THE BARLEY MOW PUB HAS BEEN DEMOLISHED 92-93 FRANCIS STREET
The Barley Mow was at the corner of Francis Street and Mark’s Alley West. When I photographed it a few weeks I noted that its condition was getting worse at an increasing rate.
Here is an extract from the planning application: “Demolition of the existing structures and the construction of a four-storey, plus set-back fifth, aparthotel consisting of a ground floor community space/ café with 19 suites above and bin store to the rear.”
The Dublin InQuirer featured a photograph of the building being demolished claiming that “Dublin City Council has refused permission to tear down a derelict building at 92 and 93 Francis Street in Dublin 8 and replace it with an aparthotel”.
A few days ago the same publication featured the following headline “Council Both Refused and Gave Permission for Francis Street Building to Be Torn Down”.
A barley mow is a stack (mow) of barley, especially barley that was cultivated and then harvested. Barley is a grain that is commonly malted for brewing beer.
The Barley Mow is a cumulative song celebrated in the traditions of the folk music of Ireland, England, and Scotland. William Chappell transcribed the lyrics in his two-volume work The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time (1855).
“The Barley Mow” has become a drinking song sung while comrades empty their glasses. In one “Barley Mow” drinking game, any participant who fails to sing the song’s (progressively expanding) refrain in a single breath must drink. In another, participants drink just after singing the second line in each verse (“Good luck to the barley mow”); if one’s glass is not empty by the final verse, one must finish the drink after singing the line.
I lived on a street off Francis street for a few months about thirty years ago and I liked the area.
The next time you visit Francis Street it will be very different to what is was back in September 2012 when I took these photographs.
In 2019 it was announced that work would begin on a new-look public realm for Francis Street. Following on from design workshops and a successful Part VIII planning consent in 2017, the project is now set to be completed this year. While construction work had originally been expected to start in March 2020 the Covid 19 Emergency led to delays.
With a strong emphasis on pedestrians, the plan envisaged the widened pavements and new threshold spaces to the front of the Iveagh Market and St Nicholas de Myra Church. The awkward widening and narrowing of the carriageway will give way to a consistent width and measures to reduce speeds and allow for more relaxed cycling and easier crossing. Changes to car parking and loading arrangements, 20 new street trees and landscaped areas, sustainable urban drainage measures (SUDs), new street lighting, street furniture and utilities will all serve to create a much improved street and establish Francis Street as a destination.
MARIAN STATUE OSCAR SQUARE PUBLIC PARK IN THE COOMBE
I was aware of a street named after Oscar Wilde in the Liberties area of Dublin but I was unaware of Oscar Square Public Park until today and I did not know that there was a Marian statue in the immediate area.
A local lady told me that when she was young it was known as Rosary Park, and it was always closed to the public except on Sundays, but it is now known as Oscar Square Park even though it is not square [there was also a joke that I cannot include here]. When I returned home I checked a few maps and it looks square to me but I did come across an account that described it as a triangle. I also discovered that it once featured a bomb shelter.
THIS WINDOW DISPLAY CAUGHT MY EYE – THE TIMBER YARD IN THE COOMBE
Another example of someone living in the Coombe taking advantage of their front window. However, it might be the community room referred to in the description below.
Here is a description of Timber Yard Housing Complex:
“A backland site was opened up when the Coombe By Pass cut through the city pattern. The urban design requirement was for a new street frontage to heal the wounds caused by the road engineering operation. The brief was for 47 dwellings and a street level community room.
This project repairs the local landscape by providing a new collective space, built around a former timber yard, making a residential enclave with a sense of place. The design provides scale, identity and a piece of living city, connecting new development in the area to the historic character of the Liberties.”
It is interesting to note that some people take full advantage of their window space. I will supply some more examples over the next few days.
The Coombe is a historic street in the south inner city of Dublin, Ireland. It was originally a hollow or valley where a tributary of the River Poddle, the Coombe Stream or Commons Water, ran. The name is sometimes used for the broader area around, in which the Poddle and its related watercourses featured strongly.
n the late 17th century economic development started in order to house the clothiers who were moving into this then suburban area. Woollen manufacture was set up by settlers from England, while many French settlers Huguenots took up silk weaving, using skills they had acquired in their home country. The Dutch constructed their own traditional style of house, known here as Dutch Billies, with gables that faced the street.[2] Thousands of weavers became employed in the Coombe, Pimlico, Spitalfields and Weavers’ Square.
This was in response to legislative changes and free trade policies from the newly independent Grattan’s Parliament (1782). Prior to these changes, English woollen manufacturers felt threatened by the Irish industry and heavy duties were imposed on Irish wool exports. The Navigation Act was passed to prevent the Irish from exporting to the whole colonial market. In 1699 the English government passed the Wool Act which prevented export to any country whatsoever, which effectively put an end to the industry in the Liberties by the mid-eighteenth century. Later, under the repealed legislation, late in the following century, a revival took place by importing Spanish wool into Ireland. This was helped from 1775 by the Royal Dublin Society, but the events of 1798 and 1803, in which many weavers took part (and represented well in historical fiction The Silk Weaver by Gabrielle Warnock), and the economic decline that set in after the Napoleonic Wars and the Act of Union, prevented any further growth in this industry in the Liberties.
A weavers’ hall was built by the Weavers’ Guild in the Lower Coombe in 1682 and by 1745, when the building of a new hall was required, it was a Huguenot, David Digges La Touche, who advanced the £200 needed. The silk and poplin industries grew successfully in the first half of the 18th century. However, these industries, which were supported as mentioned by the Royal Dublin Society, were almost ruined by an act passed by the English government, which prevented the society from supporting any house where Irish silk goods were sold. When war was declared against France and raw materials were difficult to obtain, the silk weavers suffered greatly.
The Tenter House was erected just off the Coombe in 1815 in Cork Street, financed by Thomas Pleasants. Before this the poor weavers of the Coombe 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.”
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