TALES THAT STAND THE TEST OF TIME
Before the age of mobiles, under Clerys clock was once the most popular meeting place in Dublin — where many a love story began...
FOR those of a certain generation it was the meeting place du jour, slap bang in the middle of our capital’s main street and within striking distance of Dublin’s buzzing dance halls and smoky cinemas. Arranging to see your date ‘under Clerys’ clock’ was the Tinder swipe right of its day.
In more recent years it even had its own acronym — though meeting someone ‘UCC’ had nothing to do with the university campus in the People’s Republic.
Under The Clock, a new documentary film, hears from people sharing their memories of one of our most iconic landmarks.
Clerys department store, once a Dublin institution, may have sadly closed its doors permanently since it ceased trading in 2015, but the legacy of its famous timepiece lives on, with so many poignant stories shared through the ages. Along with the colourful anecdotes, this documentary also gives a fascinating glimpse into a simpler time — where if you arranged to meet someone under the clock, you had to be there, with no last minute texts as fallback.
It was where families, friends, spouses and lovers (and many nervous first daters) arranged to meet before embarking on some precious time together.
And as our stories show, it was also where a bit of wheeling and dealing went on...