THE COW AT WOOD QUAY

05/07/2023

This bronze sculpture of a cow was relocated to Wood Quay while Wolfe Tone Park was being redeveloped and while this may be a more pleasant location I once said that would prefer to have it at Wolfe Tone Park as it was very popular with local children and at its current location no one appears to notice it. I have changed my mind and maybe she should remain at the current location.

MONKSTOWN CASTLE OR WHAT REMAINS

05/07/2023

When I was young, back in the 1960s, I remember seeing this from a car but I had more or less forgotten that it existed and actually that it was the name of a hotel. Anyway, today I came across it by accident when walking from Longford Terrace to Glenageary - by accident because I had intended to visit Dalkey.

Monkstown Castle is situated in the suburbs of Dublin. In medieval times the castle here was the centre of a large farm owned by the Cistercian monks of St. Mary’s Abbey in the city of Dublin. When St Mary’s Abbey was dissolved in 1540 the castle at Monkstown was granted to John Travers who came to Ireland from Cornwall. Travers was Master of the Ordnance and a Groom of the Chamber to the King.  During the Cromwellian period the castle was granted to General Edmund Ludlow, Cromwell’s Master of the Horse in Ireland, and one of the signatories of the death warrant of Charles I. We know from early paintings that this was a very large castle with a number of buildings, though many of these have long since disappeared. Today the castle consists of the original gatehouse with a high vault overhead and a large three-storey tower that formed one side of a large hall that has disappeared.

A QUICK VISIT TO IVEAGH GARDENS

04/07/2023

Iveagh Gardens has been awarded a Green flag 2022-2023 which is an international bench marking standard for parks and green spaces.

Designed by Ninian Niven in 1865, but with a history dating back over three hundred years, the Iveagh Gardens are located close to St Stephen’s Green Park in Dublin city centre.

From modest beginnings as an earl’s lawn, the gardens went on to host the splendour of the Dublin Exhibition Palace in 1865. Many of the original landscape features are still in place, or have been restored and conserved since 1995. These include the yew maze, the rosarium, and the fountains. The cascade in particular is a stunning spectacle in summer. Iveagh Gardens are popularly known as Dublin’s ‘Secret Garden’.

CORK STREET IN DUBLIN

04/07/2023

It was named after the first Earl of Cork and once formed part of the ancient highway "An Slighe Dála" connecting Dublin with the west of Ireland. On old maps it was described as "The Highway to Dolfynesberne" (Dolphin's Barn).

The street was once a centre of fine wool and silk hand-loom weaving. The woollen industry was killed off around 1700 by the English government, who wanted to keep the wool monopoly in England, although a minor revival was started around 1775. Despite problems, silk spinning and the manufacture of poplin, supported by the Royal Dublin Society, continued into the 19th century.

The Tenter House was erected in 1815 on this street, financed by Thomas Pleasants. Before this the poor weavers of the Liberties had either to suspend work in rainy weather or use the alehouse fire and thus were (as Wright expresses it) "exposed to great distress, and not infrequently reduced either to the hospital or the gaol." The Tenter House was a brick building 275 feet long, 3 stories high, and with a central cupola. It had a form of central heating powered by four furnaces, and provided a place for weavers to stretch their material in bad weather.

In 1861 a Carmelite priest bought the Tenter House and opened it as a refuge for the homeless. He ran the hostel for ten years until 1871 when the Sisters of Mercy came to Cork Street. In 1873 they built a convent and in 1874 a primary school, which closed down in 1989.

The Cork Street Fever Hospital (also known as the House of Recovery) was a hospital that opened in Cork Street on 14 May 1804. The hospital was extended in 1817-1819 to help cope with a national typhus epidemic. In 1953 the Cherry Orchard Hospital in Ballyfermot replaced the old Cork Street hospital, which was renamed Brú Chaoimhín and became a nursing home.

My mother who is now 103 was a nurse in Cork Street hospital and she claims to have lived in a home for nurses on Cork Street but I an not convinced that it was actually on the street also I suspect that she worked in the Coombe as she was a midwife. Across the road from the hospital is the James Weir Home for nurses, built in 1903. The site had once been a Quaker burial ground.

In 1932 the Maryland housing development off Cork Street was constructed by Dublin Corporation. 1932 was a Marian year, hence the name Maryland.

During the mid 20th century, there were plans to widen the road into a dual carriageway, leading to buildings being left to fall into decay while the threat of compulsory purchase orders seemed possible. The street was totally reconstructed towards the end of the 20th century. It is now a mostly residential area.