The foundation stone for St. Brigid’s Church was laid on 13th October 1835 and the first Mass was celebrated there on 29th October 1837. The construction of the Church, tower and spire was finally completed in 1863. The spire, which is 189 feet high, is of a distinctive and unusual design, said to be Flemish – similar type spires can be found on the continent.
Due to a sharp rise in population, the size of the Church became inadequate for the needs of the Parish. However, rather than build a new Church it was decided to retain the old Church but to add on a modern extension. This extension is designed so that it can be closed off from the main Church and it is used for meetings, school concerts etc. Its vibrant stained glass window was designed by Phyllis Burke and installed in 1978. The central panel of the window depicts a story told about St. Brigid; legend has it that the King of Leinster told Brigid that he would give her as much land as her cloak would cover. Brigid spread her cloak on the ground and it spread until it covered the entire hillside. The first Mass was celebrated there at midnight on December 24th 1977.
FIRE STATION 9 – DUBLIN FIRE BRIGADE BLANCHARDSTOWN
Known as Number 9 Station within Dublin Fire Brigade.
Dublin City’s first municipal fire engines were delivered in 1705.
Throughout the second half of the 18th Century, insurance brigades were the primary source of firefighting for the city, operating independently for buildings bearing the mark of their respective insurance companies.
Eventually the brigades began to co-operate on a competition basis with the first brigade on scene being the highest paid. It wasn’t until 1862 with the enactment of the Dublin Corporation Act, that the city had an organised fire brigade.
Dublin man J.R. Ingram became the first superintendent of the brigade, having worked as a fireman in New York and London. The brigade consisted of 24 men with a makeshift fire brigade station on Winetavern Street in The Liberties. In 1898 the Dublin Fire Brigade Ambulance Service was established. The turn of the century saw the brigade have its first fire stations and permanent headquarters built, with the first motorised fire engine coming on stream in 1909.
QUICK VISIT TO THE TU CITY CAMPUS GRANGEGORMAN 14 FEBRUARY 2021 008
Technological University Dublin or TU Dublin is Ireland’s first technological university, established on 1 January 2019, taking over all functions and operations of the three preceding institutions.
The university was formed by the amalgamation of three existing institutes of technology in the Dublin area – Dublin Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown, and Institute of Technology, Tallaght, and it is the second-largest third-level institution in Ireland based on student population of 28,500, behind University College Dublin. It is the eighth university in Ireland, and the fourth in the Dublin Region, following Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and Dublin City University.
The institution’s history stretches back to 1887, with the establishment of the first technical education institution in Ireland, the City of Dublin Technical Schools.
The university consists of three main campuses, located in Grangegorman (“City Campus”), Blanchardstown, and Tallaght – the campuses previously of DIT, ITB, and ITT respectively, the institutes which have amalgamated. The Grangegorman campus will complete ongoing relocation of activities at Kevin Street and Cathal Brugha Street, expanding its capacity to 10,000 students, while development is planned for the other two campuses during the formative years of the university.
According to then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the new university will have an “entrepreneurial ethos”, and offer degrees and programmes ranging from Level 6 to Level 10 in the National Framework of Qualifications. While having an emphasis on computer science and STEM subjects, given its status as a technological university, the then Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton stated that the university would aim to sit at “convergence of the arts, business, science and technology”.
European University of Technology
The Technological University Dublin is one of the eight holders of the European University of Technology, EUt+ with the Technical University of Sofia (Bulgaria), the Cyprus University of Technology (Cyprus), the Hochschule Darmstadt, University of Applied Sciences (Germany), the Technological University Dublin (Ireland), the Riga Technical University (Latvia), the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (Spain), the University of Technology of Troyes (France) and the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania). The European University of Technology, EUt+ is the result of the alliance of eight European partners who share a common vision.
The Grangegorman campus includes the Greenway Hub, which is a “state-of-the-art facility for research and innovation that has been developed on the new TU Dublin campus at Grangegorman”. It is home to the Environmental, Sustainability and Health Institute (ESHI) and to DIT Hothouse.
You must be logged in to post a comment.