William Murphy

GROTTO AVENUE AND GROTTO PLACE

February 2, 2023 by infomatique

BOOTERSTOWN AREA OF DUBLIN

I was unaware of Grotto Place until I was in the Booterstown area today and was also unaware of St. Mary’s Boys National School.

St. Mary’s was built in 1852 funded by a Board of Education Grant and local subscriptions. The granite building is still in use for educational purposes, currently housing a Montessori school and a Youth Club.

The first roll book of the school is dated 1861. The old school originally consisted of one room of 13 m. x 10 m x 7m in which children whose ages ranged from three to fourteen years were taught. Another room 4m x 4m x 2m was added later. It is interesting to note that in 1918 the average number of boys on the roll was 60.7, approximately one-fifth of the number at present attending now.

The present school building was opened in 1968 and continued to have an enrolment of approximately 300 pupils until the middle of the 1980s when it declined to 50 pupils. Since 1987, enrolment numbers have gradually risen back up to approximately 300.

BOOTERSTOWN AVENUE

February 2, 2023 by infomatique

PHOTOGRAPHED 29 JANUARY 2023

Many of Dublin’s best schools and University College Dublin are located within easy reach, including Blackrock College, St. Andrew’s College, Sion Hill and three National Schools. The area is served by an excellent public transport network including both Booterstown and Blackrock DART stations and bus with the QBC within a five minute walk. Blackrock Park at the end of Booterstown Avenue.

Booterstown is a coastal suburb of the city of Dublin in Ireland. It is also a townland and civil parish in the modern county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. It is situated about 7 km (4.3 mi) south of Dublin city centre.

There is some debate on the origin of the town name Booterstown. Historically known in English as “Ballyboother” the name “Booterstown” is an anglicised form of the original Irish name Baile an Bhóthair, meaning “The Town of the Road”. In its original Irish form it shares the same name as Batterstown in County Meath, as well as Ballinvoher in Kilkenny, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Longford and Mayo.

The area is home to Booterstown marsh, a bird sanctuary which has been leased for many years by An Taisce, who have worked to protect it. Species seen regularly include mallard, Eurasian teal, common moorhen, water rail, grey heron, little egret, common redshank, greenshank, Eurasian curlew, common snipe, Eurasian oystercatcher, bar-tailed godwit, common kingfisher, sedge warbler and dunlin.

The Catholic Church of the Assumption is a focal point of the area along Booterstown Avenue.

Booterstown has a dedicated Circus Field located along the Rock Road, where both Tom Duffy’s Circus (June/July) and Fossett’s Circus (October) are set up once a year.

The Old Punch Bowl pub, which stands at the bottom of Booterstown Avenue, was established in 1779.

Merrion Cemetery is an old cemetery that was used from the 13th century to 1866 and is located at Bellevue between Booterstown and Merrion off the Rock Road.

Booterstown was recorded in 1488 as one of the locations for the boundary of The Pale.

STRAND ROAD IN SANDYMOUNT

February 1, 2023 by infomatique

PHOTOGRAPHED 29 JANUARY 2023

Sandymount is an affluent coastal suburb in the Dublin 4 district on the Southside of Dublin in Ireland. Sandymount is located between 3 and 4 km south-east of Dublin’s city centre. At the northern end it begins where Newbridge Avenue meets Herbert Road, running to Church Avenue at the coast, west along the DART rail line, and south to Merrion Gates. Sandymount Promenade runs along the coast road (Strand Road) from Sandymount Strand, down to Merrion Gates. It lies a little south of the Great South Wall in Dublin Bay.

The River Dodder passes nearby to the west, and three streams, the Elm Park, Nutley and Trimleston, come to the coast to the south. In the past, the Nutley Stream came to the coast in what is now Sandymount, and severe flooding occurred on the old course in 1963.

Sandymount Strand is a large strand on the east coast of Ireland, adjacent to the village and suburb of Sandymount. It is part of South Bull – a major component of the south side of Dublin Bay, and part of the Dublin Bay Biosphere Reserve. South Bull is a mirror to the North Bull sandbank, which grew into North Bull Island.

Sandymount Strand is a popular place for locals to take a walk. People, and in the past – there is no longer public vehicular access – cars, have been occasionally trapped by the incoming tide. A large inlet of water that remains even at low tide is known locally as “Cockle Lake”.

In October major road works began on the Strand Road in Sandymount with a single lane closure in place until late spring 2023 or later.

Uisce Éireann in partnership with Dublin City Council is replacing a critical trunk water main on Beach Road and Strand Road, Sandymount, Dublin to provide a more reliable water supply for east Dublin, to improve supply resilience across the city and reduce high levels of leakage.

The arterial water main along Beach Road/Strand Road, Sandymount, located between Merrion Gates and Ringsend Park, is a 3.15km strategic transfer main servicing the eastern area of Dublin City. Due to its age and fragile nature, this 600mm water main is currently being operated at a greatly reduced capacity and is prone to frequent bursts and high levels of leakage. The works to rehabilitate this critical trunk water main are planned using engineering techniques which greatly reduce the project duration, truck movements, noise and limit the overall impact of the works on the local community.

Works are taking place on Beach Road and Strand Road from Sean Moore Road to Merrion Gates and will be delivered in phases. Works commenced at the Ringsend Park end of the project at the Sean Moore Road in late September 2022. Works have now progressed to the southbound carriageway on Beach Road/Strand Road.

The works are being carried out on behalf of Uisce Éireann by GMC Utilities Ltd and are expected to be completed in Summer 2023.

MERRION STRAND

January 31, 2023 by infomatique

NOW A BADLY POLLUTED BEACH

This 0.7 kilometre long beach is at the railway crossing known as Merrion Gates and it is known as Merrion Strand and my understanding is that it is unsuitable for swimming. It may have been my imagination but it felt polluted when I visited and according to some reports that I have seen the source of the problems come from the Elm Park and Trimleston streams.

Back in 2020 many reports indicated that it was likely that there would be a “permanent bathing prohibition”, making it the first Irish beach ever to be so classified. I have been unable to determine the current status of the beach.

[UPDATE] Swimming at Merrion Strand in Dublin has been banned permanently from June 1st.[]

MERRION HALL

January 30, 2023 by infomatique

THE MODERN ONE IN SANDYMOUNT NOT THE ONE THAT IS NOW THE DAVENPORT HOTEL

I attended for interview in this building a long time ago and I did not really like it at the time and I even like it less today. In case you are interested I did get a job offer but had lost interest by the time the letter had arrived.

When I was young there was a Merrion Hall that was not far from my school but is is now the Davenport Hotel located near Merrion Square. That particular building was Plymouth Brethren church built by Alfred Gresham Jones and completed in 1863.

The Merrion Hall shown in this photograph is located on the western side of Strand Road, in Dublin 4, close to the Merrion Gates DART crossing and 5 km south of the city centre. The 62000 sq. ft (5760 sq. m.) office building originally had two tenants (The Irish Shipping Company and Coras Trachtala) when it opened in 1973.