Front elevation of St Lelia's Church, Kileely Road, Limerick by Andy Devane 

Every culture seems to have a festival around the winter solstice, the 21st of December, the longest and darkest night of the year. As I type this a Christmas tree is slowly taking shape in my living room which will soon to be adorned with lights and baubles. This daft compulsion to ostentatiously dress up a plant inside my house is inherited and unquestioned. A few cards arrive each year printed with pictures generally of reindeer, a snowman, a morbidly obese white man wearing red velvet and fur, etc. However there might be a lone one with the nativity scene on it; the reason for all the sparkle and ornament. Just as the winter solstice marks the threshold between the old and the new year I feel that my generation is at a similar threshold in Ireland's history as a relatively young state. We no longer blindly follow the teachings of the Catholic Church. Despite our secularisation we still retain our rituals of Christmas and this includes many of us going to a church on the 25th, perhaps our only visit in the year. If Ireland's secularisation continues our Christmas rituals will become wholly divorced from religious belief. However our Christian heritage will always be embedded in our culture. 

It raises the question of what will we do with buildings of worship if we longer have religion in our lives? 

Defining ourselves through architecture

Image taken from RTÉ.ie/archives

We cannot escape our Catholic identity which the government of the newly formed Irish State so enthusiastically went to great lengths to create and to a certain extent remains the same today with regards to our legislation and constitution. The Church's influential was felt in our hospitals, GAA County Boards, schools and third level institutions. This stronghold was felt no more strongly, in my opinion, than in Limerick which was once described as 'one of the most pious towns in Ireland.[1]' This devout fervour was felt throughout Ireland culminating in the International Eucharistic Congress in 1932 which brought to Dublin representatives from all over the Catholic world [2]. The five day event culminated in the Pontifical High Mass in the Phoenix Park with an altar designed by John J. Robinson of Robinson & Keefe Architects (which would later become Robinson Keefe & Devane once Andy Devane became a partner). This seemed to confirm that whatever divided Irish people politically, they were firmly united when it came to their Catholic faith, or so that was the impression given. The Irish Press in their commentary of the proceedings stated 'The union of the Christian ideal and the national endeavour has been manifested in every great moment in our history[3].' 

Image taken from corkpastandpresent.com

The previous year had witnessed the completion of what could be described as the landmark of modern architecture in Ireland, Christ the King Church at Turner's Cross, Cork. Barry Byrne and J.R Boyd Barrett's church was revolutionary for its time and its use of reinforced concrete was an inexpensive alternative to the traditional church [4]. Byrne trained under and subsequently worked for American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Nevertheless Christ the King did not immediately influence and it would be almost another two decades before another church would express such an awareness of contemporary style. The church's staunch preference to the revived medieval Gothic style was holding strong with the famous anachronistic example being the completion of Galway Cathedral in 1965 (designed by John. J Robinson). The frustration from some quarters at the reluctance to let go of the previous century's architectural language was summed up by P.M Delaney in a paper read before the Architectural Association of Ireland (AAI) in 1961[5] in which he observed:

'Most of our churches have become confused collections of unrelated inaccurate and clumsy fragments taken without understanding from widely different sources usually copied, not from the original, but at fifth or sixth hand, from reproductions in turn based on other reproduction. There can be no reasonable or logical basis for this illiteracy, which merely created an impression that the church has no connection with the conditions of the present day, since its visible expression in its buildings is so deliberately archaic and out of contact with the daily life of its members.' [6]

Modern architectural education

The early 1930s also witnesses advances in architectural education in Ireland with many newly qualified Irish architects coming out of a university environment adopting the new style of building design, construction and materials. Ireland no longer had to rely on hiring architects from abroad as she was now producing home grown designers who kept an eye on developments in Europe. However the RIAI was obliged as late as 1939 to write to the Minister for Finance protesting against the Office of Public Works (OPW) advertising for recruitment of architects in the English newspapers [7]. Limerick is lucky to have Our Lady of the Rosary Church, one of the 27 churches designed by the father of modern Irish church architecture Liam McCormick (1916-1996) during his partnership with Frank Corr which lasted until 1968. It was their winning of the RIAI competition to design a church for Ennistymon, Co.Clare that brought them to the attention of the Limerick priest. Interestingly John J. Robinson was one of the competition assessors. McCormick, who has been described as 'close to being Ireland's Alvar Aalto [8]' trained as an architect at Liverpool University which was a pioneer with its student placement policy. Limerick's Andy Devane (1917-2000) bolstered his architecture degree from UCD with an apprenticeship under Frank Lloyd Wright. This was in contrast with the previous generation's route to becoming an architect without third level education. For example Patrick J. Sheahan (1893-1965) was qualified as an Art and Mathematics secondary school teacher who completed his apprenticeship in various architectural firms in Limerick before setting up his own practice in 1925. 

Image taken from Corr & McCormick's article on  the church in
The Furrow (1951)

It can be assumed the Limerick priest wanted something similar to the concrete church that McCormick & Corr proposed for Ennistymon. A temporary steel-framed, timber church was erected to facilitate mass during construction of permanent church. However the temporary church was so popular the parish decided to use it forever more. Although the Ennistymon church was McCormick's first design it was not constructed until 1952-54 [9]. Therefore Our Lady of the Rosary was the first church in a modern style to have been erected in the post-war era. Similarly the national school next door, John F.Kennedy Memorial School (1964), was the only national school designed by McCormick in the Republic. 

Our Lady of Lourdes church (1962), Childers Rd Limerick by P.J Sheahan
Image taken by Emma Gilleece

RIAI Church Exhibition Committee

The annual liturgical congress in Glenstal Abbey, Murroe Co.Limerick from 1954 onwards brought to Ireland the big names in the European liturgical field and soon turned its attention to the influence which the liturgy should have on church architecture[10]. The first initiative for change in church architecture in Ireland came from within the architectural profession. Following the unsatisfactory outcome of an architectural competition for Clonskeagh's parish church in 1954 the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) organised a symposium on church design in Newman House in April 1955 which attracted immense public attention and criticism[11]. This was followed a year later by the establishment of the RIAI Church Exhibition Committee which organised seminars, exhibitions and lectures on church architecture and art [12]. The two most important exhibitions being 'Églises de France Reconstruites' at St Patrick's College Maynooth and 'Modern Churches in Germany' in 1957 and 1962 respectively. It was not only the Catholic Church in Europe who recognised the importance of modern art. The Protestant Institute for contemporary Ecclesiastic Architecture and Art was founded in Marburg, Germany in 1957 [13]. 

Second Vatican Council

Image taken from syntheastwood.com

By the mid-sixties the Catholic Church had made peace with modernity. The liturgical changes initiated by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1967)[14] with the publication of 'Constitution of Sacred Liturgy' (1963) and 'Dogmatic Constitution of the Church' (1964), together with the need to keep down building costs brought about some dramatic changes in the approach to church design. Following this in 1965 the Irish hierarchy established an Advisory Committee on Sacred Art and Architecture which was composed of distinguished experts in their field such as McCormick and Devane. A year later the commission published a directive called the 'Pastoral Directory on the Building and Reorganisation of Churches' in which architectural matters of the centrality of the altar were discussed. New directives meant new churches which meant plenty of work for young architects. Likewise these new buildings of worship needed suitable contemporary works of art to fill them hence this was a great era for ecclesiastical commissions for artists such as Oisín Kelly, Evie Hone and Imogen Stewart. 

Architecture gave Ireland one of the only real avenues to express modernity. When one considers how heavily censored Irish writers were in these formative years and how controlled the image of this island that was presented to the rest of the world; that we were all living in this isolated Paul Henry landscape. Our advertising and branding with Lady Hazel Lavery as the 'Colleen Bawn' printed on our Irish pound notes. The fact alone that such debates and considerations happened during these conservative decades is monumental. The churches built during the thirties through to the sixties represent such a fascinating chapter in Irish history. So reader if you are going to a church over the Christmas period please take a moment to look around at the building, the artwork, note the period during which it was built and the craftsmen who brought it to life and appreciate it for its architectural and social merit. 

Shameless plug!

Limerick Museum & Archives publication,
part of the City of Churches project 

I was commissioned to research and write City of Churches edited by Jacqui Hayes and artwork by Jacob Stack http://jacobstack.net/. It is a publication on the architecture of the buildings of worship in Limerick city of all denominations for the Limerick Museum & Archives project funded by City of Culture. Little did I realise that I would end up with an inventory of 67 buildings! It is priced at €5.00 and is available to order on O'Mahonys Booksellers site A short film was also commissioned as part of this touring exhibition, made by Paddy Cahill who also did all the photography for the book. In it I got to interview Randel Hodkinson who provided valuable information for the publication. He is third generation ecclesiastical decorator speaking about the traditional skills and the effects Vatican II had on his industry             City of Churches Exhibition Film

1 Frank O'Connor, Irish Miles (London, 1947). His impression of Limerick was written in 1939.
2 Dermot Keogh, Twentieth century Ireland's revolution and state building, (Dublin, 2005), p.71.
3 Irish Press, 20 June 1932. 
4 R. Kevin Seasoltz A sense of the sacred; theological foundations of Christian architecture and art, (London, 2005), p.265.
5 Published in Liturgical Arts, no.4, 1961.
6. Richard Hurley, Irish church architecture, 1839-1989 in '150 years of architecture in Ireland', (Dublin, 1989), p.80. 
7 John E. O'Reilly RIAI 1900-1945 in John Graby (ed) '150 years of Architecture in Ireland', p.24.
8. Frank McDonald 'Dream buildings, drawn in bed', Irish Times, 3 May 2008. 
9. Richard Hurley and Wilfred Cantwell Contemporary Irish church architecture in Ireland (Dublin, 1985), preface, p.i.
10 Paul Larmour, Free State architecture: modern movement architecture in Ireland, 1922-1949 (Kinsale, 2009), p.97.
11 Hurley and Cantwell Contemporary Irish church architecture, p.23.
12 Richard Hurley Irish church architecture in the era of Vatican II (Dublin, 2001), p.24
13 Wolfgang Jean Stock, European Church Architecture, 1900-1950 (London, 2006), p.149.
14 Matthew J. McDermott, Ireland's architectural heritage, an outline history, (Dublin, 1975), p.129.

I was reminded about the Irish Estates with Irish Life celebrating its 75th birthday and mention of my thesis in the recently published Art and Architecture of Ireland, Vol. IV Architecture 1600-2000 (AAI)(eds.) Rolf Loeber, Hugh Campbell, Livia Hurley, John Montague & Ellen Rowley. I grew up close to this unusual housing estate, attending the primary school directly across the road. It still captures my imagination to this day. I have written about the history of the Irish Estates for 2ha Issue #4 A foreign country, we do things differently here. You can order any of their back issues here. 

Those Curious Houses in Corbally, 

the story of the Irish Estates

Photograph taken from Seán Curtin's Limerick, A Stroll Down Memory Lane

The opening decades of the twentieth century in Limerick city saw an exodus of the middle classes away from the inner to the out suburbs. Subdivision by unscrupulous landlords had rendered Georgian townhouses to little more than tenement slums. These cramped living conditions encouraged tuberculosis outbreaks and the air was a cocktail of smells from the city's tannery and abattoirs. This shift was further intensified by the provision of government subsidies on new houses for owner-occupiers and local authority housing from 1924 with the House (Building Facilities) Act [1]. This was in response to the housing shortage, acute in Limerick, of both private owner-occupiers and local authority housing which was called for by Irish Builder and Engineer in March 1923 [2]. The Home Miscellaneous Provisions Act enacted in 1932 provided local authorities for the first time with state funding for the provision of houses. 

There was a lack of building materials during the interwar years which severely curtailed house building. Undeterred the government encouraged local authorities to continue building, making use of the supplies still available [3]. Limerick had a readily available building material in concrete from the cement factory that operated in Mungret from 1938. This had great significance for Limerick as within a relatively short space of time the city saw the completion of much needed housing schemes such as the Island Field Housing scheme (1934), Thomondgate (1938), Jamesboro (1940-1), Kileely (1942) and Prospect (1944)[4]. Limerick was quickly becoming a modern city with its first Town Planning Consultant in 1938, a year before Cork[5]. Another contributor to Limerick’s commercial expansion was having Rineanna airport (the precursor to Shannon Airport) on its doorstep. It played a pivotal role in trans-Atlantic relations securing routes during the Second World War long before Dublin. In 1946 when tenure data was first collected, less than one-quarter of dwellings in urban areas were owner-occupied (including tenant purchase schemes). By 1971 more than half of all homes (52.5 per cent) in urban areas were owner occupied.

 

Land Registry of Deeds map of estate

For centuries Corbally maintained a sparsely populated area except for a scattering of small but highly ornamented houses such as India Ville, Park House and Corbally Palace [6]. Corbally Palace was the residence of landowner Pierce A. Shannon [7]. Shannon had purchased the greater part of the townland of Corbally from Col. William Thomas Monsell in 1833 for 22,000 developing the present Corbally Road [8]. When the Limerick Corporation was reformed Shannon took his place in the city administration becoming mayor in 1844. He also orchestrated for Corbally to be included within the city boundaries. His son Patrick Aloysius Shannon began leasing Corbally Palace and tollhouse in 1856. The house was included in the rental but it was eventually sold in 1867. This large three-storey house was last recorded cartographically in 1956 [9]. It became the residence of Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick until it was demolished to make way for St Munchin's College in 1958 [10]. All that remains of Corbally Palace is the entrance gate on the Mill Road. The diocesan seminary had previously been at Park House purchased in 1809 for R.C. Bishop Dr John Young and located further down Corbally Road [11]. Eventually, it too was knocked down for the housing development College Park in 1961. 

Taken from 'Our Catholic Life' Summer  Issue 1962

Recognising the urgency to accommodate the housing needs of the emerging professional middle classes Limerick Corporation identified 'Mr Vaughan's Lands at Corbally' in 1935 as suitable for a housing site with picturesque views of the river Shannon. This site too was once a fine mansion called Lanahrone House (referred to as Albert Villa in Griffiths Valuation 1850) [12]. Lanahrone House was the nineteen-room residence of St Clare Hobson and stood well in from the road and commanded a splendid view of the river [13]. Its gate lodge was on Corbally Road near the Constabulary Barracks (today Sunnyside Montessori School). This greenbelt to the north was far enough outside the city to be near the countryside but still easily commutable to the urban centre. It epitomised the Garden City model of early twentieth century urban planning. The era of the 'big house', the last bastion of luxury in Ireland was over. A request was made 'to take the necessary steps to acquire portion of the lands as a housing site' [14]. The land remained undeveloped for a decade with the Town Planner scheduling it as 'a high-class residential area' according to the City Manager's Minutes. Having first established that there was a housing shortage and based on representations received from the Department of Industry & Commerce, Aer Lingus and the various transatlantic airlines who had bases at Shannon Airport Irish Life Ltd [15] saw Corbally as the perfect location for family accommodation for their staff. All was needed was a contractor with the means to construct these homes.

Irish Estates entrance 1961. Photo taken from Seán Curtin's Limerick, A Stroll
Down Memory Lane

In February 1947 Irish Life submitted their offer to purchase the Lanahrone site [16] and Irish Estates Ltd began construction of the houses after the signing of the deeds on 3 October 1947 [17]. The Irish Estates is a wedge shaped scheme with its single entrance on Corbally Road. The roads of the estate were laid out in 1948 and in April of that year the Managing Director of the Irish Estates Ltd corresponded with the Limerick Corporation regarding the naming of the avenues [18]. They referenced the historical geography of their setting being named Plassey,Lanahrone, Abbey, Shannon and Rhebogue. Lanahrone Avenue comprising of sixty houses that were first constructed in 1947-48 then contractors O'Sullivan Bros subsequently acquired a section of the site and built 74 houses. The estate was eventually completed in 1953 [19]. The Land Registry deeds outline that the houses were to be rented and not bought outright. The rent, charged at £4 per week, was related to what a professional class family could afford. According to one resident who moved into the estate in the 1960s there was a portacabin in the fork in the road near the entrance which houses an estate manager who took care of the maintenance [20]. It was another privilege of renting a property in the Irish Estates. 

The estate comprises of 140 flat-roofed, concrete-built, semi-detached houses with garden to front and rear.They have three-bays and two-storeys save for two single storey detached houses at the entrance to the estate. Indicative of the occupants' social status, each house is furnished with a driveway to park their car and a garage. They are variations of the same International Style of house with simple recessed entrance with projecting concrete canopy and originally would have had screwed metal casement windows. They have a rough-cast wall finish and a unifying platband between ground and first floor levels for horizontal emphasis.The residents have stuck with the same paint palette of light to dark greys and grey blue. Unfortunately almost every house has replaced the original metal casement windows with uPVC ones over the years and in many of the houses the internal arrangement has been altered to create an open plan living space. Each house has a garage and a fuel store to the side and garden to front and rear. All rainwater is carried off at the rear so as not to disrupt the clean smooth look of the properties.

Image taken by author 

The beauty of these homes is their geometric simplicity. What makes this estate even more unusual for Limerick is the sense if space created not only by the generously large roads but also from the lack of boundary walls. This boundary-free layout is reminiscent of North American housing schemes with its expanse of green very pleasing to the eye. The original layout of the houses generally consisted of a ground floor with hall, cloakroom, drawing room, dining room, kitchen and a 'maid's room' as indicated on original plans which appeared in Irish Builder. The kitchen included the 'mod cons' of the day with Bakelite wall switches, the latest solid fuel cooker that heated the water supply and a butler's pantry. Upstairs there were 3-4 bedrooms each with ceramic-tiled fireplaces and built-in wardrobes and a bathroom. The luxury of an indoor bathroom in the forties is not to be underestimated. The 1946 Census recorded that of the 662,000 private dwellings in the country only 15% had a fixed bath, while just 23% had an indoor lavatory [21]. 

Photographs taken by author in December 2009

Despite the fact that Shannon was prospering during this era the demand for houses in the Irish Estates was relatively weak and costs turned out to be considerably greater than originally anticipated. The project was an economic failure for Irish Estates Ltd. Eventually all of the previously rented houses were sold off to tenants and others.It is important to spell out the origins and corporate structure of Irish Life and their subsidiary company Irish Estates Ltd. It was first established in 1939 as a state body and gradually absorbed other Irish assurance companies who had got into financial difficulties. Subsequent British companies withdrew from the Irish market and transferred their portfolios to Irish Life. These included the Prudential, Britannic, Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society, the Friendly and the Refuge. The customers of Irish Life were mainly working class families who required burial and limited life insurance. Irish Life employed a great number of collectors who called weekly to collect premium installments. After the building industry was hit by recession in the fifties, Irish Estates was forced to go into liquidation in 1964 and had changed its name and its focus to property management [22]. Ground rents were owned by Irish Life until this property portfolio was bought by Dublin Land Securities from Irish Life in 1982 [23] and after passing hands two more times it was taken over by Lyons and Kenny solicitors in March 2007 through their property investment vehicle Fitzwilliam Land Securities [24]. Irish Life this year became part of the Great-West Lifeco group of life assurance companies.

Irish Estates today. Photograph taken May 2014 courtesy of Patrick Edmund Lynch patricklynch.ie

The organisational structure of Irish Estates Ltd was quite unique for its time in Ireland. The concept which involved the combination of builder and all technical consultants, architects, engineers in a single organisation was proposed and set up by a director of Irish Estates Ltd Mr Frank Boyland who had great experience of the US construction industry. It was envisaged that Irish Estates could construct investment properties for the Irish Life investment portfolio as well as offering a cost effective 'one stop shop' to companies seeking to have built structures like housing, cinemas or factories. Most of their property portfolio was in Dublin such as Mespil Flats on Sussex Road (1959)[25]. The first such project to be undertaken was the Irish Estates. Their view was mainly based on representations received from the Department of Industry and Commerce, Aer Lingus and the various transatlantic airlines that had bases at Shannon Airport. All were seeking family accommodation for their managerial staff. The scheme was designed by Irish Estates Chief Architect W.J. Convery IAA Dictionary of Irish Architects He began his career in Belfast in the 1920s moving to Dublin in the forties to design the Mespil Flats. Convery was directed by Boyland to produce an North American style housing estate. This was to appeal to the employees of Canadian and American airlines working in Shannon Airport for companies such as Trans World Airlines (TWA), International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Pan American World Airways who among the first residents of the Irish Estates during that period.  In its six or so decades the estate has been home to notable political figures such as Desmond O’Malley, TD Cabinet Minister and founder of the Progressive Democrats, John Gormley, Green Party TD and current resident Jan O’Sullivan TD Minister for Education and Skills.

Corbally House, typical of the houses in the area before the advent

of suburbia. The Irish Estates stylistically are reminiscent of these 

Georgian blocks. 

The housing estate represents such an exciting age for Limerick with an International airport on its doorstep, affordable motorcars and sleek design utilising the building materials of the day. These houses pre-date the housing standards set by the Department of Local Government in the 1960s regarding hot water facilities, insulation and ventilation. However according to the resident interviewed the flat roof has never given any maintenance issues as would be expected of the flat roof's reputation. The Irish Estates marked the beginning of intensified speculative building in the Corbally area and the end of the 'big house.' It was a slice of the American dream in the suburbs of Limerick city.  

Aerial photo of Limerick city taken mid 20C (taken from Limerick Museum & Archives). Top left of photo is the undeveloped, green Corbally area close to the city centre. 

_________________________________________________
1 Mary McCarthy 'The provision of rural local-authority domestic space: a comparative north-south study, 1942-60', RIA Proc. 11C (2001), 288. 
2 ‘We have little doubt that if the housing shortage is ever to be effectively met, the state will have to augment its own particular housing effort by helping the private builder by means of subsidies.’ (Irish Builder, 24 Mar 1923, 218).
3 DLGPH, Memorandum on housing, 12 July 1943, National Archives, DTS/13059A. 
4 John Logan,’ Frugal comfort: housing Limerick’s labourers and artisans 1841-1948,’ in Irwin, Ó Tuathough & Potter (eds), Limerick, history and society (Dublin, 2009), 575.
5 Peter Harbison et al. Irish art and architecture: from prehistory to the present, (London, 1993), 244.
6 Not to be confused with Corbally House nearby which was built in 1824 and is today Corbally House Nursing Home on the Mill Road. 
7 Shannon built up a thriving business in the Cornmarket where he traded as a wholesale ironmonger and ships chandler. He owned property totalling 284 acres including George Street, Bedford Row and Robert Street. His business ventures stretched as far as the Baltic region and Russia. 
8 Maurice Lenihan, (1866) Limerick; its history and antiquities, ecclesiastical, civil and military, 473. 
9 Seán Spellissy (1998) The history of Limerick city, 142. 
10 John Fleming and Seán O'Grady, St Munchin's College, 1691-1761, 110. 
11 Park House is recorded in the Down Survey Map of Limerick in 1657. 
12 Griffith's Valuation of Limerick City, 128. Described in 1856 as a large mansion house 'erected by the late Mr Shannon' and occupied by John Co. Drydale. National Archives: Encumbered Estates Court Rentals (O'Brien), Shannon, 19 July 1856, 41:28, MRGS 39/019/-39/020. 
13 Kevin Hannon, 'The Corbally District,' Old Limerick Journal, 26 (1989), 25. 
14 Limerick City Council Minute Books 3 Oct. 1935 L/MIN/18. 
15 Now Irish Life & Permanent
16 'Submitted offer of Mr D.J. O'Malley, Solr. to purchase the fee simple interest of the Corporation in the plot of ground situated at Corbally adjacent to Athlunkard Bridge, containing 37 perches.' L/MIN/20. 
17 'Cement workers to hold up building' Irish Times, 30 Aug. 1947 and L/MIN/34. 
18 L/MIN/21 Limerick Archives.
19 Irish Builder 98, 11 Feb. 1956: 111. 
20 Interview author conducted in 2009 with Mr Paddy Reidy, resident of Abbey Avenue. 
21 CSO, Census of population of Ireland, vol.4, 1946 (Dublin, 1954), 214-5. 
22 ‘Irish estates being wound up,’ 10 Oct. 1964, Limerick Leader.
23 Irish Times, 7 Apr. 1982.
24 Today the ground rents are only collected for the houses of Plassey Avenue within the estate. E. Gilleece ‘The building types that defined modern Limerick city and the issues arising from the valuation and conservation of mid-twentieth century architecture’, (MUBC, UCD, 2011), 223.
25 'Mansion males way for flats; ceilings saved for state', Irish Times, 24 June 1954. 

Transitions
My daydream in No.12 Henrietta Street

One rainy October afternoon I was taken on a tour of Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) Bolton Street and its sister building Linenhall across the road, whetting my appetite to see this frequently referenced institution. DIT Bolton Street was purpose built for technical education almost a century ago in 1911. As a visitor it is an illegible labyrinth of corridors; a disorientating warren of lecture rooms and offices making the best of the footprint it occupied. Its students and staff in conditions seemingly as cramped as the nearby Georgian townhouses were in their tenement reincarnation. My next stop on my architectural sightseeing would contrast greatly with Bolton Street;  DIT’s new campus in Grangegorman, a 73 acre undeveloped walled off void in north central centre. On the way us flâneurs took a little  detour to a secluded cul-de-sac. This urban oasis was created by Henrietta Street and King’s Inns only minutes from Trinity College, Smithfield and Heuston Station. Not another soul was on the street. I associate my childhood with a leafy suburban cul-de-sac; an overriding sense of security along with the constant surveillance. 

This ‘dead end’ was an escape for me from the traffic and noise of the city. Its cobbled street transported me back in time to Georgian Dublin. Having grown up in  Limerick city this architectural language was familiar to me but with larger proportions. I am ashamed to say I studied this area of Dublin in great detail but never paid her visit. My life then as a stream of dashes from Heuston Station to Belfield UCD. As I began to rhapsodize about the timeless beauty of this hidden Georgian neighbourhood a man pushing his bicycle emerged out of No.12. My guide in his North Kerry boldness asked simply “can we go in?” To my surprise we were and so began my Georgian afternoon daydream. Henrietta Street consists of a terrace of Georgian red brick- fronted four-bay, four-storeyed townhouses. The keeper who granted us cheeky tourists entry was a very friendly American chap who told us about how the building these days is used as a location for many television and film productions. Apparently during the previous week the building had opened its door to none other than Josh Hartnett and Eva Green!  

Henrietta Street is considered to be one of the first and finest planned Georgian Streets in Dublin. It was developed in the early 1720s by Luke Gardiner (more on him in my previous post). Thirteen of the original fifteen houses remain today. The street was popularly referred to as Primate's Hill as one of the houses was owned by the Archbishop of Armagh. No.12 had her face cloaked by a veil created by the scaffolding outside. Only inside could you admire her beauty. No.12 had a twin sister; she was built as a pair to No.11 between 1730 and 1733 designed by the architect Edward Lovett Pearce, the hand behind Castletown House. Lovett Pearce was also responsible for No.9. Some of the greatest structural modifications to No.12 occurred from 1780 onwards when Richard Boyle, the 2nd Earl of Shannon, decided to amalgamate the pair of buildings in order to create one vast town residence for himself. This radically altered the internal plan of both houses, while completely transforming the external appearance of No.12. The two houses were later separated after the death of Shannon in 1807. It is ironic that this building that did not seem large enough to accommodate Boyle would become a tenement to multiple families.

Note: For a full sensory experience I recommend listening to http://youtu.be/9sd9gOhjv3o on low volume for rest of the article

Taken on my phone

As you would expect with a property of this age not many original period features remain intact. However with a little imagination you can see how grand and commanding she once. was What I love most about No.12 is her honesty baring the evidence of the past 300 years. Inside the door we were met with a sparsely furnished hall with a staircase that invited you to ascend it. At the top of the first flight I turned right and was cheerfully greeted with a wonderfully bright drawing room. Light delightfully bounced around the high-ceilinged room through the windows. The daylight in here was somehow different to the contemporary buildings I was in earlier that day. The walls were bare save for a very large ornate gold Louis XV style mirror over the fireplace. The craftsmanship of the internal joinery of the window shutters, the cornicing and Neo-classical plasterwork were all exquisite. It was almost impossible to conceive the idea that it was created by human hands. Standing speechless in that drawing room I was almost afraid to breathe in case this Georgian mirage would dissipate and turn to dust. I could not tell you how long I spent in there as I was lost in a state of enchantment, completely under the spell of Number 12. We were two ghosts floating round the room. I had studied the development of Dublin as streets however it was now the fun part of honing in on one particularly building; one which may look like her neighbours but has her own distinct history and personality. On returning home I went into detective/jealous girlfriend mode researching her previous owners and the changes they made. Where did you come from? Who were the people who loved you before I knew you? Did they appreciate you? What are your future prospects?

According to the Condition Survey conducted by the Dublin Civic Trust in 1999 the owner of No.12 is Ian Lumley of An Táisce. He purchased the building in a dilapidated state in the late 1980s. He is lovingly restoring it out of his own pocket aided by a grant for its restorations from the Irish Georgian Society. Helping to breathe life back into this beautiful buildings is a project called At the Drawing Room. Lead by its artistic director Áine Nic An Ríogh it aims to develop the public's awareness of architecture through musical performances encouraging the audience to interact and engage with both the performance and the venue itself. This is part of Áine's research into acoustics in 18th century Irish Country Houses for her PhD with the School of Architecture, UCD. To keep this project going please follow the link to make a donation, no matter how small http://www.thedrawingroom.info/support I like the idea of my blog helping to contribute to this wonderful project which I hope to see mimicked in other cities. There is a fundraising music recital in the Octagonal Room of the City Assembly House on Sunday 23rd of November in aid of the of Rose of Sharon Zimbabwe Orphanage. To book go to http://www.igs.ie/events/detail/musical-recital-in-aid-of-the-rose-of-sharon-zimbabwe-orphanage

Sadly little is known about the tenement history of the street. The returns for the 1901 census shows that up to 19 families totalling 120 people lived in this buildings with each family occupying two, three or four rooms. These rent-paying tenants had occupations such as 'upholsterer', 'dressmaker', 'French polisher' 'iron monger' and those associated with the mode of transport of the day- horses with 'coach trimmer' and bridle stitcher.' According to the 1911 Census 835 people lived in Henrietta Street's 15 houses. It is incredible that this was just over a century ago that Irish people were living in these conditions and that they were the lucky ones. 

Taken on my phone

No sooner did we come in when we had to depart in other to stick to our schedule. The heavy front door shut behind us and I was back in present day Dublin. We made our way to Grangegorman (known in the past as "the Gorman" or "the Dean's Orchard") which in September became DIT’s latest campus. Designed to eventual accommodate 20,000 students this September saw the first 1000 students on campus from Art, Design, Photography, Social Science and Visual Communications. (Irish Independent ‘New DIT Campus opens at Grangegorman to first 1,000 students’ 9 Sept 2014). The task of reintegrating the site back into the urban fabric of Dublin falls under the remit of the Grangegorman Development Agency (GDA). The Master plan was devised by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners (Santa Monica, California) in partnership with local team DMOD Architects www.dmod.ie. Their brief was to respond to the site’s rich historical context opening it up to the surrounding neighbourhood while simultaneously creating a new tourist destination for visitors to the city. DMOD designed the new foyer gallery for Linenhall and back in 2008 they had submitted an entry for the Henrietta Street Ideas Competition http://www.dmod.ie/competitions/no-16-henrietta-street-ideas-competition/

Former Richmond Penitentiary

Area before new campus. Henrietta Street highlighted in red. Screenshot taken from Ordnance Survey Ireland www.osi.ie

Dotted around this impressive site is a complex of former institutions which would have originally been on the outskirts of the city. Their hardness is softened by the beginnings of the landscaping and the retention of mature trees. Retaining the older stone buildings alongside the new builds gives the place a sense of permanence and endurance. It is wonderful that their previous uses can be embraced and not hidden away. I doubt that would have happened thirty, twenty years ago.


Taken on my phone

Taken on my phone

The most prominent building on the site  is the former Richmond Penitentiary with its striking clock tower. It was designed by Francis Johnston (architect of the GPO) and opened in 1820. The penitentiary propagated the radical idea of reform rather than punishment until its closure in 1831. Richmond Lunatic Asylum (which later became St Brendan’s Hospital) is historically the main psychiatric hospital serving the greater Dublin region.  The new buildings will create a sweep of quadrangles like an arm wrapped around the limestone 18^th century buildings. These pockets of spaces, places for chance-encounters, are connected by slinky serpentine pathways.  There are 11 protected structures in total on the campus including a former asylum and two churches, one of which will remain as a place of worship on the campus.

The re-use of these buildings on the Grangegorman site reflect our change in perception in mental health history in this country. These institutions once hidden away behind high walls on the outskirts of the city are now integrated within a permeable campus for everyone to enjoy. Likewise Georgian townhouses in the fifties and sixties were neglected being resented for their colonial origins.  While the architectural and historical importance of Henrietta Street is recognised by many, the general awareness of Henrietta Street is quite poor in contrast to other area of Georgian Dublin such as Merrion and Fitzwilliam Squares. With the relocation of DIT to Grangegorman it is likely that the near future will see continued physical change in the area and this will impact on the character of Henrietta Street. Buildings adjust and change through time bowing to socio-economic forces, land values and the ebb and flow of the construction industry. Aided by historical context it is feasible for our collective viewpoints to adapt as easily as these urban landscapes.



For more information on No.12 Henrietta Street or architectural and decorative history I highly recommend reading Robert O'Byrne's theirishaesthete.com and for information on the Grangegorman Development Agency check out their website http://ggda.ie/ or if you would like to help the At the Drawing Room Project you can email aine@thedrawingroom.info

Taken on my phone

Rectified streetscape (North Frederick Street) by author

The Decline of the North Georgian City

Figure i: James Walton, View of the Law Courts looking up the Liffey, c.1799 NLI

INTRODUCTION

It may be hard to believe today but the most fashionable part of Dublin city was the enviable title held by the north-east quarter. With its well thought out spacious streets, residential squares and large houses it was one of the finest examples of Georgian town planning and architecture[1]. This area was home to some of Dublin's most prestigious residents and public figures making it awash with money and social events [2]. However this was all to change in a seemingly dramatic fashion but it was in fact the culmination of domestic and foreign political and social inevitable along with twists of fate over a long period of time. It will also demonstrate how the absence of a landowner impacts on the success and longevity of an estate. For the purposes of this evaluation into the decline the years 1798 and 1858 will be examined as two pivotal years in the development of this estate. Not only are they important dates in the context of the history of the country but also in the social character of the north Georgian city which in turn had an impact on the physical fabric of the area. This essay will examine the key events of those years which lead to its degeneration be it administration change, acts of parliament, wars or the personal decisions of individuals. 

RISE OF THE GARDINER ESTATE

Town Planning nowadays is the process of the co-operation amongst many groups of people with differing agendas but the northside of Georgian Dublin can be accredited to the vision of two men, two generations apart but sharing the same name. Luke Gardiner (d. 1755), a name synonymous with the evolution of eighteenth century Dublin made a name for himself by developing property in the rapidly expanding city purchasing a sizeable portion of the north-east sector [3]. This began with the shrewd purchase of the Earl of Drogheda estate comprising of part of the grounds of St Mary's Abbey and the Grange of Clonliffe. All this was achievable through the apparent political stability in the form of 'Grattan's Parliament' in Dublin giving the citizens of Ireland the sense of quasi-independence. The Dublin which James Malton depicted in his watercolours at this times was undoubtedly a capital city. A reminder of the economic optimism of the age was the great canals linking Dublin with the Shannon. 

Gardiner sequentially planned out Bolton Street, George's Quay, Henrietta Street and Sackville Mall (also known as 'Gardiner's Mall', now O'Connell Street). Due to interspersed pockets of other landholding within the Gardiner estate the streets are not wholly axially symmetrical but nevertheless aesthetically the buildings' Palladian style could rival anything in London. Luke's son Charles did not continue this enterprise but it was enthusiastically taken up by his grandson. The second Luke Gardiner was born in 1745 and inherited his paternal titles as Vice Treasurer of Ireland and Surveyor General of Customs, made a Privy Councillor in 1780 as well as becoming MP for Co. Dublin [4] and Keeper of Phoenix Park [5] where he also owned property. Luke too expanded and developed the Gardiner estate in the north of the city using his place on the board of the Wide Street Commission to full advantage. As a developer he contributed enormously to the shaping of Dublin with Gardiner's Row (1769), Eccles Street (1772), Temple Street (1773), North Great George's Street (1776), Gardiner Place (1790), Mountjoy Square (1790) and Rutland Square (1791). 

The pattern of development on the Gardiner estate closely paralleled that of London with the principles of the physical presence of the landowner on the site, the complete unit of development comprising square, secondary streets, market and church (St George's) and thirdly the principle of the speculative builder operating as a middleman and building the houses [6]. 

As with the Gardiner Estate, speculative builders were usually those who risked their money in building them: master-builder, businessmen or bankers [7]. It would be this final element, the lack of cohesiveness, which would contribute amongst other factors to the fall of the Gardiner Estate. Luke envisaged the main streets on the estate to lead to an elliptical development on the top of Eccles Street called the Royal Circus similar to Nash's Oxford Circus but on a grander scale. It never came to fruition but these plans were shown on several official maps of the city and advertisements in newspapers for the sale of plots on the Circus appeared right up until 1812 [8] such as Wilson's Dublin Directory Maps below (fig iii, iv). 

GARDINER'S CAREER

In addition to his planning and political endeavours, the career of Luke Gardiner cannot be discussed without mentioning hos acts of charity and compassion towards the ordinary Catholic members of hos constituency. He was a member of the Hibernian society set up for maintaining, education and apprenticing the Orphans and Children of Soldiers in Ireland' and was on the board of the governors and guardians of St Nicholas's Hospitals [9]. In the Catholic Relief Act (also known as the 'Luke Gardiner Act') Catholics were enabled to inherit in the same way as Protestants and to take up leases for up to 999 years. In addition he tired to encourage and help the local linen manufacturers in Dublin. These attempts to help those not of the Protestant Ascendancy class did not go unnoticed Mr Gardiner has, however, marked his political career by a decided opposition to the sentiments of his electors, and a contemptuous disregard of their inclinations...He exerted himself strenuously in procuring an abolition of the Property laws, and has taken some pains, whether sincerely or not, he best knows, to serve the manufactures of Ireland [10]. 

This was duly acknowledged by the Catholic Church and expressed in a letter to Gardiner printed on the front page of the Freemans Journal, May 18th 1782 [11].

AFTER THE UNION

Many would cite the Act of Union as the turning point in the evolution of the Gardiner Estate [12] but in fact it was the untimely death of Luke Gardiner two years earlier. As Colonel of the County Dublin Militia he was sent to Wexford to fight the Irish rebels during the Wolftone and Untied Irishmen rebellion. He was killed at the battle of New Ross on the 5th of June 1798 but it took a further two days for this news to be dispatched to Dublin Castle [13]. Out of Luke Gardiner's eight children only two survived, a girl called Louisa (b. 1775) and his heir Charles John (b. 1782) [14].Since Charles was only sixteen years of age the estate was managed in his interest by his guardian, being Rt Hon John Beresford, the Rt Hon William Trench and his uncle Robert Gardiner, as stipulated in Luke Gardiner will. The Gardiner Estate Papers contain documents pertaining to the monetary transactions made by Charles guardians on his behalf leasing land in counties Antrim and Kilkenny [15] in 1801 and 1802 respectively. Inheriting his father's titles and wealth but not the ambition to build on the urban development his father initiated, the adult Charles rarely visited Ireland spending most of his time either touring Europe or in Parish which was a huge burden on his Irish estates and as a result these became heavily encumbered. His daughter Harriet's dowry of £40,000 for her brief marriage also exacted a hefty claim on Gardiner's finances. On the death of Charles all the family titles became extinct and the direct bloodline stopped with Harriet died in 1849. 

Figure v: S.F. Brocas, View of Dublin from the Phoenix Park, looking from Wellington Monument across to the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham with Sarah Bridge in the foreground. NLI  Ref. No. 1999 (TX) 15

The death knolls for the prestige of the Gardiner estate can be traced as far as 1748 when The Earl of Kildare, later the Duke of Leinster, James Fitzgerald was the first to move south of the river Liffey [16].In the years after the Act of Union the gentry slowly switched back south to the Fitzwilliam estate [17] (later known as the Pembroke estate), spilling out beyond the canals [18].

Grattan's Parliament had been installed in 1782 with the impression that the idea of Union had been dropped permanently but this climate of security changed with the French Revolution (1789) and the Insurrection of the United Irishmen (1798)[19]. With the Act of Union enacted in January 1801 there was no change to the number of Irish boroughs [20] but anybody with an interest in politics now had to have their place of primary residence in London. There was now no reason to spend money on high land rates in Dublin where tensions between the landed gentry and the common cottiers were increasing. The subsequent Gardiner generation demonstrates precisely what befalls an estate when its owner is of the absentees who lived more or less permanently out of the country[21]. The main reason for the passing of the Act of Union was the perceived security risks of Napoleonic fleets landing in Ireland and attacking mainland Britain from the west. The United Irishmen rebels were viewed as possible comrades for this invading force which explains the intensity of their suppression. In the same letter issued from Dublin castle, reprinted in the Dublin Gazette, the Lieutenant General Lake placed a curfew on all inhabitants of Dublin between 9pm and five the following morning "under pain of punishment.[22]" Part of this security measure ordered that a list of inhabitants be affixed to the door of every house in the city [23]. This stipulation coincidentally facilitated Rev. William Whitelaw in his task of compiling a census of every person in Dublin city centre regardless of class [24]. At the turn of the century Whitelaw calculated that there was an average of 87 persons per acre in St Thomas' parish compared to 439 per person in St Michael's. 

However the effects of the peers and members of Parliament relocating to London soon had a knock on effect on the economy of Dublin. One such example is that of John Claudius Beresford, son of Commissioner Beresford who as previously mentioned was on of the trio of Charles Gardiner's guardians. While John Senior on behalf of the young Viscount was leasing out large amounts of land to raise funds, his son only a decade later was declared bankrupt after his Dublin based bank failed [25]. 

Figure vi S.F Brocas 'Phoenix Park' c.1820, NLI Ref. No. PD 4194 TX1. NLI. Military manoeuvres taking place in the background. In the distance is the Vice regal Lodge.

THE EXODUS FROM THE NORTH GEORGIAN CITY

As the MPs moved out of the Gardiner estate their properties were bought up by property developers and not the 'genteel family' that some advertisements advised [26]. These speculative buyers soon realised that the only way to meet exorbitant land rents was inside of one family per terraced building, they could have one family per room one each floor from the basement to the roof space. From 1817 onwards there appeared weekly advertisements for the sale of a lease of property in the Gardiner estate. It is interesting to note that the named occupations changed from barristers and aldermen to carpenters, bakers and peruke (wig) makers. As the century went on these landlords had no problem renting their one-roomed dwellings to the ever increasing population of the lower working class of the city. The small industries such as the manufacturers of linen which Gardiner tried to sustain and encourage were now disappearing with the end of the Napoleonic wars and the contracts for army supplies such as uniforms. These former manufacturers and craftspeople were now flocking in droves to the capital in search of employment in non-productive sectors such as transport, dealing, domestic service and general labouring [27]. This problem was also made worse by the free trade agreement in the Act of Union which combined with the emergence of the steamship (1816) served to open the Irish economy to a substantial measure of competition. Ireland could not compete with the cheaper and better made products being imported from Britain with her resources at her disposal from the Colonies. As these families moved in, the middle classes moved out to the suburbs of Dublin with 50% choosing the southern suburbs of Rathmines and Pembroke and only 12.4% opting for the northern suburbs like Clontarf and Dromcondra [28]. This demographic shift was facilitated in part by the introduction of the Kingston railway line in 1834 which helped to move the city's professionals out from the confines of the city's physical boundaries. 

THE EFFECTS OF THE FAMINE

Rapid economic decline post Famine reduced much of the housing to overcrowded tenements [29]. The capital's population surged after the Repeal of the Corn Laws which allowed landowners to turn properties into pasture and get rid of their tenants. This move was largely responsible for the very slow recovery of the country after the Famine years [30]. With the agrarian unrest the number of military installations was increased in Dublin, especially in the northside of the city which brought in its wake prostitution, hospitals and similar facilities. Having been one of the few newspapers to report on the starving and destitute of the common Irish during the Famine, the Illustrated London News, whether knowingly or unknowingly, never addressed the issue of agrarian unrest in Ireland in the 1840s. In 1848 it was still depicting the Irish as drinking and dancing under an image of a leprechaun-like man named 'Patrick O'Tater with the inscription: 

'For the things we're famous- though Saxons may hate us

For the point of our sayings- the meal of our 'tatoes;

And so we can manage, without ere a joint,

To live and grow fat on potatoes and point.' 

The newspaper did not report specifically on nationalist outbreaks but gave little glimpses of the required visible military presence in the north of the city with such sketches as 'Encampment in the Phoenix Park, Dublin' by James Mahony [31]. Immediately above this sketch is another depicting Kilmainham Jail. These were the images being shown to the rest of the world with connotations of civil unrest and disobedience. It is no surprise that landlords would rather spend most of their time in civilised London than in disruptive Dublin. The vast majority of the coverage was for the spread of revolution throughout mainland Europe such as Germany, Austria, Italy and particularly France giving extensive accounts and sketches of the 'June Days uprising.' The national army used heavy force to suppress these outbreaks which were described in the Illustrated London News and similar periodicals which must have made an impression on the British government. It is no coincidence then that in 1847 at the peak of the Young Irelanders outbreaks that construction on Mountjoy prison in the north of the city began which conveniently have an army barracks and hospital in close proximity. In the same newspaper nearly fifty years to the day of Luke Gardiner's death the debating of the Irish Poor Law in the House of Lords was reported with a small minority winning the vote [32]. The Marquis of Lansdowne was stated as opposing the motion [33] which is surprising as he famously set up the 'Famine Road' scheme of relief works in 1846-8 on his property to enable the poverty stricken and starving people earn sufficient money to feed themselves but it however failed. Like Lansdowne members of the British government viewed the Irish as a financial burden. 

THE END OF THE GARDINER ESTATE

The Gardiner estate was declared bankrupt in 1846. Thanks to the financial mismanagement and absence of Gardiner's son and granddaughter the estate was in danger of breaking up in the most buoyant of economic climates but the retreat of the professional classes to the suburbs, the Act of Union and the Famine compounded the situation. In 1849 the Gardiner estate was acquisitioned through the Encumbered Estates Court. This was a fate that befell many estates in Ireland during these years with approximately 8000 estates changing hands between 1850 and 1858 [34].

CONCLUSION

Although he died before his time, Luke Gardiner at least only knew the Gardiner estate was the epitome of elegant Georgian town mansions and squares of the classical Palladian style. During his political career he tried to serve the people of the north of the city whether they were wealthy Catholic or ordinary linen manufacturers. He undoubtedly would have been saddened by the loss of an Irish Parliament which removed its members away from their constituents and estates. With the loss of funding resulting from the dissolution of the parliament many of the ambitious plans of the Wide Street Commissioners had to be shelved including Gardiner's Royal Circus. The Act of Union was a crucial turning point in Irish history but the main reason for the collapse of the Gardiner estate was the absence of effective estate management which resulted from the death of Luke Gardiner [35]. The northside of the city is a credit to the vision and single-mindedness of Luke Gardiner I and his grandson. One of their greatest achievements was the creation of Gardiner's Mall which set the scale for central Dublin as it stands today [36].If Luke Gardiner had survived Dublin would not be as we know it now. The northside could very likely still be the most fashionable part of Dublin. 

___________________________________________________________________

1     F.A. Ashe Mountjoy Square in Dublin Historical Record, Vol.3 No.4 (Jun-Aug 1941), p.98.

2     This can be seen in almanacs such as Thom's Directory with an extensive list of shopkeepers and the advertisement columns of the                press for a wide range of luxury and semi-luxury products available in Dublin. 

3     John Coleman, Luke Gardiner (1745-98); An Irish Dilettante' Irish Arts Review Yearbook, Vol.15, (1999), p.161.

4     Gardiner Estate Papers, Collection List No.67 [MSS 36501-626] National Library of Ireland, p.6. 

5     Robert Beatson, A political index to the histories of Great Britain and Ireland; or a complete register of the hereditary honours, public              offices and persons' (Edinburgh, 1786), p.715. 

6     F.O.C Meenan, The Georgian Squares of Dublin and the Professions, in An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 58, No.232 (winter, 1969),                  p.405.

7     Maurice Craig, 'Dublin 1660-1880,' (Dublin, 1980), p.175. 

8     Freemans Journal Wed July 22, 1812 front page; Freemans Journal sale or let of plots, July 12, 1812. 

9     Samuel Watson, The Gentleman's and Citizen's almanac, (Dublin, 1783), p.82; 86. 

10   Robert John Scott, A Review of the principal characters of the Irish House of Commons (Dublin, 1789), p.221.

11   To the Right Honorable Luke Gardiner and John Dillon Esquire. 

12   Douglas Bennett, The Encyclopedia of Dublin, (Dublin, 2005), p.109. 

13   Dublin Gazette 7th of June 'The General (Johnston) severely regret the loss of that brave officer, Lord Mountjoy, who fell early in the                contest.'

14   The Annual Register, or a view of the history, politics and literature for the year 1798, (London, 1800). 

15   Gardiner Estate Papers, Ref MS 36,509/9

16   Séamus Ó Maitiú, Dublin's Suburban Towns 1834-1930, (Dublin, 2003), p.20.

17   Jacqueline Hill, From patriots to unionists,' Oxford, 1997), p.197.

18   L.M. Cullen, The growth of Dublin 1600-1900: character and heritage, in F.H.A. Aalen & Kevin Whelan (eds) Dublin from pre-history to            present, (Dublin, 1992), p. 255.

19   D.J Hickey & J.E. Doherty, A new Dictionary of Irish History from 1800', (Dublin, 2003), p.3.

20   F.W.S Craig, British Parliamentary election results 1832-1885,' (London, 1977), p.622.

21   K.H. Connell, The Land legislation and Irish social life' in Economic History Review, xi, (1958), p.2.

22   Dublin Gazette, June 9th 1798. 

23   Mary Daly, 'Dublin, the deposed capital; a social and economic history 1860-1914, (Cork, 1984), p.278. 

24   Whitelaw, An essay on the population of Dublin (1805). 

25   Announcement in Freemans Journal in 1811 'John Claudius Beresford- bankrupt.'

26   Freemans Journal 8th August 1817. 

27   Mary Daly, The deposed Capital, p.5. 

28   Ibid, p.255. 

29   Christine Casey, The Building of Ireland- Dublin, (Dublin, 2005), p.120. 

30   G.B. O'Brien , The economic History of Ireland from the Union to the Famine, (Dublin, 1921), p.136. 

31   Illustrated London News, p.176 16th September 1848 National Library of Ireland, microfilm. 

32   Illustrated London News, 3rd of June 1848, p.361. 

33   Ibid. 

34   Casey, Dublin, p.119. 

35   Kevin Brennan, Mountjoy: Cradle of the Irish Ordnance Survey, in Dublin Historical Record, Vol. 36, No.3 (Jun, 1983), 83.