THE CHRISTMAS SEASON IS UNDERWAY BUT THE DECORATIONS ARE MUTED
In case you don’t know Condé Nast Traveller has named Dublin as one of its top spots in the world to celebrate Christmas.
When I was young I visited my Grand-Aunts house hand she had no Christmas decoration and I started crying crying as there was “no Christmas” … this year I could complain that there is no Christmas as the many Christmas trees have no lights.
I was born on New Year day 1950 and for this reason alone I have always liked the Christmas season and throughout my working life I managed to get two or three weeks holiday at Christmas and I never worked on New Year’s day and usually I did not return to work or school earlier than the 6th. of January. I must admit that Covid did, to some extent, ruin last Christmas.
The CHQ Building, formerly known as Stack A, is an industrial building in Dublin, Ireland. CHQ stands for “Custom House Quay”, named for the nearby Custom House. Known as the Tobacco Store to dockworkers, it was built in 1820 to store cargos of tobacco, tea and spirits. Tobacco and tea were kept in separate compartments above ground. Wine and spirit casks were stored in the vaults below ground.
The building was designed by the Scottish engineer John Rennie, with his son of the same name working as his principal assistant. When it was constructed, the building had one of the largest single interior spaces in the city, and its brick external walls enclosed a space of more than 8,000sqm. The structure was supported by a cast iron frame supporting a slated roof. No wood was used in the construction. The building measures 155m by 55m and of the original nine vaults that run west to east and cover the entire footprint of the building, eight and a half remain after the building was reduced by 5m at its southern end in 1884 in order to widen Custom House Quay. A total of eleven warehouses or “stacks”, as well as three deep-water docks were built on reclaimed land making up the Custom House Docks complex.
An description of the CHQ Building dating from 1821 by the Rev. George Newenham Wright, an Anglican clergyman, noted that: “the tobacco store (500 feet by 160, and capable of containing 3,000 hogsheads), the plan of which was given by John Rennie, Esq [has] nine vaults beneath, which altogether afford perfect and convenient storage for 4,500 pipes of wine, allowing a walk behind the heads of the pipes as well as between them; these vaults are lighted by means of thick lenses set in iron plates in the floor of the tobacco store; but this is not sufficient to supersede the necessity of candle light. [The] roof is supported by metal frame-work of an ingenious construction [..] supported by three rows of cylindrical metal pillars, 26 in each row; these rest upon others of granite, which are continued through the stone floor into the vaults beneath.”
In addition to its use as a storehouse, because of the large interior space, the building has also been put to other uses.
For example, on 22 October 1856, the building was the chosen venue for a banquet, paid for by the citizens of Dublin, in honour of those Irish soldiers who had served in the British Army during the Crimean War. The ‘Great National Banquet’ was the brainchild of Fergus Farrell, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who had been a deputy to Daniel O’Connell. It is estimated that one third of the 111,000 men who served in the war were Irish, including 114 of those involved in the Charge of the Light Brigade. The guests at the banquet included 3,628 soldiers from regiments quartered in Dublin and the four provinces, as well as 1,000 non-military guests, principally subscribers, seated in the gallery overlooking the hall. Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough, the Tipperary-born Colonel-in-Chief of the 60th Royal Rifles, addressed and toasted the attendees.
In the early 2000s, the protected structure was restored by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. Irishman Neville Isdell, a former chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola, along with Mervyn Greene, purchased the building in late 2013 with the intention of further developing the structure.Today, the building contains a number of businesses, including the EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum and Dogpatch Labs.
George’s Dock is a Georgian dock in the Docklands area of Dublin forming part of the International Financial Services Centre.
Located near the Custom House, the dock was originally built in 1821 as a working maritime dock and was named for George IV of the United Kingdom. The Inner Dock (previously Revenue Dock), was constructed a few years later in 1824 following the death of John Rennie the Elder and was completed by his son, John Rennie the Younger.
Along with the old Custom House Dock, designed by James Gandon in 1796, the three docks and the various warehouses formed what was later known as the Custom House Docks. The Old Dock was infilled in 1927 with many of the store buildings and the swing bridge across the inlet removed to make way for an extension of Amiens Street and Beresford Place through to Custom House Quay, thus creating a new stretch of road now known as Memorial Road. It would later link to Talbot Memorial Bridge in 1978.
As with other public spaces within the Docklands, George’s Dock was redeveloped during the 1980s and 1990s with elements of the Custom House Harbour apartment complex being constructed on a new island within the Inner Dock.
George’s Dock has been used by Dublin City Council as an event space including for the annual Dublin Oktoberfest festival and the showing of sporting and live music events.
In 2021, controversial plans to convert the dock into a white water rafting facility were cancelled after a Dublin City Council vote.
From a transport perspective, the George’s Dock Luas stop is served by the Luas Red Line which runs from Tallaght to Connolly and from Busáras to Point Village (3Arena). Dublin Bus serves nearby North Wall Quay and East Wall Road with routes 33d, 33x, 53a, 74, 74a, 90, 142, 151 and the 747 Airlink service to Dublin Airport. The Red Line extension opened on 9 December 2009.
Anna Donovan works as a ceramics and mixed media artist with a studio in Conway Mill, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her work ranges from figurative sculpture to jewellery with pots in between.
The human figure is the main form from which her pieces evolve.
The rain became really intense and I had to take shelter in a archway at the New Timber Yard complex on Weaver’s Street.
Cork Street runs from the junction of The Coombe to Donore Avenue.
It was named after the first Earl of Cork and once formed part of the ancient highway “An Slighe Dála” connecting Dublin with the west of Ireland. On old maps it was described as “The Highway to Dolfynesberne” (Dolphin’s Barn).
The street was once a centre of fine wool and silk hand-loom weaving. The woollen industry was killed off around 1700 by the English government, who wanted to keep the wool monopoly in England, although a minor revival was started around 1775. Despite problems, silk spinning and the manufacture of poplin, supported by the Royal Dublin Society, continued into the 19th century.
The Tenter House was erected in 1815 in this street, financed by Thomas Pleasants. Before this the poor weavers of the Liberties had either to suspend work in rainy weather or use the alehouse fire and thus were (as Wright expresses it) “exposed to great distress, and not infrequently reduced either to the hospital or the gaol.” The Tenter House was a brick building 275 feet long, 3 stories high, and with a central cupola. It had a form of central heating powered by four furnaces, and provided a place for weavers to stretch their material in bad weather.
In 1861 a Carmelite priest bought the Tenter House and opened it as a refuge for the homeless. He ran the hostel for ten years until 1871 when the Sisters of Mercy came to Cork Street. In 1873 they built a convent and in 1874 a primary school, which closed down in 1989.
The Cork Street Fever Hospital (also known as the House of Recovery) was a hospital that opened in Cork Street on 14 May 1804. The hospital was extended in 1817-1819 to help cope with a national typhus epidemic. In 1953 the Cherry Orchard Hospital in Ballyfermot replaced the old Cork Street hospital, which was renamed Brú Chaoimhín and became a nursing home.
Across the road from the hospital is the James Weir Home for nurses, built in 1903. The site had once been a Quaker burial ground.
In 1932 the Maryland housing development off Cork Street was constructed by Dublin Corporation. 1932 was a Marian year, hence the name Maryland.
During the mid 20th century, there were plans to widen the road into a dual carriageway, leading to buildings being left to fall into decay while the threat of compulsory purchase orders seemed possible. The street was totally reconstructed towards the end of the 20th century. It is now a mostly residential area.
St Luke’s Church was closed to the public in 1975. The church was built between 1715 and 1716 but suffered a fire in 1986.
Behind the church was a small cemetery. Among those interred there was Mr. Justice Hellen, second Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, who died in 1793. Also buried here were the family of famous publisher Alexander Thom. The relief road leading to Cork St., built 1980-2000, cut through the old cemetery.
In 1994, Dublin City Council purchased the site and the graveyard was divided in two by a new road. What is now St Luke’s Avenue cut through the “Northern Graveyard” of the church. In November 2017, JJ Rhatigan completed a €3.25m 13-month restoration and repurposing of the 17th century Huguenot Church into a three-storey modern state of the art office, with two floors suspended from the roof truss structure within the walls of the 300-year old Church.
I MAY HAVE FOUND ANOTHER MARIAN STATUE ON NEWMARKET STREET – WEAVER’S STREET
I had to shelter in an archway at the new Timberyard Building, featuring a religious statue, on Weaver’s Street for about an hour because of really heavy rain but when it stopped what I photographed was much more interesting because of the strong light and dark skies.
When I returned home I decided to check if there was a story associated with the statue which struck me as being unusual. After much time and effort I discovered that it replaced a statue that was located on what had been derelict site, the old timber yard, for more than a decade before the current complex was built.
Apparently the planning permission required the original statue to be retained within the new complex but, as is usually the case, it went missing so a replacement was found and installed behind a window with a kneeling step outside. I could not establish if the original had been a 1954 Marian statue of which there are about thirty throughout the city. Someone kindly supplied me with a booklet showing most of them but this one was not included.
Weaver’s Hall was located on The Coombe Dublin and although the building is long gone, there is still a lot of evidence of the once major industry that existed in the area over a 1,000 year timespan. The most obvious are various place-names. Weavers Street, Weaver’s Square off Cork Street, and the adjacent Ormond Street commemorated both the Huguenot weavers who settled here in great numbers from the late 1600’s and the man who invited them over, the Duke of Ormond. Nearby Newmarket was constructed in the 1670’s by the Earl of Meath in response to this rapidly growing industry, to facilitate trade in wool, hides and flax and also the finished products. The Earl also included space for his own market, and this added to the unique shape and layout of Newmarket, still with us today.
You must be logged in to post a comment.