I mentioned Amazon because I received an communication from them today advising that they are closing DPReview in April [10th].
Most people in Dublin were aware of Burlington Road because of the Burlington Hotel. I went to school nearby and during the summer holidays I worked in a variety of hotels owned by P.V. Doyle who owned the Burlington Hotel.
Back in the late 1960s I heard some of my teachers, who lived in the area, describe Burlington Road as being “leafy” since then many of the grand houses have been replaced by generations of office blocks mainly because the older buildings occupied sites that were worth more than the occupying buildings were.
The first phase of modern buildings included Sam Stephenson’s Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies building which is now a protected building. To the best of my knowledge the building was completed in 1971 or 1972.
The Burlington hotel was developed on the site of what was formerly the grounds of Wesley College Dublin and included the Victorian houses – Burlington House, Tullamaine Villa and Embury House (formerly Burleigh House). It also encompassed the site of Mespil House, a large notable Georgian house which was demolished in the 1950s. Note: Wesley College Dublin was one of the few schools that CUS, my school, could beat on the rugby pitch.
Completed in 1972 by P.V. Doyle initially as part of Doyle Hotels and named the Burlington Hotel and nicknamed “the Burlo” by Dubliners, the hotel was purchased by property developer Bernard McNamara in 2007 for €288 million.
Following the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, Bank of Scotland (Ireland) took possession of the hotel from McNamara. It was sold in 2012 to The Blackstone Group for €67 million, in what was Ireland’s biggest property transaction since the start of the downturn. The DoubleTree chain assumed management in 2013, and the hotel was rebranded as DoubleTree by Hilton Dublin – Burlington Road. In 2016, Blackstone sold the hotel to the German investment bank DekaBank, and a 25-year lease to operate the hotel was granted to the Dalata Hotel Group, which rebranded it within their Clayton Hotels brand as Clayton Hotel Burlington Road in November 2016.
The hotel’s former nightclub, Club Anabel, gained notoriety in 2000 when the death of Brian Murphy took place during a fight outside the premises.
THE LEAFY STREETS OF DRUMCONDRA – LOWER DRUMCONDRA ROAD
I have always liked these trees.
Many years ago I had a house on Carlingford Road off Lower Drumcondra Road and I really liked the area but I still live nearby and frequently walk the area.
The village of Drumcondra was the central area of the civil parish of Clonturk, and the two names were used equally for the religious and civil parishes, but the modern suburban district of Drumcondra also encompasses the old Parish of St. Mary. Clonturk had been an alternative name for Drumcondra and the wider area for some time.
The Cat and Cage Pub, on the corner of Drumcondra Road and Church Avenue, was the site of an old postal stop and the point at which rebels, during the 1798 rebellion, seized a postal cart in order to signal to others in North County Dublin to revolt.
The southern stretch of the ‘Slige Midluachra’ passed through Drumcondra and on into the City where it crossed the Liffey at a location known as the ‘ford of the hurdles’. The present-day Drumcondra main road is built on top of the exact route the ancient highway took, the road was one of five ancient roads to meet at Tara, albeit in myth only, in reality, the five roads may have met at a point on the River Liffey in Dublin.
One of the main sights of Dublin is Croke Park, where Ireland’s national games of Gaelic football and hurling may be seen. It has a capacity of 82,300 people, it is one of the largest sports stadiums in Europe. ‘Croker’ (as it is colloquially known) is the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association and also houses the official GAA Museum (on St Josephs Avenue, which is off Clonliffe Road). The stadium hosts the finals of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. The stadium is a 20-minute walk from Dublin city centre or a 5-minute bus ride.
Fagan’s Public House, Drumcondra Road Lower, where Bertie Ahern took U.S. President Bill Clinton in September 1998. Kennedys Pub on Lower Drumcondra Road is one of the oldest pubs in Drumcondra, predating Fagans by a number of years. Formerly called McPhillips, it has been named Kennedys since 1961.
The National Council for the Blind at Whitworth Road, is located near the Church of St. George cemetery.
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