Category: The Neighbourhood of the Four Courts
-
Attainted Aristocrat Dies in Private Lodgings on Inns Quay, 1726
From the Newcastle Courant, 21 February 1747: “Last Sunday was interred in a Vault in St George’s Church, the Remains of William Flemming, Esq, commonly called Lord Slane, who had an annual Pension of £300 from his Majesty. The Defunct’s Uncle had the Misfortune to be so attached to…
-
There and Gone: Pill Lane, The Vanished Street Behind the Four Courts (Part 1)
A street once there, now gone, can provoke more curiosity than one still paved and passable, and it is impossible for those who know about the vanished route of Pill Lane not to wonder, when traversing the portions of the Four Courts and Chancery Street over which it once passed,…
-
The Tragic Tale of Charlotte Lodge
In 1878, Charlotte Lodge, a woman working in what was then Dublin’s most notorious red light district, Bull Lane, just behind the Four Courts, died in the Richmond Hospital following a vicious attack and gang-rape by local pimps. Charlotte’s attackers were subsequently acquitted of her murder after an extremely favourable…
-
A Bull Lane Girl’s Day Out, 1876
From the Freeman’s Journal, 14 July 1876: “Three young men, one named William Donahoe, who stood in the Dock, and two others, Thomas Kinsella, and William Hurley, were indicted for an assault on three constables. Constable William Hatton, 59A, stated that on Sunday night, the 28th of May, between 9…
-
The ‘Hard-Swearers’ of Henrietta Street, 1844
From Saunders’s News-Letter, 1 November 1844: “HARD SWEARING A young lad, named Michael Geraghty, was charged by Sergeant Fry, 1D, with stealing a gown, the property of Mrs Hawkins, of Henrietta Street. The Complainant stated that he saw the prisoner upon the previous day running down Kings Inns-street with a…
-
From the Four Courts to Buenos Aires, 1790-1830
From Saunder’s News-Letter, 22 December 1810: “A few days back, a young woman, rather well dressed, with a green coat hanging loosely on the shoulders, walked into a respectable shop in the neighbourhood of Werburgh street, and contrived to carry off a parcel which lay on the counter papered and…
-
A Robbery at the White Cross Inn, 1814
From Saunders’s News-Letter, 11 October 1814: “A few days since a Welshman of the name of Owen Thomas, came to lodge at the White Cross Inn, Pill Lane, where a Mr Donald McKay, from Aughnacloy, likewise took up his abode. They had been but a few days residents of this…
-
Howth Tea-Smuggler Escapes as Revenue Routed by Pill Lane ‘Mob,’ 1764
From the Oxford Journal, 28 July 1764: “IRELAND Dublin, July 17. Last Friday Night some Revenue Officers made a Seizure at Howth of 160 Casks of Tea; but they were soon after attacked by a Number of Smugglers, when a desperate Engagement ensued, in which one Higley, a Smuggler, was…
-
Woman-on-Woman* Fight Behind the Four Courts Reduces Combatants’ Clothes to Ribbons, 1879
From the Leeds Times, 4 January 1879: “A disgraceful scene was witnessed the other day in Greek-street, Dublin, near the police courts, where two women engaged in a fierce contest, surrounded by a ring of male and female backers. They scratched, pummelled, and tore one another for fully an hour,…
-
British Soldiers Routed by Dublin Amazons, 1871
From the Freeman’s Journal, via the Western Mail, 11 September 1871: “During Tuesday last the locality of Pill Lane was considerably excited by a collision which occurred between a party of military and a number of the females gathered in the neighbourhood of the police courts. A soldier, absent without…
-
Fawn-Smuggling on Inns Quay, 1838
From the Freeman’s Journal, 30 June 1838: “A man named John Cowan was brought before the magistrates on a charge of having stolen a fawn in the Phoenix Park, on the preceding day. Police Constable 97D stated that he met the prisoner on the King’s Inns Quay, with a suspicious…
-
Served up on a Staffordshire Platter: The Four Courts, c.1820
A blue transfer-printed Staffordshire china platter, with a central scene depicting the Four Courts, c.1820. Perhaps originally part of some barrister’s dining set? Now in New England. Some details below (zoom in closer here). (1) A very early view of Morgan Place at the side of the courts. (2) White-trousered…
-
As It Was: Images of the Inns Quay/Arran Quay Junction, 1753-present
This fantastic map from the Dublin City Council Digital Archive (minutely zoomable version available to download here) shows the junction of Inns Quay and Arran Quay in 1790, not long before the opening of the Four Courts on the old Inns of Court site close by. The bridge appearing on…
-
As It Was: Images of 145-151 Church Street, 1860 to date
This beautifully coloured image below, from Dublin City Digital Archive, shows the rear portion of the Law Library Distillery Building, 145-151 Church Street, when it really was a distillery, owned by John Jameson & Co. You can zoom in on it even more closely here. Jameson acquired the site 145-51…
-
Inns Quay Before Áras Uí Dhálaigh: Images of the Four Courts Hotel
Some photos showing a 1960s/70s Inns Quay, from the Dublin City Digital Archive. This one from Dublin City Digital Archive shows the Four Courts Hotel in place of today’s Áras Uí Dhálaigh. William Mooney’s close-up of the hotel in the 1960s. Mr Mooney’s comprehensive photo archive of Dublin is accessible…
-
A Place of Trees: Dublin 7, 1066-1750
From Country Life, 1903: “Though Ireland is now perhaps the worst wooded country of Europe, it at one time was rich in forests. Before the invasion of the English, splendid woods were to be found round Eblana, as Dublin was then called. The fair green of Oxmantown was once covered…
-
Inquest in 158 Church Street After Unexpected Courtship Tragedy, 1858
From the Weekly Freeman’s Journal, 25 December 1858: “MELANCHOLY DEATH BY DROWNING On Sunday night last one of the most distressing melancholy accidents that could well occur took place by which a respectable young man of the name of Michael Murphy, son of Mr Laurence Murphy, Ironmonger, of Church Street…
-
Lord Leitrim’s Hearse Attacked by Mob in Church Street, 1878
From the Irishman, 13 April 1878: “EXTRAORDINARY SCENE The remains of the late Earl of Leitrim arrived at St Michan’s Cemetery, Church Street, Dublin, about half-past two o’clock. When the remains came into Church-Street the hearse was surrounded by two or three hundred persons, mostly comprised of the middle and…
-
In the Footsteps of Kings: Chancery Place, 1224-1916
Chancery Place, on the eastern side of the Four Courts, was originally a much narrower street known as Mass Lane. The buildings on its western side sat close against the eastern wing of the Four Courts until they were demolished by the Commissioners of Public Works in the early 19th…
-
The Brats of Mountrath Street, 1867-1890
From the Freeman’s Journal, 27 May 1867: “CHANCERY PLACE AND MOUNTRATH STREET Dear Sir- I beg, through the medium of your influential journal, to call the attention of the authorities to an assemblage of ill-behaved boys and girls that meet nightly at the corner of the above mentioned localities, throwing…
-
The ‘Cleansing’ of Bull Lane, 1878
From the Freeman’s Journal, 1 March 1879: “During the past few months, quietly and unknown to the general public, a work has been in progress in Dublin calculated to materially benefit the city. By a judicious use of the authority vested in them and a rigid exercise of their legal…
-
The Goat of Morgan Place, 1881
From the Freeman’s Journal, 22 April 1882: “ROBBERY FROM THE FOUR COURTS A fish dealer named Ennis was charged by Police Constable 69D with having stolen a goat, the property of Mr Alexander Blyth, Four Courts. A workman named Michael Higgins, in the employment of the Board of Works, stated…
-
The Fighting Herb Doctors of Church Street and Parnell Street, 1852
From the Freeman’s Journal, 4 May 1852: “John McDonnell, of Church-Street, ‘herb doctor’ and ‘professor,’ appeared to sustain a complaint against Michael Gafney, ‘herb doctor and universal practitioner,’ for an alleged violent assault. The complainant professing in this instance to have been assaulted was a low-sized dark visaged young man,…
-
The Cruel Master, 1778
A sad story tonight, from Saunders’ News-Letter, 30 January 1778, involving a murder and secret burial in the graveyard of St Michan’s Church next to the Law Library buildings at 158/9 Church Street. “Last week one of those chimney sweepers who employ a number of boys or children, adapted in…
-
Beneath the East Wing: The Inns Quay Infirmary, 1728-89
The above image shows the site of the Four Courts as surveyed by John Roque in 1756, when it was still owned by the Benchers of the King’s Inns. You can see what is left of the old Priory/King’s Inns buildings on the far left. Much of the rest of…
-
The (Would-be) Serial Killer of Church Street, 1861
From the Belfast Morning News, 2 January 1861: “Joseph Dwyer is now in custody on a charge of having made one of the most daring and diabolical attempts to deprive a fellow-creature of life, for the mere purpose of pecuniary gain, that perhaps the world ever heard of. A young…
-
Cockfighting in Arran Square, 1844
From the Freeman’s Journal, 15 April 1844: “In consequence of a communication by the secretary for the prevention of cruelty, instructions were given to the police to look sharply after a cockfighting match about to come off in Hammond-Lane. The police proceeded to the place at the specified time, and…
-
Armed Footpad Overpowered in Church Street, c. 1800
From the Freeman’s Journal, 30 January 1882: “A curious reminiscence of… old Dublin life turned up at one of the central [police] stations on Friday… [A]n old gentleman entered the station… and produced a small silver-mounted flint pistol, evidently of the last century… He said that he was most anxious…
-
The Hammond Lane Explosion, 1878
From the Freeman’s Journal, 29 April 1878: “On Saturday afternoon Dublin was startled and horrified by one of the most appalling accidents which has ever taken place in this metropolis – an accident by which no less than fourteen fellow creatures have lost their lives, and by which a dreadful…
-
Human Remains Beside the West Wing, 1834
From the Dublin Observer, 4 January 1834: “Some workmen, employed in the course of the past week in sinking a sewer from the Four Courts to the river, in the course of their excavations discovered, at the depth of about two feet from the surface, and approaching the pallisading enclosing…
-
Mob Attack, Inns Quay, 1830
For the Good Friday that’s in it, this story from Saunders’s News-Letter, 7 June 1830:- “DESPERATE OUTRAGE – For some months past, a person of genteel appearance has appeared in the streets, in various parts of this city, preaching to people, and according to his notions, following the life of…
-
The Wigmaker of Arran Quay, 1862
The Dublin Correspondent of the Belfast Newsletter, 13 January 1862, writes: “I should chronicle the departure to his rest of a worthy and venerable citizen of Dublin, who saw in his time many an opening day of Term, and whose richly-stored memory was fraught with numberless anecdotes of the Irish…
-
The Bridge That Never Was, 1802
Saunders’s News-Letter of 31 December 1802 reported that “[t]here is… a talk of casting a very broad bridge over the river in front of the Four Courts, which shall form an open area equal to the extent of the building; there will afford an opportunity to our architects of showing…