Early phones were on a local network and were operated with a hand-crank to generate a signal that got the attention of an “operator” who connected the caller with the person being called. Telephone numbers were not needed. Then, the system was more sophisticated, with an electrical-mechanical signal transfer or “exchange” of the signal, not needing a human operator. Dublin numbers were identified with a prefix TU, short for “Tulip” but that was changed to “Tuxedo” when there was some consternation about being identified with a flower. TU on the phone is 88 and many Dublin phone numbers today begin with 889, a carryover from the old TU exchange.
