The changes to Dublin Port on the inner river have been, to say the least, quite dramatic. Gone are the landmarks that existed between the Customs House and the Point, along with the hundred ton crane that stood at the end of the North Wall Extension, the crane which had a clear lift of 75 feet above water level.

To the south of the Liffey, the gasometer has been pulled down. These two man-made objects were once the last signs of Dublin to departing emigrants.

Gone are the quays and docks upon which we played as kids and on which, at a later date, we were to earn a living as seamen and dockers.

The Dublin Port and Docks Board no longer exists, it is now just the Dublin Port Board. The Docks no longer constitute part of Dublin Port. The Canal Docks are now catered for by the Board of Works.

One of these docks, Spencer Dock, now has houses built upon the quayside. This dock once had a busy jetty where Welsh steam coal and tar were discharged from coasters into open railway wagons to be used by railway locomotives the length and breadth of Ireland. The Spencer Dock was the gateway of the Royal Canal, from which it was possible to sail by barge to Tarmonbarry on the Shannon. There was also a branch canal as far as Longford.

The Grand Canal on the Southside serviced Dublin, Limerick and Waterford, but it had not got the backup system of a rail link like its Northside neighbour.

The Spencer Dock jetty was serviced by two three-ton gantry steam cranes which were owned by the Great Southern Railway Company. On the Grand Canal docks there was a total of twelve cranes, these were situated at Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Quay, Charlotte Quay and Railway Bridge. These cranes varied in size from two-ton to five-ton. There was also a one-ton hand crane on the gridiron in Ringsend.

Most of these are now just memories, like the wine and spirit vault that ran under the Custom House Docks. This vault was 474 feet long and 104 feet wide and was capable of storing and piling. Sampling and blending were all in a day’s work.

The houses built on Spencer Dock Quayside are called, fittingly, Ferryman’s Crossing, as the Liffey Ferry ran from the Quayside at Guild Street on the Northside to Cardiff Lane on the Southside. The entrance to Spencer Dock from the River Liffey measured twenty-six feet across with a twelve foot lift inside the Lock to take a vessel into the Spencer Dock proper, which measured 4 acres in the water area with three thousand nine hundred square feet of lineage quayside. It took about two hours for the lock to be ready for a vessel’s use.

The railways that used the railway sidings along the Spencer Dock were The Great Southern; The London, Midland and Scottish, The Great Northern, and, of course, C.I.E.

The Dockers who worked at Spencer Dock drank in Macken’s Pub which stood on the corner of Guild Street, while the guards, firemen and locomotive drivers employed by the four railway companies drank and had their meal breaks in the back room of Campion’s pub. Unless you worked on the Railway you were not allowed to use this room.

The London, Midland and Scottish had six ships on the cargo run between Holyhead and Dublin. These were twin screwed steamers whose names were – Slieve Bawn, Slieve Donard, Slieve Gallion, Slieve More, The Snowdon and the South Stack. These ships were noted for their speed in and out of Dublin. On one occasion the Slieve Donard was travelling so fast that she caught the Liffey Ferry right in the middle of the river and sank her. Luckily there was no loss of life. The ferries, like the L.M.S are now also only a memory, as are the residents of Victoria Quay – Arthur Guinness & Sons – who have severed all their links with their maritime section of exports. Sadly the Lady Patricia and the Lady Gwendolyn can no longer be seen plying their trade between England and Ireland. These two vessels were the only two bulk beer carriers in the world.

Guinness had their own wharf on Victoria Quay, next to Kingsbridge Railway Station. They had two tenders and ten barges and each barge was capable of carrying sixty eight tons of barrelled porter down to a coaster, below Butt Bridge, where the barge would be off-loaded onto a coaster, using ships winches. The barges would then be loaded with the empty barrels which had been discharged from the coaster and brought back up to the Brewery to continue the cycle.

In the old days Guinness made plain porter for the home trade. The Extra Stout was made for the English trade. For the warmer climates, they made stout that was named Foreign Extra Stout. These are all memories of Dublin Port. Those were the days of the Hoggers who could be identified by their red lips and noses which they got from sipping the dregs of stout barrels.

You don’t hear many people talking about the Woodeners or the Boilers. These people would target empty whiskey barrels with a bucket of scalding water which would be poured into the whiskey barrel. The barrel would then be rolled up and down allowing the hot water to draw out the wood alcohol from the wood. This was a very dangerous kind of drink that often led to blindness and insanity.

People often ask how the North Bull and the South Bull got their names. Quite simply, the two great sandbanks to the north and south of the fairway were a peril to shipping and from the roaring of the breakers over them it was likened to the roaring of an enraged bull.

John Pigeon whose name has long been associated with the south side of the river and who was a servant of the Ballast Office allowed his log house to be used as a store for the tools of the workmen building the Great South Wall. His house was used as a primitive lighthouse, a place of shelter and, lastly a place of dubious entertainment. In 1790 its little harbour, Pigeon House Harbour, became the Station for the Mail Packets.

In 1676 Howard petitioned the Lord Lieutenant for the establishment of a Ballast Office, with any profits going to what was known as the Blue Coat School. The support of Queen Anne’s husband was forthcoming when he was promised 100 yards per annum of the best Holland Duck Sailcloth which “shall be made in the realm of Ireland” and in 1708 the Ballast Office came into being. The matter of the sailcloth was not forgotten and was duly delivered for many years.

Gone was the Custom House Docks’ Tea House where the choicest teas were blended to suit the various waters of Ireland, be they hard of soft. Dublin Port was the largest duty free port for teas in the British Isles.

The Custom House Docks’ Sugar Warehouse handled the first consignment of Irish manufactured beet sugar from Carlow. There were three grades of sugar – fine, medium and large. The storing of the sugar in the Port’s warehouse made it easy for distribution to local wholesale merchants. The sugar was contained in sixteen stone bags.

Stack “A” in the Custom House Docks was used by Arthur Guinness and Son to store the produce of up to 18,000 acres of the best hop growing fields of Kent in England and Oregon and Washington in the United States.

The grain lofts of the Custom House Docks were capable of storing 22,000 tons. They were equipped with grain elevators, weighing and recording machines, escalators, sack conveyors and clipping and screening machines.

The old Bonded Warehouse was capable of holding 3,500 tons of tobacco. It was reckoned that this equated to one ounce of tobacco on a weekly basis to every adult in Ireland. A new Tobacco Store was built that was capable of storing 4,000 hogsheads of tobacco. The capacity of this warehouse was 686,500 cubic feet. Its total floor area was 326 feet long and 73 feet wide.

All these docks, vaults and warehouses were the lifeblood of the Inner City. They are almost all gone now, to some they are just a memory. One of the only visible signs of days gone by is the warehouse between the Financial Centre and Jury’s Hotel. This building is reputed to be totally constructed with Dolphin Barn Bricks which are worth their weight in gold.