgeous account in from scooter2017 of this Dining Room in the 1960s: "You could add another 50 years to this 1916 photo and little had changed. The long benches and tables were still the same. They did add a jukebox in the early 60s. It was in front of the pillar where that first soldier is standing. A record could be played for 3d. Date: Sunday, 16 July 1916 NLI Ref.: EAS_2486
Title: Dining Room, Elise Sandes Soldiers Home, Curragh Camp (6683286357)
Credit: Dining Room, Elise Sandes Soldiers Home, Curragh Camp
Author: National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Permission: National Library of Ireland on The Commons @ Flickr Commons
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