PAVING GEORGIAN DUBLIN

City Crest in the Mansion House pediment

That makes it twice in the one week, as I set out for an event in the Oak Room in Dublin's Mansion House, official residence of Sinn Féin Lord Mayor, Críona Ní Dhálaigh.

The occasion was the launch of a book on the paving and lighting of Dublin at the end of the 18th Century. How obscure can you get, you may be thinking. Not at all, say I, because this was a period which had a vision of shaping Dublin, which was very successful and which we have in many ways been undermining ever since.

Anyway, in the context of the paving, I was to hear the Lord Mayor advise us to look down when we're out and about in town. Of course, with the lighting bit you'd be more inclined to look up, which is just what I did as I approached the Mansion House.

Otherwise I could have missed the beautifully illuminated city crest in the pediment at the top of the façade (see, I'm learning). I have to take it that the choice of colour is on purpose.

Mary Clarke, Críona Ní Dhálaigh & Finnian Ó Cionnaith

The ubiquitous City Archivist, Mary Clarke, kicked off the function. I use the term ubiquitous in its most constructive sense.

Mary Clark - Dublin City Archivist

The Dublin City Archive has been steadfastly feeding many voracious research projects in recent years and Mary's presence at so many functions is testimony not only to the success of the projects but to her own, and the archive's, efforts to share this rich resource.

Lord Mayor Críona Ní Dhálaigh

Bean a' Tí then set about launching the book. This is where she told us to make sure to look down beneath our feet and appreciate what remains of the Wicklow paving stones which sparkle in the sunlight. Some of them are still living on as kerb edgings.

And where have all the cobblestones gone? Well, the City gave a load of them to Trinity for use in the quad and Críona was very careful, in advertising this, to include a female health warning - high heels and cobblestones just don't mix.

She told us that when high heeled girls/ladies/women come across the street from the restaurants to have a sit down on the steps of the Mansion House they always take their high heels off as the front space here is also cobbled.

Kieran Feighan - Vice President, Engineers Ireland

With the book launched, guest speaker, Kieran Feighan, Vice President, Engineers Ireland, seamlessly took up the theme.

He reminded us that there was a gap of some 200 years between, on the one hand, the period of The Paving Board with the emergence of that planned Dublin, with all its work for engineers and architects, and, on the other hand, more recent times which saw a burgeoning of new architecture and other major projects in the city. Very little had happened on that front during that two centuries' gap.

He also reminded us of Dublin's importance as a European city of stature, along with London and Paris. Dublin was one of the principal cities of Europe at that time in terms of its population.

I think I heard him mentioning brown envelopes in relation to the earlier period, but I am told my hearing is no longer the best and I do get distracted very easily these days.

Finnian Ó Cionnaith - author

We then finally got to the author himself, who gave us some idea of the contents of his book.

He stressed that the story was told in large measure through anecdotes, which is the way to do it in my view, and it was also significant that the story is told through the life, times and work of surveyor Thomas Owen, who, while he may not have been the most important man in the world of his day, was involved in a vast range of what went on in terms of city development.

Mary Clarke had earlier told us that. quite apart from its excellent research, the book was a most enjoyable and informative read.

And it all sounded quite exciting as Finnian told it. No shortage of modern parallels either. All this development was to be paid for by taxes on property owners, so there was great pressure on Owen and the Board when it came to resourcing their projects.

Signing

No launch would be complete without a raft of signings and Finnian proved he was up to signing on the fly, so to speak.

Four Courts Press

And, of course, the book itself was on sale at a knockdown introductory price of €20 for the hardcopy.

I can't leave this post without, once more, praising Four Courts Press which has, over many decades, published consistently high quality, well illustrated, academic books.

They are continuing the great work of their late dedicated founder Michael Adams (1937–2009), in whose memory a mass is to be held in Our Lady Queen of Peace Church, Merrion Road,on Saturday, 13 February 2016, at 10.00 a.m.

Frank McNally has a nice piece in his Irishman's Diary in the Irish Times of 12/2/2016 (for as long as it remains accessible).

Dublin

Brendan Teeling
Click on any image for larger version

The occasion was the launching of the book Dublin - The Making of a Capital City by David Dickson, Professor of Modern History at TCD. The book is a magnum opus and draws heavily on the work of those who went before. It covers a thousand years of the Capital's history, from the Viking era to the Spire, of which more later.

The master of ceremonies was Deputy City Librarian, Brendan Teeling, last seen on my website at Raheny library's fortieth anniversary celebration.

He teed it up nicely for Dermot Lacey who was launching the book on behalf of the Lord Mayor.

Dermot Lacey

Dermot is a member of Dublin City Council and a himself former Lord Mayor. Not only does he have a great love for Dublin city, but, unlike many another launcher, he had actually read the book he was launching, all 700 pages of it.

In the course of an erudite and humorous speech, he called on the Bank of Ireland to return its building on College Green to the State for use as a museum of Dublin. It is now bailout call in time. Not only was Dublin, until today, lacking this sort of overview survey history, it still lacks a proper museum of Dublin. It was made clear that this was not meant as any reflection on the wonderful Little Museum of Dublin on St. Stephen's Green.

Dermot also confessed to having mixed feelings about the Spire. He said that when asked what he thought of it he would throw the question back at the questioner. If they didn't like it he would tell them he voted against it at the time. If they did like it he would tell them that, as Lord Mayor, he inaugurated it.

Mary Daly

Mary Daly, Professor of History at UCD and currently the first woman president of the Royal Irish Academy in its 229 year history, paid tribute to the book, the first to cover such a period in the Capital's history in such a scholarly and readable manner. She felt that only David Dickson could have produced such a work.

David Dickson

David Dickson made the point that the book could not have been produced without the access to sources provided by the digital age, and without the work that went before him on which he drew massively.

I note that he remarks, on page 562, regarding the Spire, that "Certainly its scale served to diminish the verticality of O'Connell Street". That gave me great encouragement as it is a point I have been making about both the Spire and its predecessor, the Pillar, for many a year. I can still remember being amazed at how majestic a building the GPO was revealed as in the immediate aftermath of the demolition of Nelson's Pillar in 1966, and how much wider O'Connell Street looked in its absence. It might have been a fitting gesture, in this 1916 centenary year, to have demolished the Spire, a monument to Celtic Tiger hubris and an insult to the leaders of the Rising, and to have restored the GPO to its rightful prominence. Those last bits are me talking and I have no idea whether they might be shared by David Dickson. Must ask him sometime.

The launch took place, appropriately enough, in the Dublin City Library and Archive in Pearse St. This venue has been developed over the years and is not only a research library, but it houses much of the City's archive and, in recent years, has acquired a fine lecture hall and exhibition space.

Needless to say, the speakers paid a handsome and well deserved tribute to what Dermot called "the two Marys", Máire Kennedy in charge on the library side and Mary Clarke on the archives. There's hardly a work of note relating to the city of Dublin, including the present book, which does not figure one or both of these generous scholars in the acknowledgements section.

Máire

The previous post deals with a talk by Mary Clarke, Dublin City Archivist, whose office adjoins the reading room in the Dublin City Library and Archive (DCLA) in Pearse St.

The office next to hers is occupied by Máire Kennedy, Divisional Librarian, and they are both series editors of one of the Council's series of publications. The most recent publication in this series is "A City in Conflict: Dublin City and the 1913 Lockout" (ed Francis Devine). The detail above shows Máire with President Higgins on the occasion of a presentation to him of a copy of the book.

I have been dealing with Máire now, quite intensively, since 2008 when I persuaded her to let me give my first talk at that year's local history day in the marvellous lecture room in Pearse St. In the intervening years I managed to get her to let me do four more talks covering both local history (Killiney) and my family history.

Her help, enthusiasm and blind faith have been a wonder to behold. She didn't bat an eylid when I told her I would be using the projector, sound and real time online customised interactive Google maps in my first talk. I have a sneaking suspicion that she welcomed the opportunity to show off the, then relatively new, lecture room facilities.

Fortunately all went well, and, as I said, both she and I have been back for more.

Both Máire and Mary make for a formidable team in DCLA, ever patient, generous with their attention and time, enormously helpful, and wearing their learning and qualifications with an excess of modesty.