4 thoughts

    1. Carl, that was the first time that I saw a real barber roll, I only knew it from images. And yes, among the freshly renovated shops, a bright red was popular.

      I had a long conversation with the bus driver picking us up, and he told us that Carrick was a favored destination for stag and hen night festivities, so recently there was quite some money pouring into town, plus drunkards of all kinds in the weekend nights.

  1. The spinning barber poll has an interesting history that goes back to the middle ages. Barbers did surgery, and tooth extraction. The color red symbolized blood letting, a common medical practice with leeches, while the white color symbolized bandages. The American barber polls added blue as a nod to the national colors. Barber polls are becoming less and less common as hair solons replace barber shops.

    1. Jeff, I recognized my spelling mistake – what I had remembered as ‘roll’ is according to wikipedia a pole. These things are completely unknown in all continental European countries I ever visited, but of course Ireland is much closer to the U.S. in terms of cultural background. But it caught immediately my eye, even though it was not spinning.

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