Sydenham Road, Dundrum

My first memory of Dundrum was going with my Mum and Dad and little brother Simon to look around the house. It was number 7 Sydenham Rd, Dundrum Dublin 14. I think the house cost £3,500. It seemed absolutely enormous. I remember walking down the many steps in the house to the basement where the kitchen was. There was a large AGA cooker in the kitchen which was the only source of heating in the house apart from the marble fireplace in the lounge and the wood burner in the dining room.
As we were walking down the stairs the TV was on in the dining room and I heard the lady of the house say “oh my goodness President Kennedy has been shot and killed”. Everyone was genuinely shocked and it was the topic of conversation for quite a while.
We did buy the house and I remember moving in and thought we had won the lottery living in such a fantastic house which was enormous. I reckon the date was Feb 1962. To the left of us were the Jarretts who lived at number 11a? Or something odd like that! They were a mature couple who lived in a modern detached house which had an arched entrance. It was slightly out of character for the street which was to be fair was a mish-mash of different size houses from the tall Georgian houses opposite to ours to the Digby’s house which I always thought was like Southfork. White grey facade which was absolutely beautiful. New door to the Digby’s lived the O’Connors. They also had a fab house.
On the other side of us at number 8 lived next the Stephenson’s. There was Patrick, Niamh and Ultan. After the Stephensons lived Old Barton, a crusty old geezer who was so miserable his face could turn the milk sour! He lived in a little bungalow, but he had an amazing back garden with amazing apple trees. After Barton lived the Jacobs.  Frank Jacob was a really handsome man, with lovely jet black hair. He reminded me of Elvis Presley. He loved to listen to Caruso and Mario Lanza and played all their records all the time. I think that’s where my love of classical music started. Linda Jacobs was my friend and I spent lots of time round at her house. I remember my mum saying that one day to me that Mrs. Angela Jacobs was always unwell and one day if she was ever really poorly no one would believe her. Unfortunately the poor woman died of breast cancer when she was in her early 40s.
I’m not sure who lived at number 10 in my early teens, but our good friends the Tennants moved in after we left in Feb 1975.