The Little Book of Sandymount E-Book

Kurt Kullmann

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 215

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

The Little Book of Sandymount is a compendium of fascinating, obscure, strange and entertaining facts about one of Dublin's most important suburbs. Here you will find out about Sandymount's streets and buildings, its schools and industries, its proud sporting heritage, and its famous (and occasionally infamous) men and women. Through main thoroughfares and twisting back streets, this book takes the reader on a journey through Sandymount and its vibrant past. A reliable reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped into time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage and the secrets of this south Dublin suburb.

Leseprobe

Dedicated to the Donovan family of Wilfield Road

First published 2016

This paperback edition published 2022

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Kurt Kullmann, 2016, 2022

The right of Kurt Kullmann to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 75098 157 6

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall.

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Foreword by Cllr Dermot Lacey

Introduction

1. History and Politics

2. Nature

3. Education and Work

4. Sport and Recreation

5. Places, Buildings and Traffic

6. Interesting People

7. Incidents, Accidents and Crime

8. Did You Know?

Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to very many people who have helped with this book. First of all, I have to mention the Donovan family, who have lived in Sandymount since 1944 and whom I have known since 1971. Many facts and incidents described were mentioned in discussions and conversations with members of this family, especially my late father-in-law John Donovan and, of course, my wife Catherine. Living in Sandymount myself for the last seventeen years, I have met many Sandymount people who had lots of stories to tell. A great thank you goes to the Siggins family, Brian in the first place, but also his brother David and his son Gerard. Mary O’Neill, the parish secretary of the Star of the Sea, and Revd Katherine Meyer of Christ Church, Sandymount, are among the people who might not even remember helping me. Among my neighbours, it was especially the late Malachy Ryan and Francis X. Carty who provided information, the latter sharing a lot of his knowledge of sport. Many more people have helped. I cannot name them all, but I am nonetheless very grateful to all of them.

FOREWORD

My earliest memory of Sandymount is when, jointly with my cousin T.P. McCurtain from Lea Road, I won third place in the Sandymount Strand sandcastle competition. I was about 6. He went on to be a successful artist and I retained my love for this incredibly beautiful part of Dublin. Like so many Dublin children, I remember many trips to the beach, with my mother packing up the towels and swimming togs, the Mi-Wadi orange, the wrapped-up sandwiches and then the walk down from our home in Donnybrook. I remember also the large, bold, white-painted letters, ‘SAVE OUR STRAND’, on the old baths, though I did not know at the time that this was part of a campaign by people such as the late Jack Torpey and Harry Mapother and the Sandymount and Merrion Residents Association (SAMRA) to protect this incredible resource.

We owe so much to them and all their successors, such as Lorna Kelly, Michael McAuliffe, Tony Reid and the late Catherine Cavendish, who have done so much to protect the village and the strand. It is not their fault that over the years city and national figures have abused this wonderful natural amenity. The struggle to reverse the effects of such damaging interventions must go on.

But Sandymount is much more than the strand. It is more than the Green, more than the Nature Park and more than its vibrant and rich history – a history so richly recorded by people such as Brian Siggins, the late Kevin O’Rorke, Hugh Oram and now Kurt Kullmann. Sandymount is one of the great villages of Dublin. It really does have it all: location, heritage, environment, culture, elegance and style. But above all, it has a wonderful, committed, diverse and inclusive community.

For many years, I have had the honour of representing Sandymount on Dublin City Council and I am grateful to the people of the area for giving me their trust. But more than that, I am grateful for their friendship, for their enthusiasm, for the many great nights I have had during community weeks, the Sandymount, Irishtown and Ringsend Arts Festival (SIRAF), the Yeats celebrations and the Bloomsday events. I am grateful for the times spent with the late Frank Geoghegan, who led Sandymount Scouts, and Teresa Devlin, who led Roslyn Park Guides, and the many young people I came to know through them. The notion that I would spend St Stephen’s Day anywhere other than at ‘The Green’ – with an occasional pint from Ryan’s and O’Reilly’s in hand – is alien to me. If ‘the Wran was not being chased in Sandymount’, I don’t know what I would do.

I will forever be proud of the success of Sandymount Community Services that I co-founded with Ann Ingle at the instigation of Ruairi Quinn back in 1985. For nearly thirty years, SCS has published News Four, given hundreds of people an opportunity to work and, through Denis McKenna and his successors, produced a variety of publications of local interest.

Kurt Kullmann has now added to that volume of work, celebrating this community and recording its history, and it is a privilege and a challenge to write this foreword. As the world becomes a more global village, the importance of the real village, the true home place, the local community, will hopefully become even clearer. Knowing about our locality, about where we live, can only help us build living, thriving communities.

In this wonderful evocation of Sandymount, Kurt Kullmann has done more than help us achieve that; he has breathed new life into our past and inspired new hope for our collective future. I hope you enjoy reading it for the first time – for you will surely read it more than once as you will find yourself dipping back into it again and again, with greater pleasure each time.

Cllr Dermot Lacey, 2016

INTRODUCTION

Sandymount is one of the youngest of Dublin’s suburbs and, as most inhabitants of Sandymount will agree, it is also one of the most pleasant ones: green and near the sea, yet not far from city centre, which can be reached quickly and easily by public transport. It is quiet in the sense that there is not really any industry, but its centre can grow quite lively in the evenings.

That is not to say that there are no disadvantages to living there, as commuters who do not rely on public transport will know. Finding a parking space in Sandymount on weekdays is not easy and those found are pay-and-display. To leave the village westwards by car, by bike or on foot can test your patience as you have to cross one of the five level crossings, the only level crossings on the old Dublin & Kingstown Railway line within the borders of Dublin City.

One point of dispute is the borders of Sandymount. Some even say that the postal address is ‘Ballsbridge’ as Ballsbridge has a post office and Sandymount has only ever had a sub-post office. Purists insist that only the townland named Sandymount should be regarded as Sandymount. That would mean that neither Sandymount DART station nor the Sandymount parish church of Our Lady Star of the Sea nor Sandymount Tower would be in Sandymount; the first would be in Ballsbridge (Smotscourt townland), the second in Irishtown and the third in Merrion townlands.

As far as this book is concerned, let us come to a compromise. We shall acknowledge a core village, an extended village and a very extended village. Both the core and extended village have the railway as the western and the sea as the eastern border. For the core village, the northern border runs along the Dodder, Newbridge Avenue, a part of Sandymount Road and Cranfield Place and the southern border is St John’s and St John’s Road. This is slightly bigger than Sandymount townland and includes the DART station, the parish church and the Martello tower. The extended village is what the Sandymount Village Design Statement of Dublin City Council regards as Sandymount. In this statement, the northern border runs along Bath Avenue, Londonbridge Road and Church Avenue and in the south Sandymount stretches out to Merrion Gates, where railway and sea come together. This includes a part of Irishtown in the north and all of Merrion east of the railway in the south as parts of Sandymount. The very extended village additionally includes all of Sandymount Avenue and Serpentine Avenue, even the parts west of the railway, so these two streets are in Sandymount for their whole length.

There could still be disagreement. For instance, if the sea is the eastern border of Sandymount, does that mean the high water mark or the low water mark? Let’s regard the eastern border of Sandymount as a moveable feast; in other words, Sandymount stretches as far eastwards as you can walk without getting your feet wet. Any further complains should be addressed to Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion and Baron Fitzwilliam of Thorncastle, as he invented the name ‘Sandymount’ for a village for which he did not draw borders.

1

HISTORY AND POLITICS

Sandymount might be one of the youngest suburban villages of Dublin, but that does not mean that the area and the village have no history.

TIMELINE

BCE

c. 4000

Mesolithic finds on Dublin Bay (Dalkey Island and Sutton) date to this period

c. 2000

Beginning of metal age; copper and gold from Wicklow Mountains are worked

c. 600

Portal tombs, wedge tombs and dolmens are built in the area

c. 400

La Tène culture and a Celtic language start to spread through Ireland

CE

431

The first definite date in Irish history: St Palladius is sent to Ireland

795

The first Fionnghall Viking attacks in Ireland

842

Vikings settle in Dubhlinn

c. 850

Dubhgall Vikings arrive

851–1171

The Viking kingdom of Dublin: Dyfflinarskiri

1014

The Battle of Clontarf

1171

The Siege of Dublin by Diarmait Mac Murchada with his Norman allies

1171

Ascall mac Torcaill, last Norse king of Dublin, is beheaded

1171

Walter de Ridelesford is granted lands from Ringsend to Bray

1238

Walter de Ridelesford (the younger) grants Simmonscourt to Frambald FitzBoydeken

1258

FitzBoydeken’s son John Frambald leases

Simmonscourt to Richard de St Olof

1334

The first mention of Merrion Castle

1536

The Reformation in Ireland

1629

Thomas Fitzwilliam is created ViscountFitzwilliam of Merrion and BaronFitzwilliam of Thorncastle

1661

Oliver, 2nd Viscount Fitzwilliam, is created Earl of Tyconnell

1710

Richard, 5th Viscount Fitzwilliam, converts to the Established Church

c. 1725

Conniving House is built

c. 1730–1785

Brick industry in ‘Lord Merrion’s Brickfields’

1789

Roslyn Park is built

1791

Sea wall is built

1816

George Augustus Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke, inherits the Fitzwilliam Estate

1831

The Sisters of Charity are called to Sandymount by Barbara Verschoyle

1833

The Schoolhouse on Sandymount Green is erected by subscription

1835

First railway stop for Sandymount

1837

The first ordnance survey map of the area is finished

1850

The first church in Sandymount, St John the Evangelist, is opened for worship

c. 1850

The first horse-drawn bus to Sandymount

1856

Discalced Carmelite Sisters move into Lakelands

1863

Pembroke Township is established

1864

Important cricket match between Sandymount Cricket Club and County Wicklow Cricket Club

1867

Pembroke Township is connected to Vartry water supply

1872

The first tramline to Sandymount opens, terminating at Sandymount Tower

1876

The Sisters of Charity move to Lakelands in exchange with the Carmelite Sisters

1876

Sandymount becomes a Roman Catholic parish

1898

Pembroke Township becomes an Urban District. Franchise extended for local elections

1901

Electrification of trams finished (line no. 4to Sandymount the last to be electrified)

1930

Pembroke Urban District is incorporated into Dublin Corporation

1932

Tramline no. 4 is replaced by bus no. 52

1939–1945

‘The Emergency’, otherwise known as the Second World War

1940

Tramlines nos 2 and 3 are replaced by bus

1984

Dublin Area Rapid Transport (DART) starts service

2006

Lansdowne Road Stadium closes

2010

Aviva Stadium opens

2016

The Little Book of Sandymount published

PREHISTORY

According to the most recent research, the first human beings reached Ireland in the Palaeolithic period c. 12,000 years ago. At the end of the Mesolithic period, around 4000 BCE, more people came to Ireland, most likely from Scotland. Perhaps they were attracted by the slightly milder weather in Ireland, perhaps they were just curious and decided to go and see what was there as there was a land bridge between the two countries at the time. Since then, there has been constant comings and goings between Scotland and Ireland – and not only of soccer and rugby fans.

Some of those early people made it to Dalkey Island and left traces there. As they were known to have fished rivers and lakes, the marshy land with many pools and streams south of the Dodder and the Dodder itself would have been attractive for them. No artefacts have been found in this area, but the regular inundations by the sea or the Dodder, or both at the same time, mean that most likely no remains ever will be found.

The Stone Age was followed by the Bronze Age. Copper and gold can be found in the Wicklow Mountains and at least some of it might have been washed down by the Dodder. During the Bronze Age, weapon technology was greatly improved, leading to more effective warfare. This had an enormous and not always positive impact on the consequent history of Ireland.

The Iron Age that followed is usually associated with the arrival of Celtic art and a Celtic language. Today it is no longer thought that great masses of Celtic warriors invaded Ireland and settled here.

ST PALLADIUS

This early saint provides the east coast of Ireland with the first date that can be confirmed. In CE 431, one year before St Patrick arrived in Ireland, Palladius was sent to those Irish people who believed in Christ to be their first bishop. He landed on the east coast between the Liffey and Wicklow and is said to have converted some inhabitants. The rest of them, however, behaved so aggressively that he moved on from there to Scotland to Christianise the Picts. He had built some little churches on the Irish east coast though and commanded a couple of his companions to stay there. He left some books with them. As books were very valuable at that time, these early missionaries must have either found safe places for them or friendly inhabitants who protected them.

NORSE

It is possible that all these prehistoric and early historic peoples bypassed our area. The Vikings, however, did not. The Vikings, also called the Norse or the Ostmen, came by boat. Their boats had a minimal draught, so the many sandbanks in Dublin Bay did not worry them.

They used rivers to invade inland from the coast. We know they went up the Liffey, so why not the Dodder also? This would have been the easiest way for them to reach the monastery of St Máel Ruain in Tallaght. From the end of the eighth to the middle of the ninth century, they came frequently on short raids. In 842, they settled in Dublin and founded Dyfflinarskiri, a coastal kingdom which included the Sandymount area and had Dublin as capital. The surrounding Irish fought against them for the most part, but at times they also fought for them. Dyfflinarskiri did not have a peaceful history until the late tenth century, by which time the Norse and the Irish had intermarried and were learning to live with and among each other.

The Irish distinguished between two different groups of Norse. The first group, said to have come originally from Norway, were called Fionnghall, the white strangers. The second group, supposed to have been from Denmark, were called the dark strangers, Dubhghall. This later turned into ‘Doyle’, the second most common name in this area (after Byrne).

A Viking longship.

The Battle of Clontarf in 1014 is often described as a battle between the Irish under Brian Boru and the Vikings under Sihtric Silkbeard. This was not the case. It was a battle between Munster Irish and Limerick Vikings under Brian Boru and the Laighin Irish under Máel Mórda mac Murchada with his subjects, the Vikings of Dublin. Despite what very many people in Ireland think, the Vikings were not evicted from Ireland in this battle. The last Norse king of Dublin, Ascall mac Torcaill, also mentioned as Hasculf MacTurcail or Höskellr Thorkelson in Nordic, reigned in the second half of the twelfth century. He was beaten by the Normans in 1171. In that battle, he was taken captive and had to pay a high ransom to buy his freedom. He then boasted that he would come back with a much bigger army and beat the Normans. The Normans beheaded him there and then. It is unlikely that they paid back the ransom.

NORMANS

As a matter of fact, the Normans are Norse as well. Those Northmen just settled in a part of France opposite the south coast of England and changed their name slightly from Northman to Norman. They learnt to speak French instead of a Norse language, and then crossed the Channel and became rulers in England.

As it happened, one of the kings of the Laighin who had some disagreements with other Irish kings asked the Norman king of England for help. That brought the Normans into Ireland. The leader of those Normans, Richard FitzGilbert de Clare, better known as Strongbow, gave the coastal land from Dublin to Wicklow to his companion Walter de Ridelesford (or Riddleford) who is said to have killed John the Wode, one of the fiercest warriors of the Norse from the Isles, in that campaign.

After de Ridelesford’s death, the land was passed on to his son, also called Walter de Ridelesford. The often cited ‘fact’ that Richard de St Olof was the first owner of Sandymount is not correct. At this time, Sandymount was part of the Simmonscourt Estate. In 1238, Walter de Ridelesford (the younger) granted Simmonscourt to Frambald FitzBoydeken, whose son John Frambald leased it to Richard de St Olof in 1258 for the rent of a pair of gloves, so Richard de St Olof became a tenant of the area more than eighty years after the de Ridelesfords became its owners.

THE FITZWILLIAMS …

The land passed through several families’ hands, including the Bagods, whose name is remembered in Baggot Street, and the Smothes, after whom the townlands Smotscourt and Simmonscourt are called. It finally came into the hands of the Fitzwilliams. The Fitzwilliams were of Norman origin and are supposed to have come to Ireland at the beginning of the thirteenth century in the time of King John. Between the fourteenth and the seventeenth centuries, the family managed to amass much land in this area, including the castles of Merrion, Thorncastle, Baggotrath and Dundrum, with their estates. They also had possessions in Bray in County Wicklow and in Holmpatrick in Fingal County.

There were some interesting characters in the long line of Fitzwilliams. In the fourteenth century, some were made Guardian of the Peace and Sheriff of County Dublin. Thomas Fitzwilliam (c. 1465–1517) was Sheriff of County Dublin in 1511, lived in Baggotrath Castle and owned the castles of Dundrum, Bray, Baggotrath, Merrion and Thorn Castle, as well as the lands of Booterstown, Mount Merrion, Kilmacud, Ballinteer, Donnybrook, Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount (except that it was not called Sandymount then). His son, Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam, was Vice-Treasurer of Ireland in 1559. Yet another Thomas Fitzwilliam (1581–c. 1655) was created Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion and Baron Fitzwilliam of Thorncastle in 1629 by King Charles I because of his family’s long service to the Crown, despite the fact that the Fitzwilliams were Catholics. He was even allowed to take his seat in the Irish House of Lords in 1634.

Oliver, second son of Thomas, 1st Viscount, fought with the Royalist Confederates against the Parliamentarians. He went to France in the service of Henrietta, the French Queen Consort of Charles I. He was a strong enough force on the Confederate side to be referred to in a contemporary letter from the Parliamentarian side, quoted in Richard Cox’s History of Ireland, 1689:

The new Agent of the Supream Council, Colonel Fitz-Williams, is very violent in his office … He, the Colonel, is very liberal in the disposing of Places and Offices in the Kingdom … Colonel Fitz-Williams hath said in great heat, That Dublin should be taken as soon as Mr. Baron returned, and that the Confederates are so puissant that he wisheth with all his Heart that there were in Ireland 40,000 English and Scots, that they might have the Honour to beat them.

His service with the Confederates resulted in his incarceration after Cromwell’s victory. He cannot be as wild as he was painted in the quoted letter as he was let out of prison under the condition that he leave the country. He went to France, where he had served before, but through the pleas of his brother-in-law, John Holles, Earl of Clare and a Parliamentarian, he was allowed to return. He was said to be one of the few Irishmen that Oliver Cromwell admired. Oliver Fitzwilliam was also on good terms with Oliver Cromwell’s son Henry, who served as Lord Lieutenant.

After the Restoration, the same Oliver Fitzwilliam, who at that stage had succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount, served the Crown again and was created Earl of Tyrconnell by Charles II. It took some time, though, until he got his possessions back.

The Fitzwilliams had become Protestants shortly after the Reformation in Ireland, but this seems to have been a nominal change only as in 1600 they were regarded as Catholics again. They remained Catholic for around another hundred years. Finally, in 1710, Richard, 5th Viscount, conformed to the Established Church as he wanted to enter politics and take his seat in the House of Lords, which he could not do as a Catholic at that time.

His grandson, also Richard, who became the 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam, had an affair with a barmaid in his youth. His enraged father sent him on the Grand Tour and during his son’s time on the Continent he arranged for the barmaid to marry somebody more suited to her social standing. When Richard came back he was devastated. He never married.

He followed his father as the developer of Merrion Road, Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square, where houses were built with bricks that were produced for decades in ‘Lord Merrion’s Brickfields’. One of those small brick manufactures was located where Sandymount Green is now.

The area had never been much above sea level. Digging clay for bricks lowered it even more. To protect it from frequent inundations, the 7th Viscount organised the construction of the sea wall from Merrion Gates northwards to the junction of Beach Road and Seapoint Avenue. He changed the name of the settlement from Brickfield Town to Sandymount and encouraged well-to-do Dublin citizens to build villas and residences there, so it could be said that he was the founder of Sandymount. The first residence that still exists in the area was built in 1789, two years before the sea wall. This house, which is now called Roslyn Park, was built for the landscape painter William Ashford. Ashford was a friend of the 7th Viscount, who let him have the land for a reasonable rent. Ashford was also a friend of the architect James Gandon, who provided plans for the residence.

The 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam was a connoisseur of paintings and amassed a big collection, which he willed to his alma mater, the University of Cambridge.

After his death, the title went in turn to his two younger brothers. Neither of the brothers had children. They would get the title, but Richard, 7th Viscount, obviously did not trust his brothers with the estate and so he had to look for another heir. His great-aunt had married Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, and her grandson George Augustus Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke, was Fitzwilliam’s nearest blood relation. The English Earls of Fitzwilliam were very distant cousins. Richard Fitzwilliam invited both earls without telling them the reason for the proposed visit. He served them tea. The Earl of Pembroke sipped his tea from the cup. The Earl of Fitzwilliam poured some of the tea from the cup into the saucer, blew on it to cool it and then slurped it from the saucer. The 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam is supposed to have muttered, ‘Nobody who drinks tea like that will inherit my lands.’ He died in 1816 and the Fitzwilliam Estate turned into the Pembroke Estate.

The cup which brought the Fitzwilliam lands to the Earls of Pembroke is still exhibited in Wilton House, the seat of the Earls of Pembroke in Wiltshire, England.

The end of the line of the Viscounts Fitzwilliam of Merrion is not always recorded exactly. Richard, 7th Viscount, had willed away his estate, but he could not will away his title. He was followed in the line of succession by his younger brother John, 8th Viscount, and John was succeeded by the next brother, Thomas, 9th Viscount. Upon the death, in 1833, of Thomas, 9th Viscount, the line of the Viscounts Fitzwilliam of Merrion and Barons Fitzwilliam of Thorncastle became extinct.

... AND THE HERBERTS