Gaelic handball (known in Ireland simply as handball) is a sport where players hit a ball with a hand or fist against a wall in such a way as to make a shot the opposition cannot return, and that may be played with two (singles) or four players (doubles). The sport, popular in Ireland, is similar to American handball, Welsh handball, fives, Basque pelota, Valencian frontó, and more remotely to racquetball or squash. It is one of the four Gaelic games organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). GAA Handball, a subsidiary organisation of the GAA, governs and promotes the sport.
Lady Desart presented the newly formed Talbots Inch Handball Club with a site in 1926. The members by voluntary labour helped in the construction of the court. A generous loan from her Ladyship enabled the club to roof the building, while a simple form of agreement was drawn up between the two parties to cover repayment and was known as the Deed of Good Faith.
Ellen Odette Cuffe, Countess of Desart (née Bischoffsheim; 1 September 1857 – 29 June 1933) was a London-born Jewish woman who was best known as an Irish politician, company director, Gaelicist (President of the Gaelic League for a time), and philanthropist in Ireland. She has been called “the most important Jewish woman in Irish history”.
She was the daughter of Henri Louis Bischoffsheim, a wealthy Jewish banker of German origin. He was responsible for founding three of the largest banks in the world; The Deutsche Bank, Paribas Bank, and Societe Generale. Her younger sister, Amélie Bischoffsheim, was married to Sir Maurice FitzGerald, 20th Knight of Kerry.
She married William Cuffe (1845–1898), the 4th Earl of Desart on 29 April 1881 at Christ Church in Down Street, Mayfair.
The walls and fortifications around Dublin were raised by the Ostmen in the 9th Century, and the majority of the cities in Ireland remained subject to incursions by native clans until the seventeenth century. The defences of Dublin would eventually fall into disrepair but continued to serve a purpose as late as 1762 when the auction of the rights to collect tolls at each of the then seven city gates raised £4,000 for the city.
In 1891, Dublin Medical Mission was established with a view to working amongst the poor of Dublin. Its first premises were ‘two small rooms at Inns Quay’, and it moved to No.6 Chancery Place in 1893. As the number of patients increased, it became necessary to extend the building and the neighbouring building was taken over. The mission was employed as a training facility for missionaries who went to work in Africa, Asia and South America. Designed by George Palmer Beater, this elaborate building incorporates No.5 and No.6 Chancery Street, and No.31 and No.32 Charles Street West, and makes a strong impression on the streetscape of the former. Its red brick, sandstone and terracotta detailing are well executed, testament to the skill of stone masons and brick workers at the time. The ornate appearance of the façade is belied by its regularity and well proportioned fenestration pattern.
The Dublin Christian Mission is the amalgamation of three older Missions located in Dublin, Ireland in 1965: the Dublin City Mission (founded 1828), the Dublin Medical Mission (1891) and the Dublin Mission (1953). It is the second oldest in the world.
In 1826, David Nasmith founded his first city mission in Glasgow. Two years later, Naismith founded the Dublin City Mission at Merchants Hall, Wellington Quay in Dublin, a similar organization. Other missions followed throughout Naismith’s life, including one in London in 1835.
In 1879, the Mission relocated to Anglesea Street, constructing a main hall and a number of offices. By 1903, seventy five years after its founding, the Dublin Mission had eleven full-time missionaries under the leadership of Rev. J.C. Irwin.
In December 1939, the Mission once again relocated to newly built headquarters in Cashel Road, Crumlin, an area which had grown to some 13,000 residents in the past thirty years. This area was chosen because the Dublin Corporation had built some three to four thousand houses for working-class families nearby. Another factor came from a fall in attendance at the location at Anglesea Street as people migrated from the centre of the city. Crumlin Hall was later sold to the Brethren Assembly in the area. Some years after it was sold again to the Dublin Corporation, the current property owner.
Dublin Christian MIssion continues services today, operating the largest independent Christian Youth work in the city of Dublin with over 300 young people making over 1,000 calls to the Youth Centre at 5&6 Chancery Place, Dublin 7. The homeless and hungry are fed at the drop in centre at 28 Pearse Street. Many of those attending for the food and clothing have a chaotic lifestyle of dependence on drugs or alcohol.
AN UGLY GAP IN THE STREETSCAPE – WHERE THE ORMOND HOTEL WAS
All construction workers can return to work tomorrow [4 May 2021] and it then that it becomes obvious that some projects have been abandoned. It would be very disappointing if the construction of the new hotel does not restart this week.
The iconic Ormond Hotel on the north quays was purchased for just €2.5 million by Queens Park Rangers owner Tony Fernandes in the middle of the recession. In 2013, planning permission was sought to demolish the old building and replace it with a 170 bedroom hotel but the plan was rejected but eventually the owner was granted permission to develop a smaller 121 room hotel.
The €25 million redevelopment project was expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2020 but there were many problems and the project was delayed and then there was was Covid-19.
The Dublin quays refers to the two roadways and quays that run along the north and south banks of the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland. The stretches of the two continuous streets have several different names. However, all but three of the names (Swift’s Row, Bachelors Walk and Usher’s Island) share the same “Quay” designation. The quays have played an important part in Dublin’s history.
Much of the southern roadway and about half of the northern roadway is part of the R148 road while the other half of the northern roadway is part of the R801 road.
Both roadways run approximately 4.3 km (2.7 mi) from Sean Heuston Bridge in the west. The eastern end of the north roadway is at East-Link Bridge while the south roadway turns southward at the Grand Canal. Seventeen bridges cross the river along the line of The Quays; three of them are exclusively pedestrian bridges, one a railway bridge, one other for Luas trams (with another planned) and pedestrians, and the remainder for vehicular and pedestrian use.
The name designations of the north roadway are (from west to east): Wolfe Tone Quay, Sarsfield Quay, Ellis Quay, Arran Quay, Inns Quay, Upper Ormond Quay, Lower Ormond Quay, Bachelors Walk, Eden Quay, Custom House Quay and North Wall Quay.
The name designations of the south roadway are (from west to east): Victoria Quay, Usher’s Island, Usher’s Quay, Merchant’s Quay, Wood Quay, Essex Quay, Wellington Quay, Crampton Quay, Aston Quay, Burgh Quay, George’s Quay, City Quay, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay and Britain Quay.
A majority of the roadways in the city centre are one-way with the north roadway being eastward and the south being westward.
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