Around the year 1760 The Ballast Board built a blockhouse that was used mainly as a storehouse for workers’ tools and wreckage. A year or so later they employed John Pidgeon to watch over it and the surrounding compound.

Pidgeon, his wife and their three children were provided with free lodging in a wooden house along with a small salary. The mail packet ships from England berthed there and the family provided the weary travellers with light refreshment.

When the completed Great South Wall became the new wonder of the day, day-trippers from the city soon flocked down to view the sights. John and his son Ned would ferry them from Ringsend and in turn were amply remunerated for the service.

Father and son regularly caught fresh crab, fish and lobster, which his wife and daughters cooked daily and their excellent cuisine soon brought in welcome extra revenue. So popular did it become that soon the Ballast Board, following gentle persuasion from eminent notables having enjoyed their visits to the site on occasions, issued John a liquor licence to provide alcoholic beverage for serving along with the meals.

Wits of the day began calling this new rendezvous ‘The Pigeon House’. It soon became common knowledge to city thieves and vagabonds that John Pidgeon and his family were acquiring a nice little nest egg in what was then an extremely isolated and harsh location.

One wet, miserable stormy Saturday night the Pidgeon family was aroused by cries for help from outside. Rushing to give assistance, they discovered three men in a boat appearing to be in difficulty.

Getting them safely into their home the Pidgeons were attacked by them. The intruders tied up John and his wife and then threatened the safety of their two daughters, wanting to know the whereabouts of their savings.

Ned, having moored the rescued boat, came into the house and was at once pounced on. Fighting them off gallantly as the thieves threatened the girls with a sword in their quest for fortune, Ned grabbed the blade, severing an artery in his hand.

Despite his obvious pain and loss of blood, he ran to obtain help, wrapping his neck scarf around his hand to stem the flow. On returning, he found the thieves had made good their escape with everything of value they could lay hands on. There was also no way that he could follow them as they had staved in the bottom of the family boat.

This being the main transport used to ferry people to the construction site, a collection was quickly started by wealthy townspeople to purchase another boat for them. Business resumed shortly afterwards.

A few days after the attack John and Ned pulled a body from the Liffey. In a pocket he found his father’s watch leading both of them to believe that he was one of the thieves. A day or so later a body was washed ashore of another thief, leading the Pidgeons to assume that the robbers fell out after the robbery, perhaps over their share of the spoils.

John never recovered his fortune and about 1786 he died, before the Ballast Board were about to award him a deserved pension. A short while later his wife died, leaving the girls and Ned to run the business.

Ned’s injured hand caused him a great deal of distress forcing him to hire two men, to help ferry passengers from the city to the Pigeon House. One day while sharing a lunch break on the boat with his two employees, he noticed that one of them had a pearl-handled knife identical to the one his father had owned.

When Ned began to question the man, an argument broke out between them, the accused attempting to jump overboard, with the knife held menacingly in his hand. Ned lunged for him and was unfortunate to catch his injured hand on the sharp blade. The captured thief admitted to his crime and was hanged the following day. Gangrene quickly set into Ned’s hand, causing his agonising death a few days later.

With the death of their brother, the girls soon showed their indomitable Pidgeon spirit. They took over the place and continued to give the same service their father and brother had provided. It became even more popular with the men-folk now that there were two very attractive young ladies at the helm of the boat.

On an October night, a heavy storm developed, beaching an American vessel that had been driven onto the North Bull. The only survivors were the vessel’s Captain and a rich American gentleman along with his three-year-old son.

Despite the danger of the storm and the lateness of the hour, Rachel and Mary rushed at once to provide any aid they could. The gentleman could not be moved immediately, having broken three ribs and the sisters nursed him back to full fitness. They tenderly cared for the gentleman’s son who began to develop a great deal of affection for them both.

As the patient slowly began to recover his health he revealed that his wife had died recently in Philadelphia and he was bringing his son to Ireland to be raised by relatives. So impressed was he by the sisters’ kindness and dedication towards them, he fell in love with Mary and proposed to her.

She accepted and when he had recovered his full health she set out for the Americas with her husband-to-be and his son. Her sister Rachel followed shortly after and is believed to have married well and prospered, never to return.

The last of the Pidgeon’s had flown the coop, but this one time haven for stranded and weary seafarers will forever be known as ‘The Pigeon House’. John Pidgeon’s name can be seen still to this day in the records of the Ballast Board ledgers.

Top : The Pigeon House Fort, a sketch from about 1800.