Dublin has never been short on local legends. Some, Dublin Characters like Bang Bang, have been immortalised in books, plaques, and café names. Others have slipped through the cracks, their stories tangled in half-remembered pub tales and urban myth.
Bobby Aherne, did the Lord’s work and gather them all in a book, appropriately titled D’You Remember Yer Man? in 2014.
At the time he said, “The only thing these people have in common is that they stood out—by choice or circumstance. And because they were different, they became icons of their time. Maybe there’s a lesson in that.”
There are dozens of oddballs, chancers, and icons in Aherne’s book, but here are five personal favourites.
1. Bang Bang
Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, a scruffy man named Thomas Dudley would hop onto Dublin buses, point an oversized brass key at unsuspecting commuters, and shout “Bang Bang!” as if he were in a John Wayne flick. No one was safe—passengers, pedestrians, priests, unsuspecting tourists.
The city loved him for it. So much so that there’s now a café in Phibsborough bearing his name. In 2017, enough people chipped in to get a plaque erected in his honour. The man turned a key into a gun and a city into his playground. Respect. He truely is one of the best Dublin Characters.
2. Dancing Mary
For over two decades, from the late ‘70s to 2002, Mary Margaret Dunne transformed O’Connell Street into her personal dance floor. Every single day, without fail, she would throw shapes beside the Anna Livia monument. Also known as the ‘Floozie in the Jacuzzi’. She would always be decked out in a mix of bangles, odd gloves, scarves, clip-on earrings, and scrunchies. Always in the shape of a cross. Always committed.
She passed away in 2014, and the city lost one of its best dancers.
3. Johnny Fortycoats
The man only ever wore three or four coats at a time, but that was still enough for him to earn the nickname Johnny Fortycoats. He lived rough, which explained the layers, but he kept them on even in the height of summer, making him an instantly recognisable figure among Dublin Characters.
His move? Walking into restaurants, slamming a wad of notes onto the table, throwing his feet up on the seat, and spitting on the floor like he owned the place. He was such a Dublin institution that RTÉ put a fictionalised version of him in Wanderly Wagon. Wanderly Wagon was an Irish children’s television series which aired on RTÉ from Saturday 30 September 1967 until 1982. When you have a fictional charcater based on you – that’s when you know you’ve made it.
4. Hairy Lemon
Hairy Lemon was a dog catcher in the ‘40s, but that’s not what made him famous. That honour goes to his head, which was reportedly an unnatural shade of yellow, earning him his citrus-based nickname. His usual haunt was the Big Tree pub in Drumcondra, though his legacy now lives on in the Stephen Street pub that bears his name.
No word on whether the pub serves anything remotely lemon-flavoured, but at this point, it doesn’t even matter.
5. The Diceman
Scotland-born Thom McGinty arrived in Dublin in 1976 as a nude model for NCAD life drawing classes (a bold start to any Irish residency). But his true calling came later when he took a gig advertising The Diceman’s Game Shop on Grafton Street, transforming himself into a silent, painted-up street performer.
His trick? Standing statue-still, then inching his way down the street so subtly that you’d swear he hadn’t moved at all. It was like a game: how far could he get before anyone noticed?
He became one of the most beloved street performers Dublin has ever seen, proving that sometimes all you need to make it is a bit of paint, a whole lot of patience, and a knack for messing with people’s heads.
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