Rising Memories from 1943

In the long-ago in Irishtown, up a lane beside Robinson’s shop, there was a village hall where concerts were held annually to commemerate the Easter Rising.

The attached photo showing the ‘cast’ was taken circa 1943. The man reading is Sam O’Byrne, who lived in The Square, first right is a cousin of mine, Derville Maguire who also lived in the Square. The wee lad, second right is yours truly.

The names of some of the organisers were: Patrick and Seamus Maguire, Noel Byrne, Willie Timmins and Larry Fitzpatrick.

Do any of your readers recall this annual event and can they put names to the others on the stage?
Keep up the good work.
Kindest regards to one and all
Donal McKenna

Dear Madam
I have read your articles with great interest over the years but this is my first letter to ‘NewsFour’. I have tried to voice my objections to DCC, DDDA, HAS, NDA and TDs regarding Ringsend Village and the ‘Pedestrian Jungle’. Your contributor, Christy Hogan, captured in pictures and words what I try to express to the above bodies and authorities. The spirit of Ringsend is dying to development without heart.

Keep up the good work. I love and value ‘NewsFour’. The best things in life are free.
Thank You.
Patsy Rich

Dear Madam
I enclose a short article and poem concerning Father Willie Doyle, who was always a hero of mine. Through his intercession I have received many answers to my pleas. I can understand if you decide they are both not worth the paper space.

Thank you for the wonderful free paper which is always interesting and informative. Hopefully I may be privileged to read it for at least a few more years.
Yours sincerely
Martin Moore

Dear Editor,
I should like to make a few observations on the article ‘From Salt Marsh to Strand Road’ which appears on page 14 of your October edition.

I think it is probably incorrect to say that the bricks manufactured in Brickfield were made of sand, rather they would have been composed of clay/mud, moulded and baked.

There was only one house in Sandymount in the early 18th Century and that was on what is now Beach Road, it was the farmhouse of a farm indicated on one of the charts of the Pembroke Estate papers, number 97 and by that time Irishtown was well established.

With regard to Jack Torpey, he was elected as an Independent deputy in 1969. His platform was against dumping mountains of unregulated municipal rubbish on the Strand: his campaign was ‘Save our Strand’.

He fought the election in 1969 before the construction of the Promenade, that was constructed in the seventies to cover the Dodder Valley Main Drain. The main drain coming from Glenageary does not come from Merrion Gates, it crosses the Strand Road from around where the Adelaide housing development is located, just north of the Nutley River

The seawall in Sandymount is shown on the O.S. section of Map XVIII 1891, as ceasing at Beach Road just north of the Marine Drive Junction with that road. The curved stones, cap stones for the wall, were used so water from high tides did not achieve purchase but flowed downwards, unlike the flat cap stones which were used advisedly on the sea wall around the area near the tower, when the Promenade was built. A request to the Council’s Engineers to have these returned to curved cap stones, has been made by some of the residents

An extension to the seawall, not the FitzWilliam wall, was built along Beach Road in the early 20th Century by Dublin Corporation or perhaps the Pembroke Urban District Council, the difference of construction methods is easily observed and masonry methods may be contrasted.

An earlier sea wall lies beneath some of the gardens at the corner of Marine Drive, gardeners occasionally strike the top of it with spades and forks. That wall travelled along what is now Sandymount Road towards the Star of the Sea Church, it was following the line of the bay which went inland as a cove, parts of this wall may be seen at Cosy Lodge, it bounded Erith Lodge too and also was to be found in the Strasburg Terrace area.

After the building of the ‘New Houses’, salvaged granite pieces and cap stones were used to recreate a duplicate style of the older wall and we see this at the beginning of Sean Moore Road.

In the early 17th Century the force of sea was broken by Rampiers on the sea front in Sandymount, these were massive walls built at right angles to what became Strand Road, they were quite effective as breakwaters, they are on a section of a Chart for the period.

The construction of the Martello Tower at the turn of the 19th Century, c.1804 probably put Sandymount on the map. After the threat from Napoleon faded, a Constable (police) was appointed to the Tower. He was a Mr. Sproule and he was rewarded with this nice pensionable position for his detective work in hounding Lord Edward FitzGerald around the city for his master Major Sirr. He and his underlings used to be referred to as ‘Sirr’s blood hounds’.

I believe the appointment was around 1813– he would have been about fifty five years old then, that is if he is one and the same Sproule as the man from Dublin Castle who was active in 1798. Can anyone confirm with certainty?

Both sides of the Dodder were not walled in, but there are very short stretches near the bridges where this is the case, to wall in both sides for any length would be to create a raging torrent at times of flash flooding. The gradient of the Dodder gives a very short flash flood period.

Newgrove Avenue, again shown in the older charts, was so called because of the presence of a dense grove along a path near what became the Green, and I feel sure your correspondent is correct about there having been a machair behind a ridge of older sand dunes (from the Gaelic macaire, a plain, machair is a term in widespread use by ecologists) as well as numerous small salt marsh areas, with the largest, Lakelands just that, a salt marsh supplied by streams..

This commentary is something of a query and is wide open to correction, thank you for your patience.
Best Wishes
Sincerely
Catherine Cavendish

Dear Madam Editor
It was great to visit the home of ‘NewsFour’ during my visit to Ireland in September. I still can’t believe that such a terrific paper can come from such a small home.

I would like to wish all at ‘NewsFour’ a happy Christmas and New Year, also Fred and Fay Butler, Peter Healy, May Roddy, the Nagle Family and the King of Sandymount Paul O’Reilly and Staff.
All The best
Dick Pollard Hastings
New Zealand

Dear Madam
The article entitled ‘From salt marsh to Strand Road’ in the last edition contains a number of misconceptions which should be corrected in the interests of historical accuracy.

The original sea wall along what is now the strand road from Merrion gates turned inland at Marine Drive (Prospect Terrace) in a curve enclosing salt marsh and sea. Remnants of it can still be seen. The late Maureen Moloney had a framed photograph of the view from her house in Prospect Terrace to the Star of the Sea before the much later building of the wall fronting Beach Road to Irishtown.

The first Sandymount Residents Association was formed, as far as I can remember, in 1957 in protest at the continuing dumping of refuse on Sandymount Strand and in an attempt to fix a limit to the encroachment on the beach. The association obtained an assurance in 1959 that the line would stop at a point a little seaward of the Star of the Sea, close to Beach Avenue.

The first Residents Association was never disbanded. It became merged with residents of Merrion to form the Sandymount and Merrion Residents Association following the unauthorised breaching of the sea wall at Marine Drive and the commencement of what the Corporation described later “a line of advance filling” from there to the site of the Roadstone/Clondalkin concrete plant which was underwater at the time.

The Roadstone saga is documented in the Corporation Council minutes of 1964 and 1965, in the records of Dail questions of the time, and in various newspapers. It had become obvious to residents of Sandymount and Merrion that the assurance or promise given was being ignored, in the same way that later promises of a public park on “that part of the reclaimed land not required for essential Port purposes” have also been ignored, the rape of Sandymount Strand continues to this day.

A handful of residents who, at the request of the late Jack Torpay, assembled at the gap in the sea wall in early to mid 1965 with the intention of making a token breach in the ‘Roadstone causeway’ were informed by Gardai that, that should we do so, Jack Torpay would be arrested.

The decision to elect Jack to the City Council was taken before the Dodder Valley Drainage scheme pipe line, partly submerged in the beach under what is now the promenade, was begun. The Corporation of the time intended to cover it with a concrete platform as the forerunner of a road on the beach, part of the Eastern by-pass, to extend out on the strand to a clover leaf junction on the beach at Merrion Gates.

The Sandymount and Merrion Residents Association did not object to the drainage scheme. Instead, they sought and obtained the present grassed and planted promenade covering of the pipes in place of the concrete, preparatory road platform. The ‘model’ for the lay out of the promenade was made out of a cardboard packing box for Mars bars obtained from the late Harry Mapother on a wet Sunday afternoon.

The planting, which has since been altered, was agreed by the then Committee with the Parks Department and specifically did not include Cordyline which one member of the Committee referred to as “those awful, scraggy, palm things”. In response to a special request, tamarisk, which grew naturally near the South Wall, was included, being a low growing not very dense shrub.

Contrary to a popular myth, there are many shrubs and trees that will grow near the sea, including the holm oak which has existed in Sandymount for over 150 years.

There was a deliberate decision not to have the promenade extended at either end for a number of reasons which remain valid up to the present day. Engineers who have looked at the suggestion recently have concluded that the exorbitant costs and the engineering and other problems that would be encountered, leaving aside the loss of privacy and security for some residents at Merrion, make the idea a non-starter.
Sincerely,
Lorna Kelly

Dear Madam
The great scholar, soldier, patriot Padraig Pearse faced the British firing squad at 3.20 am on May 3rd 1916. I wish to congratulate Councillor Kevin Humphreys on his initiative in obtaining Councillor approval to erect a long deserved statue to this great Irish man in his native city.

While some may say it should be erected in O’Connell Street near the GPO, surely with the upgrading of Pearse Street and Pearse Square the park end facing St Andrew’s would be an ideal spot for it. The Pearse family home was 27 Great Brunswick Street, now Pearse Street. Padraig was always concerned about the desperate plight of Dublin’s poor and he would only be too glad to associate himself with this marvellous advancement for the ordinary people in the area he loved.
James O’Doherty

Right: The Pearse family in 1888. The children, from left, are Patrick, Mary Bridget and Margaret, Willie behind.

Patrick 'Sonny' Byrne
I thought you and your readers would be interested in the accompanying photographs of my model of SS 'Glenageary', which if published might stimulate some memories in your readers of days gone by. Some years ago my wife Joan nee Doyle , was given a photograph of her mother's father, 'Sonnyí' Byrne, at the Grand Canal Locks, of which he was the Lock Keeper from about 1915. In the background to the photograph is a ship, the 'Glenageary', passing through the locks. This sparked my interest, because my hobby is model shipbuilding.

The model of 'Glenageary' in Ringsend Locks was built in 2004-2005 to a scale of 1/10 inch to 1 foot (1:120). The figure in the model operating the winding mechanism (the 'grabs') represents 'Grandaí, the father of Anne Doyle (nee Byrne) and grandfather to her daughters Joan and Anne.

'Granda Byrne known to most as Sonny and some a Paddy, was born in 1869 or 1870, and operated the pleasure vessel 'Aja' on the Grand Canal between Dublin and the Shannon for about 20 years, for Mr, Sankey, one of the owners of the company, and his guests. On Grandaís death in 1953, Mr. Sankeyís widow Laura, (who lived at 2 Wellington Road, Ballsbridge), wrote a letter of condolence to his daughter Anne, in which she said that it was 60 years since ëPaddyí first went on the 'Ajaí with her husband whom, she recalled, Sonny always called ëthe Guvínorí. This would take us back to his starting the job in 1893. In the letter, Mrs. Sankey says that ìWar broke out, and the 'Ajaí had to go, and nothing was the same. The war she refers to is the First World War. With the demise of the 'Ajaí, Mr. Sankey offered Granda the position of Lock Keeper, which he held until he retired. His daughter Anne recalls that he said he didnít know how old he was, because many birth records were lost in fires during 'The Troubles'. When he thought he was nearing 70 he told his sister Maggie Dalton that he wanted to retire. Knowing his age, but not wanting him to leave Ringsend he had been a widower since 1925 when his wife Anne died she told him to ìget away with that, you're not old enoughî, so he carried on for a few more years. We have another photo of him from the Irish Times of 19th November 1937 captioned ëLeaving Her Through, a ship entering the Grand Canal Dock at Ringsendí. It was probably in 1941-1942 when he finally retired to the home run by the nuns in Kilmainham.

The story as we know it is that because Granda's father, a deep sea diver, had been lost at sea, the Company guaranteed his sons a job ëfor lifeí, so Mr. Sankey must have had wider interests than just the business on the Grand Canal. Granda was also offered residence in the Lock Keeperís cottage beside the Grand Canal docks. But his wife Anne (nee Fleming ) was so frightened that her toddler daughter Anne (born 1913) might fall into the lock waters she refused to live there. They lived instead above Kitty Whelanís drapery shop, Cullenís, in Thorncastle Street, Ringsend, opposite St. Patrickís Church, where the pharmacy is now located.

Granda's sister Magie lived in Pidgeon House, near the Costello family. Her husband Tommy Dalton worked at the Power station.

In addition to his daughter Anne (92 and living in a nursing home in Cheshire, England - her husband, Patrick Doyle, from 58 Dock Street, just across the road from Shelbourne Park, died in 1996), there were four more children: Christine Willett (87 and living in a Residential Home in Greystones), Pegy Drahos (who died October 2005 at the age of 85, lived in Long Branch, New Jersey to where she emigrated as a War Bride shortly after World War11), Kevin, (who was in the RAF and died in 1979), and John (who moved with his wife Mary to America in the early nineteen fifties, returning with his family to Rathfarnham in the mid-sixties. John died in 2002).

The model of 'Glenageary' is made from a block of cedar to the plans of a sister ship, 'Briarfield'. She is depicted as in the photograph of Granda Byrne in the late 1920ís in the Grand Canal Locks, which open onto the River Liffey, close to the mouth of the Dodder. The small figure operating the lock winch represents Granda Byrne. The steam whistle line, almost invisible, running from the rear of the cabin toe the top of the pipe on the front of the funnel, is a length of Joanís hair (to preserve the ëgenetic linkí with granda). The large stones bordering the lock were individually cast from plaster-of-paris before being tinted and suitably ëplantedí with tufts of grass. The other lock gates are operated by ëbottom powerí. The colours used for the lock stone work were selected using a series of the photographs taken by Joan and sister Anne Gorman on a rather dull damp Dublin day!

Glenageary was scrapped in 1962.

History of the Glenageary and the Grand Canal

After some searching I was able to find a coloured line drawing of 'Glenageary' and details of the history of the development of her type of vessel in books by Charles V. Waine, 'Steam Coasters and short sea Tradersí and ëThe Steam Collier Fleetsí by Charles V.Waine , Waine Research Publications. These led me to using and modifying the plans for ëBriarfieldí for the construction of a model. During the construction it occurred to me to investigate resources on the Web , and I came across www.irishships.com , which contained photographs of 'Glenageary' and her sister, ships. I decided to mount the model in Ringsend Locks, and during a couple of her several visits to Dublin where they were born and raised I encouraged my wife Joan and her sister Anne to take as many photographs of the locks as possible so that I could gain authentic details of their construction.

S.S. GLENAGEARY was 142 ft long with beam of 25'8' and a depth of 11'5', and displaced 420 tons. She was built in 1921 by Lytham Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, and was one of a successful fleet of raised quarterdeck steamers owned by the Alliance and Dublin Consumers Gas Company. With a normal crew of 11 she was used to bring coal from Liverpool and other ports in England to the gas works located near the basin at Ringsend. She was the maximum size of vessel that could use the locks.

Aiden McCabe on his web site says:

'The Alliance & Dublin Gas Company was formed by the amalgamation of 5 different gas companies: the Alliance Gas Co., The Dublin Gas Co., The United Gasco, The Hibernian Gas Co. and the Commercial Gas Co.

At the time of the 1st World War it was extremely difficult for the gas companies to maintain supplies of coal from the British main land. In Dublin the main gas supplier was The Alliance & Dublin Gas Co. and in 1916 they decided to acquire their own ship, the 'Ardrií (ex. ìCoral ì 1892 of Glasgow, 440 tons). 'Ardrií cost £18,500.

Happy with the way the ëArdrií worked they bought the 'Braedaleí (ex. 'Bessie Barí 1894 of Glasgow, 400 tons). ëBraedaleí was bought in 1918 at a cost of £25.000 from Thomas Collier from Wicklow because she was slightly smaller than the ëArdrií, which had to use Sir John Rogersonís Quay on the Liffey, she could use the Grand Canal Locks at Ringsend to get to the Companyís depot between Hanover and Charlotte Quays.

The next ship purchased was the 'Glenageary' (1920, 460tons), built by the Lytham Shipbuilding Co. of Lytham (near Blackpool, Lancs.), who also built the 'Glencullen' (460 tons )1921, for the Company. After these ships entered service the ëBraedaleí was sold in 1920 with the 'Ardri' following in 1923.î

The web site then gives the speeches of the Chairman, Mr. John Murphy, of 25th March 1920:

'This Company, and indirectly the consumers, have derived great benefit from having acquired the two steamers ëArdrií and ëBraedaleí which, during the past few years, have been profitably utilised for the conveyance of the coal required for the manufacture of our gas. Both steamers however have been many years afloat and, early last year, it was considered desirable to build a steamer specially suited to the Companyís needs to take the place of the 'Braedale', which, as the market was favourable, we took the opportunity to dispose of. The Dublin Dockyard Company was approached with a view to building the new coaster on our behalf, but as they were unable accept our order, we were obliged to place the contract in the hands of English builders. I am glad to say, however, satisfactory progress has been made with this new collier. She was successfully launched at Lytham, on 21st February, and will be called the S.S 'Glenageary'. All the latest improvements in this type of coaster have been provided for, and we are hoping she will make her trial trip in May next, and prove satisfactory in every way.

On 30th September 1920 Mr Murphy then reported in a speech:

'Since the last meeting I am glad to say we have obtained delivery of our new steamer, the 'S.S Glenageary', which was specially designed and constructed for our particular work. She has made a number of passages during the half-year with satisfactory results, which appear to amply justify our decision to carry our own coal. As this steamer took the place of the 'S.S.Braedale', which was disposed of at a favourable opportunity, the profit realised on such sale has been applied in reduction of the purchase price of the new boat. Recently we have placed a further order with the same builders for a sister ship to replace the S.S.'Ardri', which, owing to her dimensions can only discharge at our river berth. We are expecting to obtain delivery of the new coaster early next year.'

The site then goes on to say that

'From the 1920s to the 1930s the ships traded from Dublin to Liverpool, taking 16-18 hours to complete their run, normally with a crew of 11. During the summer months when only light supplies of coal were needed, the ships would be chartered out to take other cargos around the coast and across to Liverpool.

During the 1930s, because of economic difficulties between Ireland and Britain, the Glencullen made some runs to Rotterdam for cargos of coal. She was the only Gas Co. ship to make continental runs.

In 1934 they purchased the 'Glengree' (480 tons ) from the Vickers Ireland Co. at Dublin dockyard. At the outbreak of the 2nd World War the companyís stock of coal was plentiful but this soon changed and they decided to add a fourth ship to their fleet. This was ëGlenbrideí (ex.'Morioní,440 tons, 1919). She remained on charter to the company till 1949 when they bought her outright.

During the war the companyís ships continued to trade across the Irish Sea, enabling Dublin and other parts of the country to use gas for the entire period o the war. On a few occasions they were attacked by German aircraft. 'Glencullen' and 'Glengree' were both bombed and machine gunned. In 1941 two engineers on the 'Glengree' were wounded by machine gun fire from German aircraft, the chief engineer E.Brown and the 2nd Engineer M. Moore. Both survived.

As H.A Gilligan says in his book 'A History of Dublin Port' a lot of credit is due to these brave men who keep Dublin supplied with gas during the War.

In 1945 'Glencullen' ran aground on the Mull of Galloway, but fortunately she floated off the rocks and was successfully repaired.

There is a photograph of five of the crew of Glenageary, one of whom is reported by Brendan Dalton as being Capt. Douglas McGuiness who skippered 'Glenageray' in the 1950s. In addition, it is reported that some of the crew of 'Glenageary' in 1955 were Captain Waldron, Mate Brennan, Chief Engineer Mahoney, and 2nd engineer Kilshaw.

The Grand Canal was started in 1956 to link Dublin with Shannon in the west of Ireland. In 1763, when Dublin Corporation took over the project to supply water to the city, over twelve miles of navigation had been constructed. In 1772, the Company of Undertakers of the Grand Canal took it over again, and it opened to cargo boat traffic in 1779. By 1791 the canal had reached Ringsend where the Grand Canal Docks were constructed and opened in 1796, and it reached the River Shannon in1803. Its total length, including stretches of the rivers Barrow and Shannon, in 340 miles. At Ringsend the Canal joins the River Liffey through the locks, which were constructed in 1976. The enclosed basin contains over 25 acres of water, Hanover and Charlotte Quays bounding it. The 2nd Earl of Camden, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, opened the docks, and one of the large locks was then named after him, the other two being the Buckingham and Westmoreland Locks.

Over the past two years, during which I constructed the model, I have found the journey in time quite fascinating, not just in the ship, its construction and purpose, but equally in the details of my wifeís family and the area of Ringsend, past and present, and the changes that have taken place in such a historic district. I hope the subject is of equal interest to others
Yours sincerely
Ray Peacock

Top of letter: Patrick ‘Sonny’ Byrne 1869 to 1953, Ringsend Lock-keeper. Photo taken circa 1935

Above: SS Glenageary in the Ringsend Locks Model by Ray Peacock in June 2005

Middle: Mrs Anne Doyle (nee Byrne) and daughter Joan Peacock, Ringsend Locks, September 1999. (Daughter and Granddauther of Patrick 'Sonny' Byrne

Bottom: Model of Patrick 'Sonny' Byrne operating the lock ëgrabsí at Ringsend
SS Glenageary in background