Infomatique | THE HEADLESS PHOTO BLOG

THE FOUR FACE LIAR

Work on the Town Hall began in 1895 on the site of the previous town hall. The commissioners invited one of the best-known and respected architects of Ireland, Sir Thomas Drew, to design this building.

He put up a fine building of red sandstone and brick with a bay window on the first floor. But the most famous feature was the high clock tower, which could be seen from afar. The clock on the tower was made by a local firm called Chancellor and Son. They claimed they could beat any English and Scottish company so they got the job. The clock has four faces, one for each side of the tower. Before the clock could be run with electricity, the four sides would often show different times so the clock was called ‘four-faced liar’.

Percy French, who wrote many well-known songs about counties in Ireland and who had his own theatrical company, gave many performances in the town hall and one of the first moving films made by a man called Edison was shown here in 1902.

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CLONSKEAGH AREA OF DUBLIN

Bird Avenue in Clonskeagh is home to a huge red brick church known as the Church Of The Immaculate Virgin Mary Of The Miraculous Medal which is a rather long and complicated name.

The Church was built in 1965 and it has an interesting history. Back in 1954, a competition was held to design a Catholic Church in Clonskeagh. It had to be large enough to accommodate 1,700 people, and cost no more than £150,000. More than a hundred submissions were received which was a record at the time. All shortlisted proposals were modernist designs but, mysteriously, the building that was eventually selected by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid was not one of them.

Clonskeagh is primarily a residential area, developed in the early decades of the 20th century. It has a small village green with a few local shops. The district has changed in character as population growth in greater Dublin has imposed increasingly intensive use of land and the nearby Luas light railway has improved commuter access to central Dublin.

In the mid-1970s, Clonskeagh consisted of low-density housing with significant areas of private open land, largely owned by the Catholic Church. Since then, the closure of the Masonic Boys’ School has led to commercial redevelopment north of Clonskeagh Road and former church land adjacent to Bird Avenue and Roebuck Road now has housing. Since 2000, housing development has intensified land use further by building in larger gardens, replacing houses by apartments and adding storeys to properties.