Rover Store

The Rover Store was a mythical place full of quality tentage. It was located in the O'Halloran House, 18 Distillery Road, the weird bungalow between the Kingfisher and the Concourse. It has since been destroyed to make way for the new library.

O'Halloran House

O'Halloran House was split into at least 3 sections which were not connected to each other. At the front was the Rover Soc and Astro Soc stores. On the east end, there was a rock-cutting lab and on the west end, there was another rock-cutting lab. There was rumoured to be an upstairs to the building but no one knew how to get up there, the only evidence was there is a single upstairs window in the east gable end of the building. When security was asked if there was an upstairs they denied it raising even more suspicion as to what or who was kept up there.

History

Rover Soc first got access to the house in 2016, which at the time it shared with the computer society. The wardrobe was bought for five euros in a local charity shop and just about fitted into the back of a car. Prior to the house, the society had access to a locker in the back of the kingfisher which now stores the Maamturks equipment. It swapped this locker with the Mountaineering club for access to one of the large climbing lockers. A member of the society accidentally left milk in this locker, and the Kingfisher was forced to club the lock to access it because the smell was so bad.

The second room, used to be a dark room for developing film with blacked-out windows and red lights. It is unknown when exactly this dark room was used. At some point, Astro Soc began sharing the second room with CompSoc.

After Covid when the Society was being revived Socsbox lost their copy of the key to O'Halloran House and so did security. After bugging both of them for many months eventually access was regained. The committee at the time (Niall and Aodhán) had no idea what wonders were held in there.

In the second room, CompSoc had an array of bizarre items. Loads of old desktops and monitors, a blender, a kettle (which was commandeered for the climbing wall), a flip phone (which Cian Mulkern uses semi-regularly to this day), an ancient Apple Mac, a radio which only kinda worked and much, much more.

In 2022/23 the Rover Soc got funding for a large equipment purchase. They decided that the front room would be too small for the magnitude of quality tentage that was going to be acquired. They emailed Compsoc asking for space in the second room for equipment. This was the first time the Compsoc Committee had heard they had a storeroom. After a few more emails and messages they agreed to give some space to Rover Soc. After a few more emails and messages they agreed to move some of their stuff. After a few more emails and messages they actually got around to moving their stuff. They cleared out everything they owned so now Rover Soc took over with Astro Soc still keeping a few telescopes in the corner.

Destruction

In September 2023, a planning notice at the back of the building was discovered stating that the university planned on knocking the store to build a new security office so they could knock the security office to build a new library. The society is currently trying to secure a new room with contenders in the film school and by the bike workshop.

Upon hearing that the store was going to be knocked the committee decided that they should sleep in the store before its gone. So on the 2nd of December 2023 3 intrepid rovers stayed the night in the store. It was surprisingly warm because the radiators in store were left on for several months by accident.

In January of 2024 the rovers were forced to vacate the property and in April the building was mercilessly destroyed. The rovers were moved to Rehearsal Room 1 of Block R where SocsBox kept their financial records until recently.

Furnishings

There were a number of peculiar features of O'Halloran House described below

The Hand Dryer

There was a hand dryer located in the bathroom of the front room. When turned on it produced the most vile burning smell. It was an extreme fire hazard.

The Mould

The fire escape instructions in a picture frame had mould growing in it. It was mostly contained to the picture frame thankfully.

CompSoc First Aid Kit

In the CompSoc room there was a first aid kit which was surprisingly well stocked. On it there is a label that says "Do not remove from 18 Distillery Road". It has become rover equipment and has been brought on several adventures outside of 18 Distillery Road

Picture of Cathal

There was a picture of Cathal Breathnach and someone else receiving an award from Christy McCann <3.

The Bonk Mallet

Upon reopening the store after Covid, a mallet that was on its last legs was discovered it would be extremely hazardous to use it for anything due to the large crack in the head. Using a sharpie the words bonk were written on it. It was pretty funny.

The Moths

For some reason there were an alarming number of moths in the store. They usually hung out on the ceiling in the compsoc room or between the sign and glass on the door as they desperately try to escape. There seemed to be consistently about 5-10 moths in residence in the store.