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0.26);}PrintShareSaveThe death has occurred of
in the tender care of all the staff at the Blackrock Hospice and previously in the Cara Ward
Much loved husband and best friend of Anne (Coyne) and devoted Dad of Ross and Alan
Proud father-in-law of Melisa and doting Papa of Finn and Erik
Michael will be very sadly missed by his wife
neighbours and his many friends in Elm Park Golf Club
For those who wish to follow the Mass online please see the link: https://booterstownparish.ie/
Family flowers only. Online donations if desired, in Michael’s name to Our Ladies Hospice, Blackrock on the following link : https://olh.ie/blackrock-hospice/
Messages of sympathy for Michael’s family can be left in the Condolence section below.
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Rip.ie, The Irish Times Building, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, Ireland
Having secured planning permission in July of last year for the development of a luxurious wellness facility, spa and interpretative centre on the lands adjacent to Booterstown Marsh and bird sanctuary in south Dublin
developers Paddy McKillen jnr and Matt Ryan are seeking a buyer for the site
The sale of the 4.8-acre property is the latest in a number of proposed asset disposals by Mr McKillen jnr and his business partner and is being handled by joint agents Knight Frank and CBRE
The guide price for the Booterstown site is €5 million
The scheme approved by An Bord Pleanála (Planning reference 4514/19 & D19A/0908) is a substantial one
It comprises a five-storey building rising to a height of 18.55 metres (61ft) and extending across a total area of 6,328sq m (68,114sq ft)
the top floor of the building – or Sky Level +02 as it is called – would accommodate a wellness centre and spa along with an outdoor pool
The outdoor pool complex is located overlooking the scheme’s central garden
the development would have a piano nobile overlooking the garden and Dublin Bay
This area would be mostly for use by members and would comprise changing rooms and shower areas for individuals and families
and a pool complex with a children’s and adult pool opening out to a terrace with a hydro facility overlooking the bay
The mezzanine level (+0M) would offer additional studio space and some additional toilets and an office space
The upper level and terrace of the interpretative centre would also be located at this level
The ground-floor level (+00) of the building would consist of its main reception
The approved scheme also incorporates a detailed biodiversity plan
Included in this are a new coastal meadow flood plain
a mown grass area to facilitate a new bird hide
The plan also provides for the retention of existing scrub
The northern section of the site (approximately 2.8 acres) falls within the Dublin City Development Plan 2022- 2028 while the southern section (approximately 2 acres) falls within the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown (DLR) County Development Plan 2022-2028
The majority of the lands within the Dublin city plan are zoned Objective Z9 – Amenity/Open Space Lands/Green Network
The element within the DLR plan is zoned Objective F
the purpose of which is “to preserve and provide for open space with ancillary active recreational amenities”
this section of the site is also designated as a proposed Natural Heritage Area (pNHA)
Finín O’Driscoll of Knight Frank and Darragh Deasy of CBRE say they expect to see strong interest in the Booterstown site from a range of parties, including those already active in the wellness sector and in the wider leisure industry. Further information on the property can be obtained from the joint selling agents, and registrations for the data room for the sale can be made at merrion-road.com
Ronald Quinlan is Property Editor of The Irish Times
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An industrial dispute over a new suburban rail station at Booterstown that operates without staff
The automated Booterstown station between Blackrock and Sydney Parade in Dublin opened for commuter train services on 3 March 1975
push your way through a turnstile and board a train all without the attention of any CIÉ worker
Members of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) and the National Association of Transport Workers object to the automation
A lightning strike was called forcing hundreds of rail commuters to queue for buses
The strikers are concerned over a loss of employment want the new suburban commuter station to employ at least one person
CIÉ points out there is no job lost and that similar stations at Sydney Parade and Bayside already operate without staff
felt that this apparently should not happen a third time round
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 4 March 1975
Relief for the singer and composer of the song representing Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
RTÉ.ie is the website of Raidió Teilifís Éireann
RTÉ is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
Erin McCaffertyFri 29 Nov 2024 at 03:3025 Hampton Crescent
Agent: Sherry Fitzgerald Blackrock (01) 490 7433
built in what was once the grounds of St Helen’s estate in Booterstown
St Helen’s Wood belonged to the stately home which now houses the Radission Blu St Helen’s Hotel
The main house dates back to 1754 and was originally constructed by barrister and MP of Duleek
It has had some notable owners over the years such as Hugh Gough
the first Viscount Gough; and Sir John Nutting
deputy lieutenant and high sheriff for Co Dublin
It later became the Christian Brothers’ headquarters
What was once the stables of St Helen’s can be seen from the back of 25 Hampton Crescent
The 1,195sq ft end-of-terrace home was in relatively good repair when Aisling Ahern
“Booterstown is such a lovely neighbourhood and we liked that the estate was established,” says Ahern
They lived in the house for two years before renovating it
we examined different ways of extending the house,” she adds
so we had to be clever in how we used the space.”
they opted to knock into the dining room and do away with the narrow kitchen at the back
adding 215sq ft including a new master bedroom
They also installed tripled-glazed windows throughout
Gas central heating and new radiators were installed
which increased the overall energy rating to B3
The couple also took out all the floors and ran an engineered wood floor throughout the downstairs
that seamless flooring gives an illusion of more space,” she says
Our aim was to create one big reconfigured open-plan kitchen/dining/living space.”
with sliding glass doors that open to a south-west facing back garden
Navy floor-to-ceiling units and a splash-back of navy and white patterned tiles take up one wall
“Navy was quite popular when we installed the new kitchen
but I was nervous about choosing it,” says Ahern
I think it worked quite well and people still comment on it.”
She was intent on not having an extractor fan fitted above the oven
and enlisted the help of her engineering husband to come up with an alternative solution
“David sourced a recess extractor fan and incorporated it into the bulkhead.”
A rectangular dining table with parquet inlay sits comfortably in the dining section
and there’s a guitar and a piano — which the couple both play — against the wall
“David is probably more musical than I am but we both play
we used to spend our evenings playing and singing together.”
The addition of the piano has allowed them to play more
and led to them being invited to play at friends’ weddings
“Having easy access to the piano has really made a big difference to our lives,” says Ahern
Her favourite part of the house is the utility room off the kitchen
but it means I can chuck all the dirty clothes
the walls are painted a shade called Green Smoke by Farrow and Ball
so initially I chose yellow in an attempt to brighten it up but I was really on the fence about it,” she says
Then I came in the next morning and he had started to paint the walls yellow
‘Let’s just embrace the fact that it’s a dark
moody space and go with the green instead.”
which has a dressing area with built-in wardrobes
currently where their children aged three and one sleep
and the couple have created a patio area with a built-in barbecue and garden furniture
“We love to have friends over for a barbecue,” says Ahern
as you get the sun there from noon all the way through to the evening.”
The house is also a three-minute drive to the N11
and is within walking distance of the Dart
We thought now was a good time to sell,” says Ahern
“Selling the house for us is bittersweet,” she adds
“We’ve a lot of happy memories associated with it
but we know we’re making the right decision.”
Number 25 Hampton Crescent has an asking price of €1,025,000 with Sherry Fitzgerald Blackrock
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The Sunday TimesThe company behind a proposed spa venture beside Booterstown Marsh in south Dublin has agreed a new financing deal with a UK lender
Soundvale was set up by the entrepreneur Paddy McKillen Jr and paid €1 million for what Dublin county council described as a “highly sensitive
The company then won planning permission for a luxury wellness facility
Soundvale originally raised bridging finance from ecommerce entrepreneur Tommy Kelly. It was then refinanced by UFC fighter Conor McGregor. McGregor’s loans were in turn refinanced by Pinemont Finance, a Dublin lender headed by Niall McHugh.
Recent filings show that Soundvale has been refinanced yet again, this time through Ortus Secured Finance, a London-based finance house.
Dublin) – April 6th 2025 (peacefully) in the wonderful kind care of the staff at Ashford Nursing Home
Davy; dearly beloved husband of the late Jean
Sadly missed by his loving children and their partners Ciaran
Family flowers only please. Donations if desired to the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland. To make a donation click on this link https://www.alzheimers.ie
For those who are unable to attend the funeral but would like to offer their condolences, can do so on the notices section by clicking on this link www.patrickodonovanandsonfunerals.ie or on the condolence section below.
Please Note: The links provided to live-stream the Funeral Mass and Cremation Service are managed by an independent streaming companies. The Funeral Directors accepts NO responsibility for its functionality or interruption to a live transmission.
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A GROUP OF youths who broke a teenager’s fingers in south county Dublin told him not to mess with lads from their school again, a court has heard.
One of the group of perpetrators, Luke Daly (23), has had his sentence deferred after he pleaded guilty to simple assault at Rock Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin on 7 December 2019.
Daly, of Booterstown Avenue, Booterstown, Co Dublin, was one of ten or 20 youths who set upon the victim in what a judge said “may have been a case of mistaken identity”.
Daly admitted grabbing the victim’s jacket and pulling him to the ground, however, gardaí could not say that he had any role in kicking or hitting.
The victim suffered three fractured fingers when he was kicked by some of the youths as he went to get the DART home after attending a house party.
At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, Daly was ordered to keep the peace and be of good behaviour pending sentence next April.
Judge Orla Crowe said the offence would warrant a sentence of two months, but that she intended to dispose of the case under Section 100 of the Criminal Justice Act.
Daly was also ordered to pay the victim the sum of €3,000, which he had offered as a token of his remorse.
Judge Crowe said the victim in the case was “entirely innocent and blameless” and simply should not have been subject to attack.
Garda Eoin O’Mahony told Alison Fynes BL, prosecuting, that the victim went to a house party in Booterstown on the night, then left with some friends and his girlfriend to go to Domino’s Pizza.
The victim told gardaí that shortly after 11pm, he was walking his girlfriend and two other friends towards the DART station, when he saw a group of ten or 20 lads walking behind them.
Some of the group grabbed his friend, saying: “Can we have a chat?” and then pulled him to the ground.
The victim said he ran to help his friend and then a lad ran after him, pulled him to the ground and a group began kicking him in the ribs.
He asked them were they done and they replied: “Don’t mess with lads from (a particular school).”
The victim’s friends gave similar statements, describing the large group as saying “You won’t mess with (a named school) again.”
The court heard there had been an altercation earlier on at a house party which did not involve either the victim or his friends.
Daly was arrested and admitted to grabbing the victim’s jacket and pulling him down. He told gardaí pushes were exchanged and that the victim was on the ground when he left.
The court heard that the large group of males had incorrectly assumed that the victim and his friend were part of a rival school.
Daly had just turned 18 at the time, while the rest of the group of perpetrators were all underage.
One of the other members of the group was assigned a Garda Junior Liaison Officer but no-one else was identified or prosecuted.
The victim did not wish to attend court or make a victim impact statement, the court heard.
Daly pleaded early at the District Court to the charge of simple assault, but the court referred the matter to the Circuit Court.
Daly has no previous convictions and has not come to garda attention since, the court heard.
Kevin Roche BL, defending, said it was an extremely childish incident which got out of control and was entirely out-of-character for his client.
Counsel said this case has hung over Daly throughout his undergraduate degree and the Master’s degree he is currently doing.
Daly, whose parents were present in court, was described as pro-social.
The court heard that Daly has been putting money aside from part-time work and had brought the sum of €3,000 to court by way of compensation.
Judge Crowe said it had been a “grave misunderstanding” and may have been a case of mistaken identity.
The judge noted the large number of testimonials on Daly’s behalf and described him as a person of considerable academic and musical talent.
“He has not come to any adverse attention since and has devoted his life to study. This was manifestly out-of-character. Gardaí have no concerns about this man,” added the judge.
Daly is due back before court on 10 March 2025 for mention and final orders will be made on 10 April, when the case will be disposed of, if Daly has met all conditions.
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Now this young family are moving on to their next adventure, and number 52 St Helen’s Road, extending to 187sq m (2,012sq ft) with a C1 Ber rating, is for sale through Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty, seeking €1.6 million.
The kitchen-breakfast-livingroom certainly has the wow factor, with feature vaulted ceiling, atrium rooflights and doors leading out to the back garden. It has a fully tiled floor and a large centre island with undercounter sink unit, and granite worktops. A large gas Aga, Neff oven with five-ring gas hob and an integrated microwave look after the cooking, while an integrated fridge freezer looks after the perishables.
Off the kitchen, part of the garage has been converted to a spacious utility room and a shower room-wetroom with tiled floor and walls. This leaves plenty of handy storage space for bikes, buggies and sports gear.
Upstairs are four bedrooms with built-in fitted wardrobes, two doubles and two singles; the main bedroom has a bay window looking out to the front. The main family bathroom is fully tiled, and has bath with shower over, cabinet wash-hand basin and heated towel rail. There’s a hot press off the landing, and a Stira gives access to the attic, which is insulated and floored for easy storage, and has potential to convert to an attic room.
One great original feature is the large stained-glass picture window on the stairs going up to the landing – instead of the usual curlicues and floral patterns, this window has simple, amber rectangles, rendering it timeless.
Kevin Courtney is an Irish Times journalist
The secrets of Booterstown’s hidden cottage
You’ll have a hard time finding No11 Grotto Place in Booterstown
a house that is immersed in mystery on account of it having no frontage at all and indeed no rear to speak of either
The house is completely screened off in behind all of its neighbours which surround it and hem it in on all sides
there are just two wall-mounted windows on one side
Most of the natural lighting indoors is thanks to an array of skylights and ceiling installed veluxes
The house is entered via a lane off Grotto Place
and in this lane is a door which in turn leads into the courtyard entrance of No11
no one is quite sure how the period cottage came to be completely corralled in from the street on all sides
“I’ve always gone for houses that stand out from the rest for one reason or another
I think it’s brilliant that it’s so completely hidden away and no one can find it without very clear instructions.”
The 1911 Census for Grotto Place shows eight cottages (not 11) and in that year
they are home to an array of solid professionals
this residential pocket underwent some deft Edwardian rebranding
but listed under the entirely less salubrious address of Grotts Lane
Perhaps a landlord/developer by the name of Mr Grott passed away in the interim and the residents embraced the chance to rebrand
Number 11 and its neighbour were most likely later additions to the Victorian cottages and then
became themselves surrounded by newer homes in more recent decades
Wason says lease paperwork suggests hers was constructed in the 1950s
She was living in Limerick five years ago and found No11 while trying to source a Dublin home for a client
“Number 11 was completely unsuited to his needs
it was owned by a young couple and it looked like they had started renovating it themselves
but had run out of money or enthusiasm to finish it.”
So Wason began bidding for the property and emerged with the deeds
She hadn’t intended buying a house until she viewed it
she got a builder in who told her a lot of the completed work
“One of the previous owners was in the kitchen business
which was perfect and that’s the kitchen I still have today
She learned that the house had been bought by a builder as a two-bed cottage in 2003 and he extended and modified it
An outside yard area was built over to make the dining room and an atrium was installed
One of the bedrooms was opened up to provide more living space
which made it into a more luxurious one-bedroom home
I had absolutely no furniture,” says Wason
“I furnished it a bit at a time as I went along
I wanted it bright and I introduced a blue colour scheme for a bit of difference
I tiled the courtyard and today this is my special space
This is where you can find me most of the time
I wanted a big fern and he came back initially with one that was knee high
Don’t listen to people who say you shouldn’t put a large item into a small space
“It’s the perfect outdoor space if you just want to disappear and sit out there in the sun with a coffee and the Sunday papers
When I send my friends pictures of me sat out here
“The Booterstown bird sanctuary is right outside my door
We have egrets and greenfinches and Jenny wrens.”
Also on her doorstep is the Booterstown Strand and Dart Station
which is handy for travelling to the city centre
“I can walk to my office in Blackrock in 10 minutes.”
Blackrock Village has a well known market and range of pubs and restaurants
Seating area and fitted wardrobe in the bedroom
accommodation includes a living room with a vaulted high ceiling and an open fire
There’s wood panelling and a wide plank floor
This opens into the kitchen with eye and base level white hand-painted units and quartz worktops
this leads through to the dining room under a high atrium glass ceiling
A double bedroom overlooks the courtyard and there’s a bathroom with a rain-head power shower
“I have three grandchildren in Limerick who I want to be close to.”
pay very close attention to the agent’s directions
in the compassionate care of the staff at St
Conor is survived by his stepmother Brigid
Reposing at Quinns Funeral Home, Glasthule on Saturday (4th January) from 11am to 1pm, followed by a funeral service at Mount Jerome Crematorium - Victorian Chapel, at 3.15pm, which may be viewed on the following link, Victorian Chapel Service - Mount Jerome
No flowers, thank you. Donations if desired to DSPCA or the Peter McVerry Trust.
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devoted father of his twin daughters Aoife and the late Ciara and brother to the late Joe and Damien
Messages to the family can be left in the ‘Condolences’ section below
Donations, in lieu, if desired to Irish Heart Foundation (https://irishheart.ie/).
Celine NaughtonFri 27 Sep 2024 at 03:30The Bungalows (Barracks)
With the first phase of the new Bungalows at Glenamuck Cottages development in Dublin 18 having sold out
demand for the five houses in phase two is intense
particularly among downsizers looking to retire to a single-storey
Two homes arresting interest in this second phase are The Barracks
each spanning 1,604 sq ft with a home office
three double bedrooms (one en suite with walk-in wardrobe) and a bathroom
Located three minutes’ drive from UCD Belfield
Glenomena Park is a 1950s development that’s also close to Stillorgan and Blackrock
Number 20 opens into a bright entrance hall with guest WC off
kitchen and a living/dining room with sliding doors to a rear patio
Upstairs are four double bedrooms and a bathroom
The floor area is 1,087 sq ft and if new owners want to add to that
there’s plenty of space to extend into the 90ft-long back garden
Upgrades have elevated the BER of this 1950s semi to B2
while an architect-designed extension has increased its floor area to 1,851 sq ft
it comes with planning permission for a 398 sq ft extension
guest WC and an open-plan office/kitchen/breakfast room with steps down to a family area
There’s also a utility room and an en suite bedroom downstairs
This Edwardian red-brick is just a seagull’s squawk from Sandymount Strand and a few minutes’ walk from the Dart station
which will have you into the centre of town in zip time
with three bedrooms and a bathroom on the floor above
The back garden is laid out in Indian sandstone with raised beds
Reposing at her home on Thursday, 5th December, from 5pm to 7pm. Funeral Mass in the Church of the Assumption, Booterstown on Friday 6th December, at 11am followed by private burial in St. Margaret's Church Cemetery in Curracloe Co. Wexford.
Dublin) 21st of September 2024 (on her Birthday)
and daughter of the late Malachy and Vera Sharkey (Hyde Park Avenue
She will be sadly missed by her daughter Natalie
Funeral Mass on Tuesday 1st of October at 11 am in the Church of the Assumption, Booterstown followed by burial in Deans Grange Cemetery. For those that cannot attend, the Mass can be viewed online using this link:https://www.churchservices.tv/booterstown .
Messages of sympathy for Anne’s family can be left in the condolence section below.
He transitioned peacefully with his beloved daughter Céline-Fleur and his sister Grainne by his side
He will be sadly missed by his daughter Céline-Fleur and her mum Brigitte - his previous wife of 40 years
a wide circle of friends especially Aoife and Tom and his loving girlfriend Susan
Bright and colourful attire is welcome to honour the radiant Kenneth
at 12pm (Noon) in the Church of the Assumption
Booterstown Avenue followed by a Service and cremation in the Garden Chapel
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It had been a doctors’ surgery and had a large conservatory on the back over what was the kitchen – which itself had lean-to rooms – so it didn’t suit our plan to have a large kitchen that opened up to the garden,” the owner says
Engaging architect Tim Kane of Kane Architecture
who suggested removing the conservatory and raising the kitchen roof to accommodate lots of glass
the result is superb and one of the highlights of the 261sq m (2,809sq ft) house
allowing a huge open-plan kitchen with high-gloss taupe units overlooking the rear garden through wall-to-wall glazing
What was the old doctors’ surgery is now a cool snug (attached to the kitchen) that now has bespoke wall-to-wall shelving units
As the house has all its original flooring – found under years of carpet – now sanded and polished
they sourced old wooden planks that came from a Scottish distillery: “The builders were horrified at the state of them and even suggested they use the other side of the boards but we loved them for the character they bring.”
An all-white palette (which shocked the builders
according to the owners) now acts as a backdrop for contemporary art and mid-century furniture
which have been replaced with solid-wood sash from their former PVC counterparts
and there’s lots of privacy from a hedge out front
As it stands two formal reception rooms lie at hall level along with the large kitchen and dining area to the rear
A further reception room in the form of a family room lies on the first floor
with super views across the road to Dublin Bay
while three further bedrooms lie over the next two floors
While works were happening it was discovered that a false ceiling had been installed in the main bedroom
and when it came down it allowed for a Velux
The en suite space for this bedroom was reduced in size which
To the rear lies a patio with raised beds that replaced “the original version
which was a bit odd as part of it looked like a swimming pool”
At the very back is a roller door for vehicular off-street parking
while there’s also residential permit parking out front
It is the location of this lovely house that will be of interest. It’s less than a five-minute walk to the Dart, where you can be in town in 20 minutes or five minutes to Dún Laoghaire. The location across the road can never be built upon as it is a sanctuary: Booterstown Marsh, giving interest year-round.
Number 124, a timeless elegant home with sea views and a Ber of D1, is now on the market through DNG seeking €1.5 million.
Elizabeth Birdthistle, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes about property, fine arts, antiques and collectables
Roche's harps have pride of place in Woodford – one stands in the hall, and two others dominate the music room close to the piano. You can almost imagine an intimate recital being performed here, in front of an exclusive gathering. Indeed, Roche has broadcast a number of performances from Woodford, and the house has also been used for yoga and meditation retreats, and wellness weekends for people with dementia. "It's a soul place," she says.
As you enter the house through a generous porch, you come into a wide hallway with a welcoming marble fireplace and open fire. New owners may want to take out the carpets here and replace them with wooden or tiled floors. An impressive main staircase leads upstairs, while to the left is a downstairs bedroom with en suite that would make a perfect guest room. To the right is the sunroom, with walnut floors and picture windows overlooking the grounds.
There’s also a plant room and utility room, cloakroom and guest toilet downstairs.
Upstairs are four generous bedrooms, one with vaulted ceiling and triple aspect windows, and another with ceiling coving and floor-to-ceiling picture windows. There are also two en suite bathrooms, a dressingroom and a shower room.
Woodford is certainly a quirky home, and may not be to everyone’s taste. But when it finds its ideal owner, this house will no doubt reveal many delights.
Woodford, extending to 455sq m (4,898sq ft) with a Ber of B3, is on sale through Lisney/Clare Connolly Estate Agent for €3,450,000.
Firstly, the four-bedroom home, a former rectory, is detached, which is a rarity, as most of the properties here are large terraced houses.
Secondly, besides its period details – it retains some lovely plasterwork, especially in the front hall and main reception rooms at either side of the front hallway – the size of the garden may well clinch the deal for new owners.
With an east-southeast orientation, it gets morning and afternoon sun, and new owners could, subject to compliance with the relevant planning regulations, simply knock through from the kitchen into the garden to have a more integrated space. “The garden is really the best feature of this house as it stretches to more than 130ft [40m] by 50ft [15m],” says Stephen Day of Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty, who is handling the sale.
Its current layout comprises two spacious reception rooms flanking the hall at garden level with a large kitchen and a number of ancillary rooms to the rear. On the first-floor return is the fourth bedroom, which is en suite, and a good-sized storeroom.
On the top floor are three further good-sized bedrooms and a small kitchenette that would be better served as a family bathroom.
Its location, just a few minutes from Booterstown Dart station, will also be a bonus, as will its proximity to Gleesons, named VFI National Pub of the Year 2022. The well-known bar and lounge is just four doors away from number 52.
On its location on Booterstown Avenue, Stephen Day says: “It’s an area where there is consistently strong demand for residential property, not only for the Dart, but also the quality bus corridor, making it an ideal point between city living and the coastal charms of south Co Dublin.”
The property, which has a Ber of E1, is now on the market through Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty, seeking €1.395 million.
central Rangoon shut down to support an Irishman being tried for sedition
Indian and Burmese bazaars closed and crowds carried him in ceremonial procession to the court
The cinema donated two days' takings to his defence fund, one of Gandhi’s close allies threw his newspaper’s weight behind him and his lawyer was a leading Burmese nationalist
The Irishman supported by this ethnically and religiously diverse coalition was a Buddhist monk and he was on trial for challenging Christian missionaries
Born Laurence Carroll in Booterstown in Dublin in 1856
he had worked his way across the Atlantic
hoboed across the United States and sailed the Pacific before winding up as a docker in Burma where he was ordained as U Dhammaloka
he learned the activist skills that helped him become a leading anti-colonial celebrity across Buddhist Asia
published and distributed huge numbers of radical pamphlets
and became a key player in the transnational Buddhist revival
1911 was not Dhammaloka's first brush with the law
He was a man with five different aliases and
he remained silent about 25 years of this life, details of which were presumably too risky to share in public
the subject of an early extradition-type request
faking his own death and eventually disappearing
the scale of popular support was such that the trial was postponed and his eventual sentence – binding-over to keep the peace – as minimal as possible without actually clearing him
In Asia as in Ireland, colonialism had a religion problem. Empire was increasingly justified "at home" as bringing the Gospel to the heathen, but it could not tread too heavily on local religion in the process. Just as Daniel O'Connell could mobilise Catholicism for his political purposes
Empire’s support of missionaries in Asia left a space for anti-colonial activists to organise around the defence of local religion
He was a man with five different aliases and remained silent about 25 years of this life, details of which were presumably too risky to share in public
Central Burma had only been finally conquered with a brutal counter-insurgency campaign less than a generation previously, in which Irish people had played a very different role. The Burmese Buddha statue in Molly Bloom's soliloquy
which greeted visitors to the National Museum for many years
Sir Charles Fitzgerald as "a trophy of Britain’s newest colony exhibited to the people of her oldest"
the Bible and the bottle were safer targets than the Gatling gun
but even this was sailing close to the wind
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Developers Paddy McKillen jnr and Matt Ryan have secured planning permission from An Bord Pleanála for the development of a luxurious wellness facility, spa and interpretative centre on the lands adjacent to Booterstown Marsh and bird sanctuary in South Dublin
While the Press Up Entertainment Group chiefs’ plan for the site had been rejected by Dublin City Council in November 2020 over concerns that it could cause water pollution in Dublin Bay and have a harmful impact on what it described as “a highly sensitive
the appeals board has now given the project the green light following the consideration of an environmental impact assessment and a commitment from McKillen’s company
to protect the area’s biodiversity through a series of mitigation measures
one of just two Unesco biosphere reserves in Ireland
while there are only 701 Unesco biosphere reserves in the world
Located just off the Rock Road and at the boundary of Booterstown Marsh
comprise a five-storey building rising to a height of 18.55 metres (61ft) and extending across a total area of 6,328sq m (68,114sq ft)
is to become “an exemplary place of exercise
the top floor of the building – or Sky Level +02 as it will be known – is set to accommodate a wellness centre and spa along with an outdoor pool
The outdoor pool complex is to be located overlooking the scheme’s central garden
described as the most important part of the building by the developer
will be mostly for use by members and will comprise changing rooms and shower areas for individuals and families
The mezzanine level (+0M) will offer additional studio space and some additional toilets and an office space
The upper level and terrace of the interpretative centre will also be located at this level
The ground-floor level (+00) of the building will consist of its main reception
In a concurrent planning application to Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council in relation to the lands surrounding the proposed building
the developer has submitted a detailed biodiversity plan
Included in this proposal are a new coastal meadow flood plain
Commenting on the objectives for the lands surrounding the wellness facility and interpretative centre
the developer said: “The biodiversity aspects
coastal meadow and pollinator planting are designed to stimulate interest in sustainable gardening
lectures and seasonal events will appeal to anyone with an interest in gardening and contributing to the environment and their wellness whether they have a window box
patio or garden or are involved with any of the Tidy Towns Groups who are keen to learn more about pollinators and biodiversity gardening
“Where possible, we will collaborate and partner with leading experts including the Botanic Gardens, pollinators.ie and the National Biodiversity Centre.”
131 Booterstown Avenue, Booterstown, Co Dublin
Open-plan living room at 131 Booterstown Avenue
Celine NaughtonFri 22 Jul 2022 at 03:30131 Booterstown Avenue, Booterstown, Co Dublin, €895k
One of the perennial questions parents consider when trading up to a long-term family home is how close it is to schools. Booterstown Avenue comes into its own in that regard, being within the catchment area of some of south Dublin’s leading learning institutions.
Among the primary schools within walking distance are Willow Park, St Andrew’s Junior School, St Mary’s Boys’ School, Our Lady of Mercy Girls’ School and Booterstown National School. Secondary schools on the doorstep include Coláiste Íosagáin, Blackrock College, Coláiste Eoin and St Andrew’s College. And when the kids reach college age, UCD is only 10 minutes away by car or half an hour on foot, while Trinity College is 15 minutes on the Dart.
Within this academic heartland, No131 Booterstown Avenue is a recently renovated 1950s three-bed semi with a floor area of 1,550 sq ft, including a converted attic measuring 258 sq ft. Off a spacious hallway is a living room with sliding doors to a dining room and next to that a streamlined kitchen. Both it and the dining room have doors leading out to a raised deck and 62 ft long back garden.
Upstairs are three bedrooms (the main with ensuite bathroom and walk-in wardrobe) and a shower room. Stairs lead up to the converted attic with four Velux windows. If new owners want to make more of this space, the house is being sold with full planning permission to extend the converted attic into two rooms and a bathroom.
Accessed via an electric gate, the front driveway provides off-street parking for up to four cars. The Dart is a short walk away and there’s a good bus service into the city centre along the Rock Road.
No 131 Booterstown Avenue is for sale at €895,000 with Sherry FitzGerald Blackrock (01) 288 0088.
It could be any crossroads. There is nothing now to mark the place where Kevin O’Higgins, the then minister for justice and vice-president of the Irish Free State, was gunned down on a quiet Sunday morning in July 1927.
The gunmen intercepted O’Higgins by chance, where Cross Avenue intersects with Booterstown Avenue in this affluent Dublin suburb, while on their way to a football match.
"That particular morning O'Higgins sent his detective bodyguard off to Blackrock to buy cigarettes. He was on his way to the Church of the Assumption on Booterstown Avenue when the three anti-treaty IRA men passed by him and realised this was their opportunity," explains author Hugh Oram.
O’Higgins was found lying by a lamppost outside the gates of Sans Souci Park which directly faces up Cross Avenue.
There’s a green Dart sign and an array of flowers in colourful bloom by the spot today but passersby would never know that such a political assassination took place here.
A plaque marking the spot where the murder occurred was unveiled by former taoiseach Enda Kenny in 2012 but was apparently vandalised a few weeks later and eventually removed.
The details of the killing, which sent shockwaves across the country, are recalled in Hugh Oram's latest book, his 86th, entitled The Little Book of Merrion and Booterstown.
It offers a snapshot of the past and present explaining how the two suburbs evolved into centres of academia, finance and influence down through the centuries. And it’s peppered with intriguing nuggets of information and memories.
In the Old Punch Bowl pub Oram explains how tunnels were used to smuggle forbidden goods from Merrion Strand.
“The tunnels would travel just under us here and emerge right next to the old police station. The smugglers were doing a roaring trade right under the noses of the authorities.”
The pub on the Rock Road is one of the oldest in the country, dating back to 1779, and it maintains something of an old-world charm.
And standing at the doorway, through which so many icons of Irish history would have passed over the years, Oram tells how this vista wouldn’t have changed since the day the drinking house first opened.
“Well, the Rock Road here in front of us is around 2,000 years old, one of the oldest in the country. It started off as an ancient road, the Slíghe Chualann, and ran from the Hill of Tara to present-day Bray.”
Once the boundary of the Pale, Merrion and Booterstown, originally known as Butterstown, evolved from the rural playground of the aristocracy to become two of the most influential parishes in the nation.
While Merrion’s development was more laboured, Booterstown’s growth was accelerated from the middle of the 19th century.
And the establishment of the French school in 1860, which would become Blackrock College, transformed the area and the small, all but forgotten, village of Williamstown.
“To cater for the development of Blackrock College it was decided to move all the shops and buildings from one side of the street in Williamstown to the other. So, the college paid for the buildings to be demolished and then rebuilt in exactly the same style across the road,” says Oram.
Though born in Plymouth, Oram knows these streets intimately, storing special affection for the little laneways off Merrion Road.
“In some ways Merrion and Booterstown have changed so much, and in other ways so little. Like the laneways are the same as they would have been 150 years ago.”
Gathering information for at least six months Oram, who has contributed to The Irish Times for the past 40 years, found local historians and "those in the know" to point him in the right direction. It's a tried and trusted formula which worked as he wrote similar Little Books on the areas of Stillorgan, Dundrum and Ballsbridge where he lives today with his wife, Bernadette.
One such direction leads us to the gateway of a non-descript detached two-storey home at 23 St Helen's Road in Booterstown. It was here in 1936 that Edward Ball, a part-time actor and son of a doctor, brutally murdered his mother, Lavena, with a hatchet before bundling her lifeless body into the back of his motor car and driving to Shankill to dispose of her body in the sea.
It would transpire that the cause of his ire was his mother’s refusal to give him £60 to go on a foreign tour with the Gate Theatre company.
“The façade of the house would have changed very little since the day of the killing in February 1936,” says Oram as we stop to ponder the scene. “Apparently when they brought Ball back here to interrogate him he tried to jump out one of the upstairs windows. I doubt many on this street today even know the story though at the time it was huge news nationally. And you won’t find any blue plaque up on the wall here,” he explains.
Not far away we pass a majestic house named “Glena” and do find a plaque of sorts.
It reads: “Tenor John McCormack, Count of the Papal Court lived here.”
Built in 1888 the last home of one of Ireland’s most famous sons looks out over Dublin Bay. A corner tower, with a large window and cone-shaped roof, remains intact and it’s easy to imagine an elderly McCormack gazing out across the Irish Sea as war raged beyond. He died here in 1945.
“There’s a story that McCormack used to pop into the Old Punch Bowl some evenings and sing a few ditties for the locals . . . but I’m not really sure how true that is,” says Oram.
Others, etched into the fabric of the Irish identity, walked these streets. Eamon de Valera won a scholarship to Blackrock College studying there between 1898 and 1900. He would return to teach mathematics and lived on Cross Avenue with his wife, Sinead, and their seven children.
And Séamus Heaney lived on Strand Road in Merrion though he always referred to his home as being in Sandymount.
As Little Books go, this one has a big story to tell. A pathway illuminated by secrets and insights, it leads us through Merrion and Booterstown and documents so much of the area's history which might otherwise have been lost and forgotten.
The Little Book of Merrion and Booterstown by Hugh Oram is out now.
AN BORD PLEANÁLA has reversed the decision of two local authorities and granted planning permission for the controversial development of a major new leisure and biodiversity centre in south Dublin.
The board has upheld an appeal by development firm, Soundvale, to construct a landmark, five-storey “recreational and interpretative centre” on the Merrion Road in Booterstown next to An Taisce’s nature reserve at Booterstown Marsh.
The ruling overturns a decision by both Dublin City Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to reject the plans by Soundvale, a development firm owned by well-known businessman Paddy McKillen Jnr, of the Press Up entertainment and hospitality group which runs a large number of bars, restaurants and hotels in Ireland.
The two local authorities had separately refused planning permission for the centre on a 1.9 hectare site in Booterstown, which covers land in both administrative areas, over concerns for its potential to have a negative environmental impact on the Dublin Bay area.
The site is located opposite the Maldron Hotel on the Merrion Road.
The main building will have an overall height of 18.5 metres and consist of an interpretive centre, crèche, café, restaurant, health studios, gym, spa, swimming pool, jacuzzi and hydro pool.
Although Soundvale submitted in its planning submission that the interpretive centre was not commercially driven, it does envisage charging an entrance fee to ensure it is sustainable and generates income.
The biodiversity element of the project includes plans for a new coastal meadow, a coastal tree belt, coastal grass, shrub garden and bird hide.
The centre, which had a capacity for 120 visitors at any one time, is due to be managed by an independent, not-for-profit entity, while the recreational facilities are expected to be run by the Press Up group.
Dublin City Council refused planning permission for the project over concern that the development would have a significant impact on wetlands in Dublin Bay.
Council planners said the location of the centre was “a highly sensitive, environmentally valuable site” which was one of a few remaining vacant coastal sites within the council’s administrative boundaries.
They noted that information provided by Soundvale could not alleviate the council’s concerns that excavation work in areas of contaminated soils containing mineral oil might adversely affect groundwater which could impact on protected areas within Dublin Bay.
The council claimed dust emissions from the site would also have a moderate to high ecological impact, while a report supplied by the developer acknowledged that the project had the potential to impact on wildlife during the construction phase.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council had rejected plans for the centre over concerns about its impact on wintering birds.
The plans were also opposed by An Taisce, which claimed they would set an undesirable precedent for development of a large-scale commercial nature on green and open spaces in the city.
The heritage body pointed out that Booterstown Marsh, which is an internationally important feeding and roosting area for ducks, geese and waders, was the only remaining saltmarsh on the south shore of Dublin Bay.
An Taisce also claimed the commercial leisure facilities would be much more appropriately located in the hotel on the opposite side of the road.
The development was also opposed by the Friends of Booterstown Coast group which claimed the site is located in the buffer zone for the UNESCO Dublin Bay Biosphere as well as being prone to flooding.
The group, some of whose members attempted to buy the site when it was controlled by NAMA, claimed the proposal was for a “commercial leisure development” which, if approved, would represent a material contravention of the existing city development plan.
However, An Bord Pleanála said it was satisfied that the proposed development would not affect the integrity of several EU protected sites around Dublin Bay.
Subject to compliance with planning conditions, the board said it would improve the existing use value of the site for recreational and amenity purposes.
The board said the new centre would also make “a positive contribution to the character of the area” and it was satisfied that it would not seriously injure the residential or visual amenities of the area or other properties in the locality.
It noted that the building will be located at the greatest distance from sensitive ecological receptors.
The board said the effects of the centre once operational would be “moderate, positive and long-term.”
An inspector ecologist with An Bord Pleanála said she was satisfied that all ecological concerns had been addressed and that mitigation measures proposed by the developer would be effective.
Soundvale claimed its objective was “to deliver a world class recreational facility and interpretative centre in a coastal meadow and biodiversity-rich setting” that would benefit the local and wider community.
It had warned that a “do nothing” scenario would result in the deterioration of an ecologically sensitive site, while its plans met the objectives of the National Biodiversity Action Plan.
The ruling by An Bord Pleanála was originally scheduled to be delivered in early 2021 but was delayed due to a backlog of cases and a detailed review of the development’s ecological impact.
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The house last changed hands in 2012 with the new owner renovating the property as a Dublin base. However as it turned out he didn’t end up staying in the house much, or not enough to justify keeping, so is now selling. The lack of use and smart contemporary makeover means it is in walk-in condition. The extension brought the cottage to 84sq m (904sq ft).
The two bedrooms are to the front – both doubles, one small, one considerably larger with a walk-in wardrobe and bathroom en suite. Further along the hall there is another fully tiled bathroom. The new, single-storey flat roofed extension runs the width of the rear and it made room for a spacious open-plan dining, kitchen and living area.
A glazed wall with double doors opening to the south-facing garden helps make this high-ceilinged room a bright contemporary space as do the roof lights and glossy floor tiles. The high-gloss cream kitchen with island unit is on one side of the room. The stainless steel appliances, including the American-style fridge have been little used so buyers won’t have to replace them. The garden – not overlooked – is part timber deck, part under grass with some shrubs planted on the perimeter.
It’s the type of house – well located, comprehensively renovated, and fitted out in a neutral contemporary style – that will appeal to buyers at either end of the market from downsizers, especially those who sell well and are looking to stay in Blackrock, to young professionals who want an easy commute via the nearby Dart into town. The Ber is a healthy B3.
There is off-street parking for two cars to the front and the only time this road is in any way busy is during term time at school starting and closing times. Number 6 Grotto Place is for sale through DNG seeking €650,000.
Bernice Harrison is an Irish Times journalist and cohost of In the News podcast
Number 5 faces south and lies under the original clock tower of the stables. Red brick and granite render make for an attractive exterior, and the owners’ taste and style are evident as soon as you step into the front hallway. White walls throughout the house create a backdrop for the vivid contemporary art hung over the two levels.
It’s a compact property at 67 sq m (721 sq ft) with a C3 Ber, and is on the market with Sherry FitzGerald, seeking €650,000. Residents have parking to the front of the properties and pay €630 a year to a management company for all maintenance of the grounds, with a well-maintained, pretty green just outside the house.
The ground floor has two bedrooms and the bathroom, which is contemporary with black fittings and white metro tiles. There is a double bedroom with high-gloss fitted wardrobes and carpeted floors. The second bedroom was split into two when a former resident needed separate rooms for children; one of these is now used as a storage space and walk-in wardrobe but the partition wall could be easily removed and a larger bedroom recreated.
All spare space on the ground floor is filled with tall, sleek storage cabinets; the units beside both front and back doors as well as under the stairs were custom built. Outside in the small garden there is a shed with a radiator, handy for storing outdoor accessories during the winter.
The garden was part of the renovation with artificial grass and new fencing installed and a smart Abwood garden room that doubles up as home office and second kitchen. The owner says this was a gift during summer entertaining, with the sink and fridge at garden level, hosting barbecues was a breeze.
Many of the original features of the stables block are beautifully intact on the first floor which serves as a kitchen/dining/living area. It’s a warm and bright space, lit by two large Velux windows, enhanced by original exposed redbrick walls and the black beams soaring into the room’s apex roof.
The new kitchen echoes the two-tone colour scheme with U-shaped white gloss units topped by black quartz composite countertops, and the island with seating flips this with black units and white countertop, making for a smart focal point in the room. The kitchen units, like all of the fitted furniture in the house, including a dining bench in the eating area beside the stairs, were made by the builder.
The owner says they will be very sorry to leave the home, adding that they loved the open-plan nature of the development and the location, which is within easy reach of the N11 on the Radisson side and Booterstown Dart station on the seafront side.
It’s an enviable location, with accessible bus routes to the left and right of the property, on the Rock Road and Stillorgan Road making for easy and quick access into Dublin city centre. Blackrock village is nearby and the shopping centres of Stillorgan, Dundrum and Merrion are a quick drive away.
Miriam Mulcahy, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes about property
Irish Pub of the Year was awarded to Gleesons of Booterstown. From left: LVA Chair Alison Healy, Minster Heather Humphries TD, John and Ciaran Gleeson of Gleesons of Booterstown and VFI President Paul Moynihan.
Gleesons of Booterstown, County Dublin, was named National Pub of the Year at the Irish Pub Awards 2022.
The Southside pub was crowned national champion from a field of 61 regional winners at a Gala Awards Ceremony in the Round Room at The Mansion House in Dublin.
The Irish Pub of the Year Awards are jointly presented by the Vintners Federation of Ireland and The Licenced Vintners Association.
With over 700 entries from all over Ireland this awards programme continues to be recognised by publicans countrywide as a valuable way to promote their businesses. Here, we review the Overall Winner and nine Category Winners.
Since its establishment in 1954 Gleesons has been an integral part of the Booterstown community. The Gleeson family developed the business to offer excellence across a number of areas including traditional pub, extensive food offering from breakfast through to late evening, gourmet food corner shop/Deli – and most recently the premises was expanded to include luxury accommodation.
The pub has ably demonstrated a consistency in quality across all it offers.
All-day food is served, starting at 7.30am and Gleesons offers a Deli for home essentials too. Emphasising its place in the local community the pub has coffee mornings daily.
“Ciaran and I bought the business from the family in 2007 and have continually reinvested since,” says John Gleeson, “When you’ve only one pub you’ve to ‘sweat the asset’.
“In 2010 we built the Deli on the front of the pub; we renovated extensively over the following years and in 2018 built the 16-bedroom Townhouse over the pub.”
Gleesons managed to stay open throughout Covid via its Deli, serving customers takeaway food and pints while feeding local hospital staff. A WhatsApp group for its customers proved a great success, with competitions every week.
Meanwhile it didn’t lose focus on its core business: great food and drink – consistent product, with efficient friendly service.
“We’re lucky to have wonderful staff, many of whom are with us for many years” says John who expected that to win they must have got high ratings in seven of the nine categories, “…with the two exceptions being music and late night, neither are conducive to having bedrooms!”.
Since winning Irish Pub of the Year Gleesons has noticed plenty of new customers coming in to check it out for the first time. Indeed John reports that December was “a great month in volume terms”, with Guinness stout the big winner, again increasing its percentage of the draught market.
“The Irish Pub Awards are very well publicised in print, radio and online” he says, “backed by the LVA and VFI and all the main suppliers; they’re seen as the definitive awards. I think a lot of people recognise this so I’m sure it will increase new footfall this year. ”
Gleesons’ 16-bedroom Townhouse has exceeded expectations.
“We spent approximately €2 million on the project in 2017/18 which included renovating the restaurant, a new bar and new reception/office. Our wives Patricia and Gillian were the interior decorators; they did a brilliant stylish job that will last.
“We had a great 2019, high occupancy, everyone happy then Covid! But we came right back in 2022 with 90% occupancy at good rates.
“Customers are mostly a mix of corporate and tourism. Residents love the atmosphere of the pub downstairs, the good pint, nice meal, particularly midweek, corporates and tourists alike.”
Consistency of product has been built-up over many years – and in Gleesons’ case, generations.
“Customers will support the business that gives consistency whether it’s a great pint, great cocktails or great food,” says John, “In relation to food, buy in the best product, insist on it from your supplier and charge for it. You have to get your prices these days, but if the product is good people will pay for it. You’re only as good as your last meal, so complacency is the enemy of consistency.”
As for the future, “Our main objective for the next couple of years would be to keep improving our offering. It’s the great thing about hospitality, there’s always room for improvement!
“Ciaran and I both have family coming into the business, thankfully, so we aim to keep the momentum going for the next generation.”
The nine category winners of the Irish Pub Awards are:
Best Food Pub sponsored by Musgrave MarketPlace: Collins Bar & Restaurant, Dooradoyle, Limerick.
Best Tourist Pub sponsored by Fáilte Ireland: O’Connells in Howth, County Dublin.
Innovative Pub of the Year sponsored by BOI Payment Acceptance: Andy’s Bar & Restaurant, Monaghan Town.
Best Local Pub sponsored by Diageo: Casey’s Bar & Restaurant, Clonakilty, County Cork.
Best Late-Night Bar sponsored by Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard: The Reg, Waterford City.
Outstanding Customer Service sponsored by Edward Dillon: Buffalo Boy, Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim.
Best Digital Campaign sponsored by Heineken: The Bridge 1859, Ballsbridge, Dublin.
Best Music Pub sponsored by IMRO: The Porter House, Westport, Mayo.
Best Outdoor Space sponsored by Bulmers: O’Connells, Galway City.
“This year’s awards set a new benchmark for excellence in pubs across Ireland,” said VFI President Paul Moynihan, speaking at the Awards, “I’m delighted to see some truly fantastic pubs receive their awards on the back of the highest-ever number of entries.
“The Irish pub is rightly celebrated around the world so it’s important we have a prestigious awards ceremony that captures the unique qualities of our pubs. The level of innovation and excellence on display in our winning pubs should act as an inspiration to publicans thinking about entering next year’s Irish Pub Awards.”
LVA Chair Alison Kealy added, “The Irish Pub Awards have clearly established themselves as the definitive awards programme within the pub industry by trebling the number of entries in this, its third year, to over 1,700.
“The programme has been acknowledged for the excellent national and local media coverage attained along with the in-depth management training that all finalists have received that is beneficial to their business. We’re very pleased with the growth and success of the Awards in such a short time and it has now become a great vehicle to highlight the vital contribution that pubs make to Irish business, community and tourism.”
The Irish Independent is the media partner to the Irish Pub of the Year Awards and Drinks Industry Ireland is the trade media partner.
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Sharon Walsh, Head of Commercial On-Trade at Heineken; Tony McCabe, Group General Manager for The Bridge 1859; Colm Ryan General Manager of the Bridge 1859; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.
Having Rob Kearney, Dave Kearney, Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip involved as owners helps its rugby ties here.
“It’s a very simple mechanism,” proprietor Noel Anderson told Drinks Industry Ireland, “All you need is tickets for the game and a couple of pints of Heineken. We’ve the venue and my partners can put our hands on tickets.
“What’s really good about it is that we can give them to people who can’t normally get to games.”
This has seen winning fans jet off to matches in Cardiff, Bilbao and Marseilles.
So successful has it been that the pub recently trademarked #MatchDaySorted!
This all entails weekly management meetings to discuss the week’s content. Noel has also ensured a social media Whatsapp group for each of his venues to post news about what’s happening there or to introduce new product.
“I look after the twitters sometimes and someone else does the instagram,” he says of the digital campaigns which are all conducted in-house to give them more control.
He also believes that the venue’s digital presence and digital campaigns have helped it weather the Covid 19 storm.
“We built up our following during it which was the whole idea,” he says, “We’d created our takeaway platform ‘Window at the Bridge’ and used our database of followers for this to get the message out.
“Short videos of us them selling crepes through ‘The Window’ appeared, for example.
“So by having the database when it happened as it happened meant that we were able to get our message out quickly and in real time.”
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Cormac Murphy, Head of Groups Accounts & Wholesale, Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard; Justin Caffrey, Barry Monaghan, Aisling and Donal O’Brien, Derek Monaghan and Fred Hickey of The Reg; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan
This has evolved over the years and currently operates under the banner of ‘Waterford City Safe’.
Around 20-25% of staff at The Reg have completed their City & Guilds and QQI Level 6 Supervisory Management Training.
“We look forward to another successful 2023 where we will make improvements to what we do, refine our offering, experiment with new ideas and hopefully retain the title of Best Late Night Bar in 2023!”
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Area Sales Manager for Musgrave Marketplace Gary Byrne; Collins Bar’s Kevin Dowling, Gary Constable & Wayne Anderson, Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.
Collins Bar, Dooradoyle, is in a region rich with fantastic local food producers and it uses their products where it can – meats, fish, vegetables, leaves, cheese, chutneys, jams.
“If we see something we like we build a dish around it,” says proprietor James Collins, “We try to do the simple things well. Our team will make as much as we can in-house – breads, pizza dough, deserts, soups, sauces – even our kids’ meals.
“We also love to experiment and try new ideas. Every week we work with our suppliers to create weekly specials to keep the creative juices flowing. It keeps us motivated and keeps our customers returning.
The pub has been using ‘Big Green Eggs’ for its corporate BBQs since it opened in 2004.
“Rather than buy-in smoked produce, we decided to slow cook and smoke our own beef brisket, pork, chicken and duck in the Green Eggs for our lunch, dinner and street food menus,” explains James.
Last Summer the pub wanted to experiment a bit more and offer a wider variety of choice.
“We change our street food menu regularly,” he says, “This month our food truck menu includes items such as Fish Tacos with homemade salsa, guacamole, red cabbage, lime juice, sour crème served with sweet potato fries or Beef Brisket Reuben – slow cooked 14-hour brisket in a blend of spices, Sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island Dressing.”
Added to this are Chicken Shawarma – marinated strips of chicken roasted on a vertical spit, spiced Aubergine, red Onion and red pepper wrapped in Collins’ own pizza bread; Low and Slow Pork Shoulder in a cider gravy, Attyflin Estate apple sauce with Caroline Rigney sausage wrapped in bacon; the Great Dane Hotdog with crispy fried Shallots, pickled Cucumber and Dill with a curry remoulade sauce.
“We also make our own pizza dough and tomato base for our hand-stretched pizzas,” he adds, “The food truck has been very busy serving our beer garden. We’ve also been inundated by requests to take it on the road for events.
During lockdown the pub pivoted to a takeaway model to keep connected with its customers and keep the team employed.
“We’re a training kitchen and we felt we were building a great team, so we opened a takeaway,” explains James, “We used the time to upskill but also to research to try things we’d been too busy to do before. We reckoned people wanted to treat themselves so we looked to offer as high-a-standard as possible.”
Dishes customers may not cook for themselves were considered – for example Sunday roast family boxes, sharing mixed dessert boxes, weekly fish specials as well as pastas, burgers, ribs and wings.
“Many of our food truck dishes – especially our vegan and vegetarian options – were developed during Lockdown.”
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Acting Head of Tourism Careers at Fáilte Ireland Sarah Dolly; O’Connells’ Simon O’Connell, April Borland, Jennifer Murphy and Matthew Duggan, Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.
Hundreds of tourists from all over the world visit O’Connells in Howth, County Dublin, each week according to owner Simon O’Connell. The pub offers various tourist activities including historical talks and Pour Your Own Guinness as well as a trad session of nearly 40 years’ standing!
The pub shows visitors from abroad what Ireland has to offer through multilingual signage and menus while various staff members can converse with visitors in French, German, Polish, Russian, Portugese, Ukranian, Spanish and even Romanian and Arabic.
Simon opened O’Connells in 2012 with the aim of creating a place where tourists can mix with locals and experience an Irish pub’s hospitality and he’s recently put two of his staff on language courses to learn Italian and Spanish.
“People can see that our team genuinely has an interest in our international visitors,” he says, “Many of our team – most of whom have been with me for several years – have lived abroad, have family abroad and – like all of us – love to travel. And we all realise the importance of giving visitors the best experience possible!
“We always say to new team members, ‘Put yourself in the customer’s shoes, if you were on holidays how would you want to be treated and what experience would you be looking for?’.”
So few pubs make such an effort to speak the language of so many of their visitors.
“The idea of trying to make our venue more multilingual came about as a result of a group of German tourists that visited roughly six years ago,” continued Simon, “My German is reasonably strong and I began to speak in German to these guys and they were absolutely amazed. They were really delighted and had a great time. So much so that they’ve returned every year since.
“Their reaction gave me the idea that we should make an attempt to learn the languages of our visitors. So often we (Irish) go on holidays and never have to struggle with foreign languages as everyone makes the effort to speak English with us, so I thought that maybe we should be making the effort too!”
O’Connells also merits a tripadvisor Seal of Excellence which means a great deal to Simon and all the team.
“It’s recognition that we’re doing a good job and that all the hard work everyone puts in every day is worthwhile,” he says, “We all check tripadvisor daily and as soon as there’s a review in, the team are posting it in our work WhatsApp group where all the points are discussed and celebrated where appropriate!
“Tripadvisor is a great tool to help us learn, improve – and of course to help us feel appreciated for the hard work everyone does!”
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Marketing Director at BOI Payment Acceptance Barry Gray; Kevin Redmond from Andy’s Bar, Minister Heather Humphreys, Andy’s Bar’s Sean Redmond and Andy Rudzinkas with VFI President Paul Moynihan.
From making its own Sloe Gin to being a former SEAI category winner and Green Award Green Leader finalist what does Andy’s Bar & Restaurant in Monaghan town not do?
For example, proprietor Kevin Redmond and Mixologist Eddie Rudzinkas from Cocktailsforyou.net pre-batch their own cocktails. Eddie has over 1.5 million followers on his Facebook and Instagram accounts and is also an annual judge at the world cocktail championships.
The cocktails are displayed prominently on the bar counter or available in a 200ml takeaway bottle (€1 deposit charge, recoverable on return) or as a corporate gift box.
Andy’s Sloe Gin is made in-house too, dispensed from a five litre bottle bar-mounted on a ‘lazy-suzy’.
Andy’s even sold 50ml baubles filled with Andy’s Festive Sloe Gin for the Christmas tree at €5 each.
Seasonality has become part of the offering at Andy’s via two creations – Damson Old Fashioned & Autumn Foraged Gin – which the bar intends extending to having something for all seasons. This also gives it something to promote on social media.
“I wanted to offer a whiskey range” says Kevin Redmond, ” but no ordinary whiskey range. I designed Andy’s Whiskeys of the World Tour – 15 whiskeys from around the world that you’ve never heard of from India to Israel, Mexico back round to Iceland.
“On your first purchase you’re issued with a passport which opens up into a map of the world – we stamp your passport after each visit!”
Andy’s Bar has also worked on environmental projects with the EPA, Clean Technology Centre Cork, SEAI, VFI and Monaghan County Council.
“Our research work has been used by Failte Ireland and Diageo for their Storehouse,” says Kevin.
A project with four VFI members in Monaghan town was successful in establishing cost of Food Waste at €2.75 per Kg – a world first. In collaboration with Monaghan County Council Andy’s made the world’s most popular food waste video with 18 million views.
It has also benchmarked energy, water, waste, food waste and glass waste per cover.
Winning the Innovative Pub of the Year was eight years in the making, explains Kevin.
“It all started back in 2014 when we decided to serve Premium gins; it started off with three gins and we ended up with 142. Today, we’re currently ranked the No 2 Gin Bar in all Ireland.
“During the pandemic we were serving takeaway food only and saw an opportunity for Premium takeaway drinks. We work closely with our local distiller Stephen Murphy from Old Carrick Mill. Stephen exclusively supplies us with gin and whiskey for all our products – it’s truly a Monaghan product!
“The key to our sales is that they’re placed on the bar counter at the pay point; customers can see the products, pick them up, read the labels, ask questions and very importantly customers are always offered a free sample!
“The more we started to do things differently by offering new products and experiences, the more our customers really enjoyed what we were doing; in addition to this we gained new customers and ultimately profits have increased! Besides that, we’ve created a very distinct identity which has got people talking, which is so important in business today.”
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Commercial Director at Edward Dillon John Cassidy; Buffalo Boy’s Head Chef Daniel Knight, Proprietor Sean Purcell and Manager Gabriel Camburu; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.
Buffalo Boy in Carrick-on-Shannon is a place where the staff aim to ensure that their customers come in happy and leave happier.
Proprietor Sean Purcell believes his team consistently delivers the best authentic customer service experience for all their guests.
“Our aim is to turn customers into friends that will return to us; we’ll always remember them and greet them as friends when they return. We hope to remember them by name and they’ll normally remember our team by name as well.”
As one employee put it, “Our Buffalo Boy menu comes with a side of truly amazing characters to give you the best dining experience in Ireland”.
Sean comments, “What I take from that is that each team member has their own character and quirks. We let them be themselves and be authentic to their own character but the one thing that must stay the same is the goal: to give the best customer experience that’s possible, always.”
Sean sums up their win thus: “We’re always looking for ways to be better. All of us read about the industry, we watch YouTube and TV programs by leaders and teachers of the industry and we follow lots of influencers on social media to learn what we can of new and old ideas and trends.
“We encourage, support and pay for upskilling throughout the team; most of our supervisors/managers and kitchen team do three-year college courses and other smaller courses on a regular basis. At present we’ve three from the service team doing three-year courses and one of our kitchen team’s doing one too.”
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Colin Green, On-Trade Sales Director at Diageo; Casey’s Zach Collins, Adrian Harrington, Eadaoin Collins and James Casey; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.
Casey’s Bar & Restaurant in Clonakilty, County Cork, is run by a ninth generation publican and the experience and attention to detail gleaned through the generations is clear to see. With an eye to being the best ‘local’, Casey’s offers local craft companies space to display their products throughout the bar.
The pub fields a knowledgeable staff and a friendly atmosphere. It’s also the gathering place for the local darts team.
The owner, James Casey, is deeply embedded in the local community as a member of the Clonakilty Fire Brigade and is committed to using local suppliers wherever possible, like Clonakilty Tojo Ale, Galley Head Ale, Clonakilty Sea Breeze Blond, Clonakilty Inchydoney Blond, Fernhill Gin, Clonakilty Whiskey and other products which employ its talented locals.
The pub offers a Bingo Night every Thursday with a percentage of all takings on the night going to local charities.
“Since opening Casey’s Bar & Restaurant back in 2014 we’ve always strived to be primarily a local bar for local people,” says James, “We truly believe in utilising local food and drink producers and supporting local musicians wherever possible and believe this has been an integral part of Casey’s success to date.
“We recognise we’ve a unique place in the community and that brings a responsibility to help out wherever we can by supporting local charities and initiatives for the betterment of our local area.
The pub also offers complimentary Christmas dinner to anyone living alone.
“This came about in 2015 after speaking to some of our more senior customers who’d come in most days for dinner, a couple of pints and a chat. Many didn’t have any family to go to for Christmas Day and as almost everywhere is closed they’d be making do for the day.
“We thought, ‘There has to be something we can do here to help spread some festive cheer’ and thus the idea of having a delicious dinner available free-of-charge to anyone spending Christmas day alone or in need was born.”
The pub was a runner-up on Cork 96FM’s Best of Cork Awards – voted on almost exclusively by the Cork public – as well as meriting a Tripadviser’s ‘Travellers Choice’.
“We always endeavour to mix traditional and modern elements in our premises to appeal to all age ranges and this award is proof for us that we’re succeeding,” says James, “We’ve a wonderful team of knowledgeable bar staff here in Casey’s who create the friendly local atmosphere we’ve become known for and an amazing kitchen staff who create our delicious daily food menus. This award is a testament to their hard work and dedication.”
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; Senior Licensing Executive at IMRO Paul Browne; The Porter House’s Larry Martin, Marian & Joe O’Malley, Gerry McCormack and Anne Bentinck; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.
The Porerterhouse in Westport has been over 20 years in business under proprietor Joe O’Malley. The music pub is unique to Westport, having live music seven nights a week with extra early evening music sessions thrown in.
What’s also notable is that there’s no separation between musicians and customers, thus enhancing the atmosphere and the craic.
Monday to Friday sees traditional music sessions in the evening followed by more upbeat, varied live music as the pub moves into the night.
On Summer weekends a third daily music session was added to the schedule to cater for the extra demand.
The two daily music sessions run for 364 days of the year, one starting at 6.30pm and a later session at 9.30pm. These have attracted a global following and the pub was even featured in a Wild Atlantic Way promotional inflight video for Aer Lingus which was shown on all flights entering Ireland.
Apart from hiring local musicians, the pub has one further ace up its sleeve. A number of extremely talented and medal-winning bar staff can be called upon to perform sean nos dancing, songs and music should the need arise – they’ll be happy to add to the performance on any given night.
Thus has The Porterhouse developed a reputation as the ‘go-to pub’ for music when visiting Westport.
In Joe’s opinion what separates the Porter House from other music pubs are the locally-sourced musicians that deliver high-quality performances and banter at each session; the warm inclusive welcome to both patrons and visiting musicians; the extensive and varied schedule of music sessions with two daily all-year round (three daily in the Summer) and finally the longstanding national and international reputation that the pub has earned through much hard work over 25 years.
In fact local company Westport Walking Tours regards the Porter House as providing its clients with a first-rate experience of an award-winning quintessential Irish music pub.
As far as Joe’s concerned, “This award can be seen as a huge recognition of the efforts of the staff, musicians and all those involved in creating the fantastic atmosphere and the national and international reputation of the pub”.
LVA Chair Alison Kealy; C&C Group Managing Director Barry Sheehan; O’Connells’ Bar Manager Dave McCann, General Manager Paul Flanagan and Assistant Manager Ian Booth; Minister Heather Humphreys and VFI President Paul Moynihan.
This venue boasts one of Galway City’s best outdoor spaces with a beer
garden that doubles as a smoking and Barbecue area. The beer garden features large picnic tables and wooden decking and is designed such that you could easily forget that you’re in the centre of the city.
The outdoor area resembles a mock street with store-fronts and cobbles leading the visitor from one end to the other. A custom-built outdoor bar was installed as was retro-fitted vintage neon signage to bring the garden smoothly from day into night.
O’Connells offers the complete package, believes General Manager Paul Flanagan who points out the surprise factor of walking through what looks from the outside like a traditional Irish bar then finding oneself in a very large outdoor space in the middle of Galway City.
“The eye-catching designs of the shopfronts and street scene with a large bar, different seating areas, food offerings and DJ sets at the weekends, make it a really nice place to enjoy with a friendly atmosphere,” he says, “It’s also very photo-friendly and these photos of people enjoying their time with us get shared on different platforms and in turn create an interest from others to come join us.”
Obviously the weather will dictate how much O’Connells’ outdoor space gets used but it’s a vital part of the business of being successful and is used all year round.
“With limited capacity indoors, the amount of extra space outside can change the whole dynamic & vibe when being used to its full capacity,” explains Paul, “Late in the season it’s a Winter Garden with Hot Drinks & Seasonal Beers then in Summertime it becomes a cool garden with Cocktails & Spritzes. For the most part, our outdoor space is equally as popular as our indoor bar is with our customers.”
Sample comments on Google reviews from patrons who’ve experienced the outdoor area include: “Varied selection of beers from all corners, knowledgeable and helpful bar staff..regular glass pick-up and two types of food provided most nights…Five stars for the entire experience and the back outdoor area is reminiscent of Daigon Alley in Harry Potter with an alcohol-tinged twist” – Cathy.
“This is the coolest bar on the square. Amazing pizzas from Dough Bros. The outdoor/indoor courtyard is amazing even in Winter with heaters” – Danielle Heekes.
“An intriguing place and was so much more than your average pub! Definitely something to experience. The atmosphere, food and beer were perfect and it’s a place we’ll definitely return to!” – Taylor Anderson.
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When the current owners moved in, there were even servants’ bells in the old kitchen – which tells you something about life for 1930’s southsiders, even those living in fairly modest semi-detached houses. (Apparently a servant lived in a room at the top of the stairs opposite the family bedrooms.)
Now, 83 St Helen's Road, Booterstown, Co Dublin, a 171sq m (1,850sq ft) four-bed Crampton-built semi-detached is for sale for €1.175 million through Sherry FitzGerald. The vendors, who have lived here for nearly 20 years, extended the original kitchen, put in new Senator uPVC windows in the style of the originals in 2017, and in 2019, insulated the bedrooms and converted the attic.
St Helen’s Road is a crescent of houses off the Rock Road opposite the Booterstown Nature Reserve; number 83 is about four houses away from the bend at the top of the road, furthest away from Rock Road.
Pictures and a video of the house show an arched redbrick entrance opening into a carpeted hall. On the right of the hall are interconnecting reception rooms; the living room has a bay window and the original art deco fireplace with its high oak mantelpiece, inset with original tiles. It opens into the family room through sliding doors in a wide arch, a woodburning stove is set into this art deco fireplace.
Glazed doors from here open into a sunroom with a tiled floor, next to the kitchen/breakfast room at the back of the house. This has a white-tiled floor, cream units, and a wall of windows looking into the back garden, with a door opening on to the patio outside. New owners might consider reconfiguring the kitchen and sunroom, or extending again to create the kind of large open-plan kitchen/living room/dining room area so popular at the moment.
On the left of the hall is a large utility room and downstairs shower, in a space that had been the garage. The vendors added a bedroom – one of four upstairs – above this space.
The large main bedroom at the front of the house upstairs has a bay window and an original fireplace with an oak mantelpiece. It has a door to a walk-in dressing room that could be converted into an en suite as it is plumbed.
There is a shower room and a separate family bathroom upstairs and stairs leading to a converted attic with a Velux window that could be a home office or bedroom.
Outside, there is a large paved patio stepping down into a back lawn with a greenhouse at its corner – the garden is 68ft (20.7m) long, says the agent. A side passage leads to the gravelled front garden, where there’s space to park up to three cars.
Frances O'Rourke, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes about homes and property
This article is over 5 years oldAddress: 37 Bellevue Court Booterstown, Co DublinPrice: €585,000 Agent: LisneyA bungalow in a development hidden away off the Rock Road in Booterstown, Co Dublin is likely to appeal to downsizers – or perhaps a young couple like the vendors, who completely refurbished their home two years ago.
The revamp included extending and replacing the kitchen, installing new, stylish bathrooms, double-glazing windows, rewiring the house, and putting in a new boiler and a new electric heating system.
Now the owners need more space for a growing family, and number 37 Bellevue Court, an 81sq m (827sq ft) two-bed with an attic conversion – one of three terraced homes in a mixed development of apartments and houses built in the 1980s – is for sale through Lisney for €585,000. It has a small walled courtyard to the rear and a small railed deck at the front. The house, at the end of the terrace, is beside a communal green space.
Selling agent Lisney’s pictures suggest that the house is in very good condition. The front hall is floored with large beige tiles; a glazed door on the right opens into what looks to be a good-sized livingroom with a herringbone oak floor. Walls are painted pale grey as is the cast-iron fireplace; a patio door opens out to the deck at the front.
The kitchen/breakfast room – floored with tiles – has polished stone countertops and island, pale grey units, strip lighting, three Velux windows and a sliding door opening onto the patio.
There's a smart new fully tiled shower room (from Bathhouse in Monkstown, Co Dublin) downstairs as well as two bedrooms, both singles/small doubles. Upstairs, the main bedroom is in the attic conversion; it has built-in shelving, a walk-in wardrobe and an ensuite with a bath and underfloor heating.
Lisney is showing the property to interested viewers online with a walk-through video.
Bellevue Court is off Bellevue Avenue, an easy-to-miss cul-de-sac off Rock Road between the former Tara Towers hotel and a petrol station. It’s a fairly short walk to the Booterstown Dart and number 4 and 7 bus stops, and has pedestrian access to Trimleston Avenue.
It is close to Merrion Cemetery, Bellevue, a historic graveyard where 120 soldiers who died when their ship struck rocks at Seapoint in 1807 are buried.
From left: LVA Chair Alison Kealy, Minster Heather Humphreys TD, John and Ciaran Gleeson of Gleeson’s of Booterstown and VFI President Paul Moynihan.
The Dublin pub was crowned national champion from a field of 61 regional winners at a Gala Awards Ceremony in the Round Room at The Mansion House in Dublin.
The Awards are jointly presented by the Vintners Federation of Ireland and The Licenced Vintners Association. With over 700 entries from all over Ireland this awards programme continues to be recognised by publicans countrywide as a valuable way to promote their business.
Gleesons of Booterstown has been an integral part of its community since its establishment in 1954. The Gleeson family has developed the business to offer excellence across a number of areas including a traditional pub, an extensive food offering from breakfast through to late evening, a gourmet food corner shop & deli – and most recently the expansion of the premises to include luxury accommodation for visiting customers.
Best Food Pub sponsored by Musgrave MarketPlace: Collins Bar & Restaurant, Dooradoyle, Limerick City
Best Tourist Pub sponsored by Fáilte Ireland: O’Connells in Howth, County Dublin
Innovative Pub of the Year sponsored by BOI Payment Acceptance: Andy’s Bar & Restaurant, Monaghan Town
Best Local Pub sponsored by Diageo: Casey’s Bar & Restaurant, Clonakilty, County Cork
Outstanding Customer Service sponsored by Edward Dillon: Buffalo Boy, Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim
Best Music Pub sponsored by IMRO: The Porter House, Westport, Mayo
Best Outdoor Space sponsored by Bulmers: O’Connells, Galway City
Best Digital Campaign sponsored by Heineken: The Bridge 1859, Ballsbridge
Media partner to the Irish Pub of the Year Awards is the Irish Independent and Drinks Industry Ireland is the Trade Media Partner.
Even as you cross the threshold and spot the bright home office (or possibly bedroom) to the left, and the fine lounge with its 3m-high ceilings, the meandering 280sq m/3,013sq ft floorplan only begins to reveal itself as you move through the house. Set on a quarter-acre plot there is plenty of room here for every member of a growing family to have their own space.
In the kitchen to the rear is a large L-shaped room with an island and roof lighting, and distinct washing, dining and cooking areas. From the large sandstone patio you can see how far the property stretches and how lush and private the big back garden is.
The patio gives way to a six-hole putting green, laid over what was once a pond. From here the garden rises in terraces to the top of the sloping site. When you discover the owner is florist Maureen McDonnell, who runs The Flower Box, one of the first contemporary flower shops in Dublin, the essence of the property begins to make sense. It is like her flower shop, beguiling, natural and contemporary all at the same time.
The path leads back around the property past a long extension that runs the full length of the site. To its left is a raised kitchen garden producing all kinds of lettuce, herbs, and vegetables including broccoli, carrots, strawberries and blackberries. She has even passed the green-fingered baton onto her five-year old granddaughter who now has her own small plot that produces carrots, oak leaf lettuce and strawberries.
The side door, clad in copper, leads via a corridor to a large master bedroom lit by ambient recessed strip lighting. Off it is a large en suite bathroom with a freestanding oval tub, a separate shower and twin sinks.
A set of steps leads up to a large room with light on three sides that has been used as a den for teenage kids. It is so far from the rest of the house that it’s ideally located to accommodate teenage kicks. Here garden doors concertina back and open out to a west-facing deck. Designed by architect Terence Cornish, a family friend, it is a wonderful addition to the home.
The property is seeking €1.35 million through agents Vincent Finnegan and includes a detached garage with a small artist’s studio that is separate from the house.
Alanna Gallagher is a property journalist with The Irish Times
Hidden history of my mother, referred to as ‘Child 1281’ in the industrial school she was sent to at the age of seven, and the father I never knew uncovered after 60 years
Edward Murphy at Trinity College Dublin, where his father was a student
Court documents relating to Edward's mother, Kathleen
Edward MurphySun 30 Jan 2022 at 03:30One fateful morning in May 1942, a fair, slight young girl with blue eyes was the defendant on the charge sheet at The Courthouse, Inns Quay, in Dublin.
Her name was Kathleen Murphy and she was seven years old. She faced the charge of destitution. The judge, Mary McCarthy, ordered that “the said child shall be sent to a certified industrial school at St Anne’s, Booterstown” until her 16th birthday. That child was my mother.
She arrived at St Anne’s, a Catholic home for girls run by the then black-robed Sisters of Mercy, in a black garda van. She was escorted up the four broad entrance steps to the stout front door and then to a long corridor that led up to more steps to the rooms.
As in the case of many others, a report before the court by the NSPCC stated that her mother was unable to support the girl; she had 10 other children and could not pay the rent. More than half of the children ended up in homes.
The Ryan Commission report of 2009 uncovered traumatic experiences for many people taken in by the Church on request at that time. My mother, though, never spoke about her childhood.
Recently — and armed with my newly-acquired Irish passport — I decided it was time to follow her footsteps.
I had avoided doing so in previous decades. One reason was because of another big gap in my life: who was my Dublin-based father? But recently, by a remarkably lucky twist of fate, a genealogical DNA result led me to his identity — and I became determined to learn more about both of them.
The records of my mother’s time as “an inmate” — the official term — at St Anne’s were thin. She was given the number 1281, but there were no photos of her as a child.
By 1945, her log reported that she was “improving” in conduct and character. She had a reputation, though, for “answering back”.
Nowhere does it say what the young Kathleen was thinking or saying or asking about, what she had created or learned, why all her personal medical records were redacted or why she stayed with the Sisters of Mercy until the age of 20.
In later life, she wasn’t a great reader or writer, but she could knit the most complicated patterns without the need for a written guide, thanks to her time at St Anne’s.
By 1950, aged 15, she was “clean, honest and a good worker” out on licence, helping in the Sisters’ laundry in Athlone and then, four years later, in Sligo. But that is where all official records of her end.
Keen to see where my mother spent her formative years, I wanted to visit St Anne’s and the adjoining Church of the Assumption, which she and her fellow inmates attended as a matter of course.
To my surprise and joy, the current small group of the Sisters of Mercy there agreed to the visit. They made my wife and I welcome, emerging one by one from their rooms into an old-fashioned dining area and providing a home-made lunch — and an unexpected full tour.
We saw the rooms where my auburn-haired mother spent all those years, with the narrow, towering windows in the glass-partitioned learning areas, and the former children’s dormitories.
For me, they were a remarkable and cathartic few hours. Never did I think I would ever tread the same floors as Kathleen or be in the same rooms.
One of the nuns had been at St Anne’s in the late 1950s, aged 18. She recalled babies being brought there by gardaí. Once, she remembered, there were no spare cots so the babies were put in orange boxes.
In that quiet dining area I spoke about how my mother had been affected by her childhood and how that in turn impacted the lives of her own children.
The visit helped to give me a sense of closure, although I worried about what her reaction would have been if she had known her first-born son had followed her to this place.
We had travelled from our home in Yorkshire to Dún Laoghaire. The court document of 1942 said seven-year-old Kathleen had been living with her family at Carriglea Gardens.
Before that, they were with other relatives in a small house at Desmond Avenue.
We lit a candle in St Michael’s Church in the town and took many photos of the different locations.
Some time in 1954, Kathleen went her own way, leaving the supervision of the Sisters. All that is known for sure is that by 1957 she was in the centre of Dublin, working as a cleaner.
This is where my father comes in. He was living in Upper Leeson Street in a large Georgian house divided into apartments. How did they meet? The only two people who know kept the secret.
What I do know is that my mother became pregnant at 23 in the spring of 1957, and then departed Ireland for good. Perhaps she left because of the stigma of being an unmarried mother or the fear of having to give up her baby to a home.
She travelled alone to north-west England, where I was born.
Her own exhausted mother came to stay with her when I was very young, but she did not last long. She was buried in a pauper’s grave, in the same cemetery where her daughter would later be laid to rest.
Eight years after moving to England, my mother married a different man. That union did not last long. My mother had difficulty in maintaining relationships of any kind.
There were other children — four more sons and a daughter. She died at the age of 70 in England in 2004.
‘Irish Kath’ was regarded by her friends as a sociable, chatty woman. The church was packed for her funeral service, with some having to stand outside on a snow-covered morning. We were too upset to speak, but fulfilled her dying wish for a cortege in which she was borne through the streets on a black, horse-drawn carriage.
My mum’s dysfunctional, emotional roller-coaster disposition is core to knowing why the search for my father took so long.
She lived for the day, never spoke of the past and did not see the point in looking back. She only gave part of the first name of my father and told me, when I was a student, that I looked like him. He had been a student at Trinity College, she said. She could not understand why I would want to know more. She had endured and survived with her family. Why couldn’t I?
But over the years I pursued different lines of enquiry. I enrolled on an ancestry site in the middle of July 2016 after being suddenly overcome by the thought that I should make a new attempt to reach out to him. (I was later to discover that he had died — in mid-July, 2016.)
My eldest daughter, a doctor in the south of England, was determined to find out the identity of her grandfather. Eighteen months ago, after logging on to another ancestry site, she found a DNA link to a relative entirely unknown to us, with a surname of Indian Gujarati origin.
She contacted the family, who were understandably sceptical. Days passed — they felt like weeks. Then she phoned me to say she had the full name of the man who was my father, whose first name chimed with what my mother had told us.
She was told, though, that he might be dead — the new relative was checking for us. As those days went by, I lived in hope.
Another of my daughters found an old Who’s Who entry for my father. Sure enough, he had been a student at Trinity in 1957. The name, the location, the date, the DNA — they all came together. The mystery was solved. Too late, though, to meet him.
A distant, ethereal memory came to me of when I was about three years old. I cannot prove it, of course, but I pictured a dark, slim, well-dressed man coming to the property where my mother and I were living near Manchester. He left after they had had a conversation. I think it was him. Was it a false memory? Did he want to stay, to live with us as a family? I will never know.
But finally learning his identity, speaking to members of his family, talking with people who knew him and using Companies House business records, I was able to meet one of his university friends, who told me my father took a business degree and attended philosophy seminars in the tutorial room featured in the film Educating Rita.
He left Trinity in 1958, moving initially to England. I now know about his subsequent business roles in East Africa, where his family had diverse interests. I know he was chief executive at various companies before becoming a London-based property consultant.
I have even seen a picture of him with Bob Geldof, supporting a fundraiser. I have heard he paid a secretary more than the going rate when he discovered she was a single parent.
From almost zero information about him, I am amazed that I have now met many members of his family, who can trace their/my paternal lineage back more than 1,200 years, originating on the Afghanistan and Uzbekistan border as warriors. They include doctors and business people working across the globe, one of whom was knighted.
My mother never kept documents, mementos or correspondence. She never wanted to discuss her origins, so other specific aspects of their relationship will remain a riddle.
I do know now that she sacrificed much more than I had ever realised to keep me with her, despite her own experiences — or maybe because of them.
At the age of 64, my trip to Dublin, in between Covid lockdowns, allowed me to walk the paths of the young man and young woman who were responsible for bringing me into the world.
At dusk, I gave two roses to the Liffey for the souls of my mother and the father I never knew. The roses lingered together for a long time along the riverbank, near O’Connell Bridge, before slowly parting and floating on.
Full of colour and interest with deep, well-stocked borders it is divided into sections, so there is a lawned area fringed with beds, an area with neat raised beds for herbs and vegetables, a wilder woodland section to the rear with a work studio tucked out of sight and a neat patio with dining area directly outside the house.
What is surprising is that it was all created in the past six years when the homeowner, a passionate gardener, bought the four-bed semi-detached house in a keyhole cul-de-sac in the popular 1940s-built Trimleston development. Then it wasn’t even clear how long the garden was, because a large section of it was so overgrown. The house was in good condition then, having been renovated by previous owners, although the current owner also did work, updating the kitchen and bathroom.
Downstairs the layout is not original; a door off the hall opens in to the main living space, a walnut-floored open plan area, with an inset Stovax woodburner, a window to the front and an opening to the rear patio via bifolding doors. An inner door opens into a smaller room used as a home office. The kitchen is fitted with glossy white units and opens to the patio.
Upstairs there are four bedrooms – one en suite – and a family bathroom. The largest bedroom had an en suite but the owner took it out, preferring a larger room – new owners might seek to reinstate it.
Trimleston is very popular with families. At one end it opens out to Booterstown, at the other the N11 directly opposite UCD – and new owners (if they have a young family) might consider building out to the side, where there is plenty of room to create a large kitchen.
Many houses that come to the market in this estate are executor sales and so tend to require work. No 22 Glenomena Grove, with 119sq m and in walk-in condition, is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald seeking €925,000.
This article is over 6 years oldAddress: Park Lodge 36 Booterstown Avenue Co DublinPrice: €2,550,000 Agent: Sherry FitGeraldTo fully appreciate this Georgian gem on Booterstown Avenue in south Dublin, you need to stand in the rear garden, as it is only then that the size of the property dating from 1820 becomes apparent.
From the front, the house is hidden behind a high evergreen hedge, which acts as both a sound barrier and privacy wall, though at no stage is the internal light in the property compromised.
The facade gives the impression that this is a modest home, though nothing could be further from the truth. With a typical double-fronted Georgian layout, one of the key benefits of the house, besides its size, and all reception rooms being dual aspect, is the mews which is connected to the main house via a corridor.
Over the years it has had many incarnations, from a guest wing, family offices, to a granny flat for older relatives. It currently accommodates the next generation of family members who are about to fly the coop. It offers a couple of options for new owners, who may want to lease out the mews as a two/three-bed unit or indeed amalgamate it into the main house for additional bedrooms.
Ronan O'Hara of Sherry FitzGerald, who is handling the sale, says: "Besides its understated elegance, it is the location of the house that will really appeal to buyers, as many parents spend their time ferrying children not only to school, but also to after-school activities. Here they can walk to school, and with four sailing clubs a short Dart journey away, and a tennis club close by, the location is second to none for a family."
The property has two large reception rooms flanking each side of the hallway; a dining and drawing room, both of which are dual aspect, and due to their orientation are bathed with light throughout the day. Both rooms retain their original Carrera marble fireplaces.
At garden level is an informal living area which opens out on to the gardens, and a kitchen. The plans for the kitchen are framed and hang in the hallway, because they caused quite a stir when the room was completed 30 years ago. Designed by Prof James Horan, the former head of Dublin School of Architecture, the design was considered so avant-garde for the time it featured in many architectural publications.
Four fine-sized bedrooms are arranged upstairs off a wide hallway which features a remarkable constitution window – again flooding the space with light.
The southeasterly-facing gardens are what will really appeal to both families and gardeners. Lying on 0.4 of an acre, secret pockets are hidden off a large central lawn. A kitchen garden with walls laden with old Chinese wisteria, lies behind tall evergreens and is accessed through a walkway of pergolas swathed in climbing roses.
Here neat box hedging frames vegetable and fruit patches along a walkway of mature fruit trees. In addition there are two outhouses to store all the tools required to maintain the herbaceous borders, lawns and kitchen garden.
The elegant family home, in turnkey condition, is on the market through Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of €2.55million.
surrounded by his loving family in the kind and tender care of the staff at the Wicklow Hospice
Devoted husband of Jean and brother of Sean
"You don't buy a house like this and expect it will ever be perfect," says Helle Moyna of her pink Georgian pile in south Co Dublin
Founder of design company and online retail site
bought the distinctive Booterstown house in 2013
moved to London 20 years ago and established herself as an exclusive event planner
With a client roll call including the Prince of Wales
Cartier International Polo and Louis Vuitton
Helle often found herself on extravagant global sourcing missions trying to hunt down a certain style of furniture
fixtures or gift for a given bash or important guest – an element of her job which sparked her interest in design and interiors
the pair settled in a Victorian house in London’s Clapham but
Helle knew it was time to hang up her party planning shoes
Harnessing her impressive black book of contacts
she set up a design agency representing all the furniture designers and niche interiors brands she’d encountered on her sourcing missions and introduced many up-and-coming interior labels from her homeland to her remit too
the Moynas found London a tough place in which to rear a young family
“It’s just waiting list after waiting list over there
and the school grading system is ridiculous for young children
“We were forever shipping the boys from one side of London to the other
and there are so few family amenities that don’t require an epic commute – it was all just very stressful
“David and I both grew up in the countryside and wanted the boys to have a calmer upbringing and felt Dublin offered the perfect balance.”
When they happened upon the Booterstown house
it prompted them to come back to Dublin with schools
they were under no illusions as to how big an undertaking renovating the house would be
so Helle packed up the agency side of her business to allow her time to manage the build
over-basement house comprises 351sq m (3,785sq ft) of accommodation
every square inch of which needed a lot of attention
The house was originally built in two phases – with 16th-century origins and 18th-century additions – making matters even more tricky
“Don’t get me started on the windows: They wouldn’t allow us install double glazing – even in replica wooden window frames
especially with this so-called drive for energy-efficient housing,” says Helle
One of the best decisions Helle felt she made during the two-year refurbishment project was to keep the original room layout intact
“Most of the architects we met advised knocking the kitchen through to the back room and installing partition walls in the bedrooms
“But we did the whole open-plan living thing in London and
she kept the small kitchen to the front of the house separate from the large family room to the rear
and loves how she can now close the door on dirty dishes and not have the boys tearing around the kitchen while she’s trying to cook or work
The house was finally ready for the family to move into last April and that’s when Helle really got to put her styling and design skills into action
“I’ve been collecting mid-century furniture and Scandinavian soft furnishings and accessories for years now
and had a very clear vision of how I’d imprint my Danish aesthetic onto our Dublin domain
“But as I was dealing with a Georgian house with vast rooms
finding a balance between two opposite design genres was a delicate one,” says Helle
She produced detailed mood boards for every room
floorboard samples to fabric finishes clearly detailed
anyone involved with the interiors – be they carpenters or curtain makers – knew exactly what she was trying to achieve
Helle is not typically a fan of ceiling lighting but
given the 15ft room heights and grand stairwell
she had to concede that side lamps alone were not going to cut it
she designed light fittings for all the rooms and the hallways
from simple glass pendant shades to a dramatic black steel pole and gold dipped chandelier for the hallway
The other significant addition to the house was a subway-tiled wet room replacing a small upstairs bedroom
and an en suite added to the master bedroom
“I didn’t want a partitioned-off loo in a box
and there was such stunning cornice work on the ceiling
we built a wall up to the top of the toilet and added a panelled glass wall from that base up to the ceiling.”
The effect is very “seven-star hotel” and light spills in through the three bay windows and bounces all around the master bedroom and bathroom
Helle maintains there’s still lot more work to do on St Mary’s
“We’ve to sort out Tobias and Markus’ bedroom as it’s the size of a ballroom
which sounds amazing but the two boys are lost in there
“I’m planning to build a plywood sub-house in the middle of the room
to give them both their space but without breaking up the ceilings or the grand sense of space
“And I haven’t had a wardrobe or a drawer since we moved in
but I’d take it all any day over commuting
St Mary’s has now become an informal showroom for the sourcing and design consultancy side of Nordic Elements and a if friend or client spots something they like
Helle can source a similar or corresponding version and have it shipped out within weeks
given her knack for styling antiques with classics and matching the quirky with contemporary
it makes every item in the house highly covetable
and tiles I'd love Moyna to source for me as long as Booterstown Avenue
[ www.nordicelements.comOpens in new window ]
A landmark house in Booterstown, south Dublin, where tenor John McCormack once lived, is for sale for the first time in 40 years.
The distinctive redbrick with a turret at one corner will be familiar to anyone who commutes regularly along the Rock Road: it stands high above the traffic on the road into town, not far past The Old Punch Bowl pub at the bottom of Booterstown Avenue.
Glena is an original, inside and out, with a Céad Mile Fáilte inscribed in tiles in the entrance porch, beautiful stained glass windows, an oratory, some rich plaster friezes and an oak-panelled diningroom with a plaque inset in the wall, thought to have been given by McCormack to his wife Lily.
The current owners, who bought the house in 1975 for £37,500, have kept most of the original features of Glena, a detached Victorian built in 1888.
They have maintained and modernised the house, a listed building, over the years – there’s a smart SieMatic kitchen on the ground floor, a lot of recessed lighting and several en suite bathrooms.
After 40 years, the 500sq m (5,382sq ft) six-bedroom house – bright and comfortable in spite of its size – is too big for the couple now that their children are grown. Glena is for sale by private treaty through Lisney for € 3.6 million.
John Count McCormack – he was made a Papal Count in 1928 in recognition of his work for charities – was a world famous tenor in the first half of the 20th century.
Glena was the last home of the singer, born in Athlone in 1884: he had homes in Ireland, England and America, and bought Glena in 1938, nearly eight years before he died in 1945.
A plaque to the tenor, unveiled by the American ambassador to Ireland in 1966, greets visitors at the top of the granite stairs leading to the front door.
When the couple selling Glena moved in in the 1970s, American tour busses often stopped outside to view the house; that rarely happens now, as McCormack’s fame has waned.
The tiled entrance porch opens through double doors with stained-glass panels into a long, bright hall: halfway along, it becomes a glazed atrium, with attractive stained-glass panels featuring birds and trees.
Another set of double doors at the side of the livingroom opens into a small oratory that has a tiny chapel with a marble altar at one end and ornate stained-glass windows at the other.
There are three large windows in the diningroom on the left of the hall: the largest is a curved corner window under the turret with window seats and good views of the sea.
This large room easily accommodates an eight-seater dining table and has plenty of room for sideboards. A small door at the end of the room opens onto an iron walkway leading to a glazed conservatory/ glasshouse at the side of the house.
There are three more large, bright bedrooms at this level, two with en suite bathrooms.
Most of the family’s living space is downstairs, at garden level, where the hall leads to a glazed door opening into the back garden. There are plenty of rooms down here: two more bedrooms, a cosy family/TV room at the back of the house and a large family room/games room at the front. The family bathroom is down here along with a shelved study, another smaller study and a store room.
The SieMatic kitchen/breakfastroom was put in 12 years ago: it’s the most modern part of the house, with polished marble breakfast bar, tiled floor and wall-mounted gas fire. A door leads into a utility room off it.
Outside at the back, there’s a large patio and a summerhouse; mature trees and herbaceous borders surround a neat lawn.
A garden path leads to a private lane where old stables were turned into parking for up to five cars. (One space was apparently extended to fit McCormack’s Rolls Royce.)
There are three homes on this gated laneway, accessed off Grotto Avenue, a small road that leads to St Mary’s boys’ school – its playground is on the other side of the lane.
There’s a neat front garden and, surprisingly, residents’ permit parking on Rock Road.
Lough Conn, 3 Booterstown Avenue, Co Dublin. Price: €795,000. Features: four bedrooms, lots of space, period features. Agent: Sherry FitzGerald.
Environmental groups have called on Dublin local authorities to reject developer Paddy McKillen jnr's plans for a five-storey "biodiversity" centre at the edge of Booterstown marsh, describing it as an attempt to build a commercial leisure centre beside one of the city's most important conservation areas.
Mr McKillen's company Soundvale Ltd wants to build a 21.55m-high "recreational and interpretive centre building" with a "range of associated biodiversity proposals" on the Merrion Road opposite the former Tara Towers hotel.
The scheme would include a creche, cafe, health studio, a gym, indoor and outdoor pools, a jacuzzi and hydro pool, treatment rooms, sauna, salt room, steam room and a members’ area.
Applications for the development have been lodged with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and Dublin City Council, with the site straddling both local authority areas.
An Taisce and the Friends of Booterstown Coast have said the scheme does not comply with the development plans of either local authority, would have an unacceptable impact on the neighbouring protected marsh, particularly on its rare bird species, and was primarily “a commercial leisure development”.
An Taisce, which has managed Booterstown marsh for almost 50 years as one of its “properties in trust”, described it as one of the “city’s key biodiversity areas” and the only remaining saltmarsh on the south shore of Dublin Bay.
The marsh is a protected Natural Heritage Area and Special Area of Conservation and important feeding and roosting area for ducks, geese and waders, An Taisce said. It was an “essential resting spot for migratory birds”, with species including moorhens, reed buntings, sedge warblers, teals, snipes, lapwings, oystercatchers, redshanks, dunlins, and brent geese all using the marsh.
We consider the large scale and private commercial nature of the proposal is inappropriate for the site
Both local authorities had zoned the McKillen site as amenity, open space and “green network” lands. Certain developments such as creches, cultural and recreational buildings and cafes could be permitted in exceptional services.
An Taisce said such circumstances had not been demonstrated. “We consider the large scale and private commercial nature of the proposal is inappropriate for the site.” The scale and height of the proposed building was “excessive” and “out of character” for the coastal area.
The development was “first and foremost a commercial venture based around mostly indoor leisure facilities and dining options” that would be “more appropriately located in the hotel that is currently being redeveloped across the Merrion Road”, it said.
Friends of Booterstown Coast said “in every aspect this is clearly a business commercial concern”. The building and its glass facades posed “bird collision risks”. Birds could also become disorientated from nighttime light pollution, it said.
The group noted the biodiversity proposals but said biodiversity educational activities were already provided at the marsh by An Taisce, “all facilitated at no cost to the public”.
Independent Senator Victor Boyhan said both local authorities needed to develop a strategy for the landbank between the Merrion Gates and Blackrock Park, including this site.
Green Party councillor Ossian Smyth said the scheme conflicted with plans for the S2S Sandycove to Sutton cycle way.
Soundvale said the biodiversity proposals include a new coastal meadow, a coastal tree belt, and a coastal grass and shrub internal garden.
Olivia Kelly is Dublin Editor of The Irish Times
Peacefully surrounded by her loving family in the kind care of the staff at St Vincent’s University Hospital
loving and much loved mother of Maoilíosa
She will be greatly missed by her adored grandchildren Eve
sister Regina and her many relatives and friends
Anne will be reposing at Fanagans Funeral Home
Booterstown followed by a burial in Shanganagh Cemetery
Funeral Mass may be viewed on www.booterstownparish.ie/webcam
Messages of sympathy can be added to the ‘Condolences’ section below.
The woods, which give the name to the development belonged to one of south county Dublin’s grandest houses, St Helen’s, dating from 1754. From 1925 to 1988, the house – now the Radisson Hotel – was the headquarters of the Christian Brothers in Ireland. Developer Sean Dunne’s company Berland Homes bought the house and 71 acres of land in 1989 for about £19 million.
The homes built in the 1990s have weathered well, and St Helen’s Wood is a quiet, mature suburb off Booterstown Avenue, close to the N11. Homes there have sold in 2023 at prices ranging from €850,000 to €1.8 million. The original Steward’s House, the office for the Berland development in the early 1990s, went on sale for €1.5 million last October.
The owners of number 23 undertook a major job to reconfigure their house in 2008. Now the front door opens into a large hall with a tiled floor, off which is a good-sized study looking over the front garden, a downstairs toilet and a small livingroom to which the owners, now with three teenage children, can retreat when the teenagers have friends in.
The cosy livingroom off the kitchen has built-in shelves on either side of the open fireplace with its sandstone surround; French doors open from it into the garden.
Upstairs are four bedrooms, two doubles and two singles. The main bedroom has – like two of the other bedrooms – built-in wardrobes and an en suite shower room. The family bathroom is mostly tiled.
The attic space is large says the owner; other houses in St Helen’s have successfully converted them.
The wide back garden is in lawn, with a patio at one side, a covered seat at the back and a side passage to the front. There’s off-street parking at the side of the front lawn.
Booterstown Nature Reserve lies right at the heart of Dublin Bay
This unique wetland is the last remaining salt marsh on the south shore of Dublin and is an extremely important feeding and roosting site for several different species of birds and as well as being home to 68 protected plant species
Booterstown Nature Reserve A unique home to many protected species
running from Merrion Strand down as far as Blackrock
the building of the Dublin to Kingstown railway and other building works meant much of the marsh land was filled in
what remains is an incredibly important around 4 hectares of habitat for protected birds and plant life
Little Egret on Booterstown Marsh Picture by Colum Clarke
An Taisce has managed the reserve since 1970’s protecting and conserving this precious habitat and also using it to educate the public
Throughout the year a wide number of birds can be spotted including Moorhen
Flock of Brent Geese fly over the marsh Photo: Colum Clarke
The reserve is also an invaluable a refuelling and resting spot for migrating birds including several long-distance migratory species like Brent Geese
In 2006 two small low-lying islands were constructed and placed in the middle of the marsh to provide an area for the birds to rest and to roost
It’s important that we safeguard this vulnerable place for wildlife to survive and thrive
Swanning around! #booterstown #swans
A photo posted by Coast Monkey (@coast_monkey) on Sep 12
planning permission was refused for a major new leisure centre in an area immediately beside the marsh because of its potential environmental impact on EU protected habitats
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Cork Harbour Festival returns this year with a packed programme of events on water, on land and at home on your screen….
The old photographs are still online so you can see the difference, starting with the front door.
What was a brown PVC unit has been replaced by a smart solid wood door from the Victorian Kitchen Company, who also installed a new kitchen and designed clever storage solutions in the 73sq m (786sq ft) house. And in these quaint Victorian properties, it is really all about smart storage.
Although the families who would have lived here in its heyday may have had big broods of children, their belongings would have been a different story – unlike today.
To make these properties work, it takes clever design solutions. Narrow-set bookshelves and a small study area at the top of the stairs make the most of the floor space, while the attic, which is now fully insulated, has a Stira providing easy access for additional storage.
A simple white palette with sanded floors allows light to reflect off the walls internally, giving the downstairs areas a greater sense of space.
The principal bathroom is really something, and the use of Crittall-style shower doors, against a white backdrop – where colour comes from subtle floor tiles – is not just on trend, but also gives the room a greater sense of space.
To the rear is a lovely patio, where a line of Dicksonia antarctica – the native Tasmanian tree fern, and one of the oldest plants in the world – look striking with their dramatic crowns of fronds against the limestone flags.
The owners, who have been “locked up with a new baby for most of lockdown” really love their home, describing it as “a lovely place to be cocooned”. They will miss their neighbours and the lovely atmosphere of their home and are moving for family reasons.
They have placed their charming home, which is Ber-exempt, on the market through Sherry FitzGerald seeking €695,000.
Our U12 boys finally got to play their weather-affected series of games vs St
A fixture on the schedule since early December had first fallen foul of heavy rain
then more ice (!) but we were delighted to get the all-clear and bring the two schools together in the end
Our As and Bs did battle with their opposite numbers from St
Andrews – a few kids on each side known to each other from outside school and the pre-game atmosphere was exciting
Our A team started very brightly with a goal in the first 2 mins shaking St
but such an accomplished side was not going to be cowed by an early setback
Andrews on and they equalized about 5 mins later through some very neat midfield play and a cracker of a shot from the top of the circle from their danger man
with Eoin O’Connor leading the fight
capably supported by clubmate Patrick Brennan
industrious midfield colleagues Conor Daly
Although Rory English went close a couple of times
Andrews pulled away and finished out the game 6-1 winners
several opposition goals to our single strike – but what a fine goal from St
Kilian’s courtesy of the deft touch of Oscar Chubb off the back of an attaching 4v3
and Luca Giromini kept the belief going all the way to the end
First trip away from home for this group – and for several in the group
their first “official” game for the school
there was a brilliant atmosphere and a genuine appetite for the next round of games
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Reposing at her home this Tuesday evening from 5pm until 8pm. The house is private Wednesday morning prior to her removal to The Church of the Assumption, Booterstown Avenue. arriving for 10am Requiem Mass with funeral immediately afterwards to Mount Jerome Crematorium, Harold’s Cross, Dublin 6W. Family flowers only please, Donations if desired to Blackrock Hospice. Donation box at rear of Church beside condolence stand.
Clean Coasts have put out the call for submissions to design a community mural project to highlight the environmental and societal importance of the Booterstown Nature Reserve
Booterstown Nature Reserve lies right at the heart of Dublin Bay and is part of the UNESCO Dublin Bay Biosphere
This unique wetland is the last remaining salt marsh on the south shore of Dublin and is an extremely important feeding and roosting site for several different species of birds as well as being home to 68 protected plant species
The marsh is home to a number of bird species including Herons and Little Egret
An Taisce has managed the reserve since the 1970’s protecting and conserving this precious habitat and also using it to educate the public
The project will see the mural painted on the northern wall of the reserve which is currently covered in graffiti and can be seen from the dart line
The project will encompass community engagement element to facilitate some input on the mural design
This will include workshops with two local schools
one primary and one secondary and input from An Tasice and Clean Coasts
Clean Coasts will provide the environmental aspects of the workshop
The deadline for submission is the 5th February and you can read more about the project here and how to submit your proposal
Cork Harbour Festival returns this year with a packed programme of events on water