Category: list

Posted on

Devlin’s Pub – meeting place of GHQ Intelligence

Photograph of a Dublin City Council plaque commemorating Devlin's Pub, Parnell Street, Dublin 1.

This plaque marks the location of Devlin’s Pub, which stood on the site of what is now the Point A Hotel, Parnell Street, Dublin 1.

In mid-1919, Derry born Liam Devlin relocated from Glasgow with his family of seven children to a public house that he bought at 68 Parnell Street, Dublin. Within a few weeks he had offered the use of upstairs rooms to Michael Collins.

The pub quickly became one of the main locations for meetings of the IRB Headquarters of Intelligence. It was a significant location during the War of Independence. Meetings were held daily at the pub, attended by Michael Collins, Frank Thornton, Liam Tobin, Emmet Dalton and many others of the leadership of the Volunteers and the IRB.

As many as eight to ten Volunteers and Officers were accommodated there every night during this period. Devlin was himself an Intelligence Officer and was entrusted with the safe keeping of National Loan Funds.

Michael Collins waited here for news about the abandoned escape and later execution of Kevin Barry. He was also in Devlin’s Pub on the morning of Bloody Sunday. The pub was the location of the Mutiny, which threatened the very survival of the Free State, led by Liam Tobin, in March 1924.

The plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daithí de Róiste, and John Healey, grandson of Liam Devlin, on 5 April 2024.

Posted on

Clonturk Park – venue for the All Ireland Finals

Photograph of a Dublin City Council plaque commemorating Clonturk Park as the venue for All Ireland Finals, at Richmond Road, Dublin 3.

This plaque, at the Drumcondra AFC clubhouse on Richmond Road, Dublin 3, commemorates Clonturk Park as the venue for the GAA All Ireland finals in both hurling and football for 1890, 1891, 1892, and 1894.

The matches played at Clonturk Park included landmark occasions such as Cork’s first All Ireland championship in hurling, and Dublin’s first in football; the first football final between Dublin and Kerry, and the only win by a Kerry team in the hurling championship.

The 1893 final was transferred to the Phoenix Park because the grass at Clonturk had not been cut for the occasion.

After Clonturk Park’s era as the preferred GAA venue in the city came to an end, the All Ireland final of 1895 was the first to be played on Mr Butterly’s amusement grounds on Jones’s Road, the venue now better known as Croke Park.

The plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daithí de Róiste, and Uachtarán Cumann Lúthchleas Gael Jarlath Burns, on 23 March 2024.

Posted on

Kite, John – Dublin Fire Brigade

Photograph of a Dublin City Council plaque commemorating Fireman John Kite, at 10 Trinity Street, Dublin 2.

This plaque, at 10 Trinity Street, Dublin 2, commemorates Fireman John Kite, the first member of Dublin Fire Brigade to be killed in the line of duty.

Just before 9.30pm on the night of 20th of March 1884, the Fire Brigade were alerted to a fire at 10 Trinity Street, now Cotswold Outdoors. Firemen from two nearby fire stations – Coppinger Row off South William Street and Whitehorse Yard off Winetavern Street, were on the scene in minutes.

The building was on fire at basement and ground floor, and on the third floor. Firemen entered the building at ground level and from a wheeled escape ladder to the third floor.

The fire was quickly under control when without warning, the building collapsed burying nine firemen inside under masonry, timber and slates. Remaining firemen outside the building, with assistance from police and soldiers from the nearby Ship Street Barracks, set about removing the rubble to find the missing firemen.

Eight were rescued, many with serious injuries, but unfortunately one fire fighter, John Kite, lost his life. His death was reported by the Dublin City Coroner to have been due to ”suffocation in the ruins of a house while carrying out his duty”.

He was the first Dublin Fire Brigade fire fighter to lose his life while on duty. Fireman John Kite was survived by his wife Eliza and six children.

The plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daithí de Róiste, and Assistant Chief Fire Officer Michael Reilly, on 20 March 2024.

Posted on

Brennan, Maeve – writer and journalist

A photograph of the Dublin City Council commemorative plaque for Maeve Brennan, at 48 Cherryfield Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin.

This plaque, at 48 Cherryfield Avenue, Ranelagh, commemorates Maeve Brennan, columnist with the New Yorker magazine and writer of short stories.

Maeve Brennan, once described as ‘the greatest Irish writer you never heard of’, was born in Dublin on 6 January 1917, second of four children of the journalist Bob Brennan, who would go on to found the Irish Press.

The family lived at 48 Cherryfield Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin, from 1921 until 1934. The house is the setting for many of her stories.

After her father was selected as Ireland’s ambassador to Washington in 1934, Maeve Brennan completed her secondary and third level education in Washington and moved to New York to work in a library. There her literary talent was noticed by the editor of New Yorker magazine. For three decades she contributed to the New Yorker and had two critically acclaimed collections of short stories published in 1969.

While fighting a losing battle against financial and mental health problems, she retreated into obscurity and spent her last years in a home for the elderly in New York, her talent unknown to her carers and, in the end, herself.  It was only after her death in 1993 that her work was anthologised and recognised by a new generation of writers and critics, placing Maeve Brennan among the best Irish short-story writers since Joyce. Her works have been accepted into the canon of twentieth century literature:

The plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Dublin on 6 January 2024.

Posted on

O’Leary, Jerome – youngest victim of Bloody Sunday 1920

A photograph of the Dublin City Council Commemorative plaque for Jerome O'Leary.

This plaque commemorates Jerome O’Leary who, at 10 years old, was the youngest of those killed at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920.

Find this plaque on Google maps.

The plaque reads:

JEROME O’LEARY
1910-1920
A Maraíodh i bPáirc an Chrócaigh ar Domhnach na Fola
A CHÓNAIGH ANSEO
Killed at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday
LIVED HERE

On the morning of 21 November 1920 fourteen suspected British intelligence personnel were killed, and one fatally injured, by the IRA.

That afternoon, as a reprisal, a force of Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), including the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries, opened fire on the crowd attending a Gaelic football match between Dublin and Tipperary at Croke Park. 14 civilians were killed in the attack.

The second or third bullet fired killed 10-year-old Jerome O’Leary from Blessington Street. The boy was sitting on the wall at the Canal end of the pitch and was shot through the right side of his head.

Jerome was buried in Glasnevin where for many years his grave went unmarked. As part of its Bloody Sunday Graves project in 2019 the GAA erected a headstone for Jerome in Glasnevin.

Jerome O’Leary lived at 69 Blessington Street, where the plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor on 20 November 2023. The plaque was proposed by Mr Pearse Turner.

A detailed account of Bloody Sunday may be found in History on Your Doorstep volume 3, written by Dublin City Council historians-in-residence and available from any branch of Dublin City Libraries, or online at https://www.dublincity.ie/library/blog/history-your-doorstep-volume-3.

Posted on

RHA Gallery, original home

Photogaph of plaque with black text on grey granite. The text says ROYAL HIBERNIAN ACADEMY OF ART baile bunaidh original home 1826-1916

This plaque marks the site of the original home of the Royal Hibernian Academy, at 35 Abbey Street.

Locate this plaque on Google maps.

The RHA was founded in August 1823 and from 1825 to 1916 had its home at 35 Abbey Street. The building was designed by the architect Francis Johnson, the second President of the Royal Hibernian Academy.

As architect to the Board of Works from 1805, Francis Johnson worked on several of Dublin’s major public buildings, including the Chapel Royal and Record Tower in Dublin Castle, the vice-regal lodge (now Arás an Uachtárain) in the Phoenix Park, and the GPO and Nelson’s Pillar on O’Connell Street.

Johnson was a great support of the Academy and designed and paid for the gallery building himself; it cost around £15,000. He laid the first stone in a ceremony on 29 April 1824, and the first annual exhibition opened in the gallery on 23 April 1826.

Built in the neo-Classical style as a four-bay, three-storey building, the building was destroyed in 1916 but the front façade was retained and largely rebuilt around 1920. For many years it was the premises of CIE Travel.

The plaque was unveiled by Cllr Vincent Jackson and the President of the RHA, Dr Abigail O’Brien, on 6 October 2023.

Posted on

Holloway, Joseph – literary critic and architect

This plaque commemorates Joseph Holloway (1861–1944), Architect and Theatre Critic, who designed the first Abbey Theatre.

Born in Camden Street, where his father had a bakery, Holloway was educated at St Vincent’s in Castleknock. Following the death of his father, in 1874, the family moved to 21 Northumberland Road, where Holloway lived until his death in 1944.

Locate this plaque on Google maps.

After studying at the Dublin School of Art, in 1890 he joined O’Callaghan architects, in Kildare Street, Dublin, and after 6 years he began working for himself in 1896.

Holloway’s most famous work was the remodelling of the Mechanics’ Institute and Theatre on Lower Abbey Street as the first Abbey Theatre, which opened in December 1904.

He gave up architecture after the First World War, and, having a private income, he was able to devote himself to the theatre. A great supporter of the Irish Literary Theatre and then Irish National Theatre, he attended almost all rehearsals and first nights.

Over his lifetime he accumulated a vast collection of material relating to Irish theatre, which adorned every inch of his house, including programmes, playbills, prompt sheets, and paintings and sketches of theatrical personalities.

More significantly, he kept a diary or journal which amounted to 25 million words on Dublin’s theatre world. Although criticised by the likes of Sean O’Casey and Frank O’Connor, the diaries are an invaluable source for the history of Irish theatre.

Holloway died in 1944 and his huge archive was donated to the National Library of Ireland where it is catalogued as the Joseph Holloway Collection.

The plaque was unveiled by Councillor Dermot Lacey on 28 June 2023.

Posted on

Darmon, John ‘Jack’ – Dublin Fire Brigade

Unveiled on 18 September 2023, this plaques commemorates John Darmon, a member of the Dublin Fire Brigade, who was killed on duty in Tara Street station on 23 August 1938.

Locate this plaque on Google maps.

Fireman Jack Darmon was a veteran of the War of Independence, having served in K’ Company, 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade.

A firefighter/mechanic, he was working on a brigade vehicle in the garage pit in Tara Street when he was electrocuted and died. He left a wife and four children.

His death occurred at a time of massive reorganisation in the DFB and has never been properly marked by a memorial in the station.

The plaque was unveiled by Cllr Tom Brabazon (representing the Lord Mayor) and the Chief Fire Officer, Deniis Keely, on 18 September 2023.

Posted on

Connolly, James – socialist & revolutionary

This plaque commemorates the socialist and signatory of the 1916 Proclamation James Connolly.

Find this plaque on Google maps.

Born in Edinburgh in 1868, to Irish parents, Connolly became a key figure in the Irish trade union movement and socialist politics, particularly after his return to Dublin from the United States in 1910.

From December 1910 to May 1911, Connolly and his family lived at 70 South Lotts Road, Ringsend, Dublin 4. The house is one of only two surviving in which Connolly lived in the City.

Connolly then moved to Belfast as organiser for the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU), where he saw at first hand the sectarianism that blighted Belfast and the North East generally.

In 1912, along with William O’Brien and Jim Larkin, and others on the Dublin Trades Council, Connolly was instrumental in getting the Irish Trades Union Congress to establish a political wing, giving birth to the Labour Party.

Connolly returned to Dublin from Belfast during the 1913 Lockout and following Larkin’s departure for America in 1914 he became acting General Secretary of the ITGWU and the leader of the Irish Citizens’ Army.

Following the Lockout, and against the background of the First World War, Connolly became increasingly militant and in 1915 threw in his lot with the IRB, who were planning an insurrection.

Joining forces with the Volunteers, Connolly was one of the signatories of the Proclamation and fought alongside Pearse in the GPO. Following the surrender, and badly wounded and unable to stand, he was executed at Kilmainham by firing squad, while sitting on a wooden box.

The plaque was proposed by historian Dr Conor McCabe, Queen’s University Belfast, and unveiled by Lord Mayor Daithí de Róiste on 31 July 2023.

Posted on

Elliott, Shay – professional cyclist and wearer of the Yellow Jersey

This plaque commemorates Shay Elliott, the first Irishman to win a stage in the Tour de France and to wear the Yellow Jersey.

Locate this plaque on Google maps.

Dubliner Shay Elliott made history on 25 June 1963 when he won the third stage of the Tour de France, taking the overall lead and wearing the ‘maillot jaune’ for three days. 

The stage-win also made Elliott the first English-speaking rider to win a stage in each of the Grand Tours, adding to his victories in the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España. 

It would be another 15 years before an Irishman won a stage and a further five years before an Irishman wore the Yellow Jersey in Le Tour, when Sean Kelly took it with a victory in stage 9 in 1983.

Shay Elliott was born at 96 Old County Road, Crumlin, Dublin, in 1934, and having served an apprenticeship as a panel beater, became a professional cyclist in 1956, following success in the amateur ranks. In 1955 he became the first foreigner to be ranked top amateur in France.

In 1958 he narrowly failed to win the Paris–Roubaix and Paris–Brussels classics due to mechanical faults and lost a sprint stage in the Tour de France by being blocked. Professional cycling could be ruthless.

Elliott rode as a super-domestique for nearly ten years with the five-time Tour de France winner, Jacques Anquetil, as his team leader. The team was widely regarded as the Galaciticos of professional cycling such was the quality of its riders. 

In 1962 Shay competed in Salò, Italy for the World Road Race Championship. He won the silver medal, losing out to Jean ‘Stab’ Stablinksi, a teammate, best friend and godfather to his son, Pascal. Shay later claimed that Stablinski paid other riders to chase him down when he attacked on the penultimate lap thus denying him victory. The consensus among his peers was that he was cheated out of gold.

Deprived of certain victory in the 1965 Paris–Luxembourg stage race by one more betrayal by Stablinski, a devastated Shay left the team and joined Jacques Anquetil’s greatest rival, Raymond Poulidor at Mercier. Sadly the move proved to be a disaster. Looking to the future Shay invested his life savings in opening a hotel in Brittany. It haemorrhaged money and his marriage failed as a result. Faced with bankruptcy he returned to Ireland leaving his wife and son behind. 

In the years that followed Shay rebuilt his life, setting up a garage on South Princes Street, Dublin, where he also lived. He regularly tuned into French radio to listen to the cycling coverage. He even dreamed of one more victory on the bike. With the near miss at Salò never far from his mind, he looked to competing in the World Road Race Championship in Leicester in 1970. Sadly, he never got to the starting line. Less than a year later and within weeks of the death of his beloved father Jim, Shay was found dead in his home. He had suffered a shotgun wound to the chest.

60 years on from taking the Yellow Jersey as race leader of the Tour de France, Shat Elliott should be remembered as a pioneer, a man who set many firsts in his cycling career, and achieved 50 race victories. His legacy is one that inspired future Irish legends to conquer the roads and the mountains of Europe. 

The plaque was unveiled on 23 June 2023.