Kilmainham, Chapelizod, Palmerston, Lucan and Esker

CHAPTER XXXIII

Kilmainham, Chapelizod, Palmerston, Lucan and Esker

Leaving  town by James’s Street, Mount Brown, and Old Kilmainham, we may observe among the newer buildings many quaint old houses and thatched cottages, memorials of the not very distant time when this was quite a rural neighbourhood. Near where O’Connell Road (formerly St. John’s Road) crosses the railway, there stood until a few years ago, inside a niche in the wall on the western side of the road, the famous St. John’s Well, ruthlessly swept away during the alterations consequent upon the building of St. John’s Terrace. Its original position was, however, on the other side of the road, one hundred and twenty yards lower down the hill in the direction of the Ph~mx Park. It is marked in that position on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1837, before the construction of the Great Southern and Western Railway (see also Dalton’s History, p. 632), and the alteration in its position was probably due to the deep railway cutting here having intercepted its source, necessitating the opening of it higher up the hill, on the other side of the railway.

A pattern was formerly held here on St. John’s Day (241 June), and to accommodate the votaries, a number of tents and booths used to be erected, giving the place the appearance of a fair. As might be expected, an institution of the kind so near a large city, attracted a mixed class of patrons, and the drunkenness and debauchery by which it in time became characterised, made it such a nuisance that efforts were made on several occasions, by the clergy and others, in the 18th and 19th centuries, to have it suppressed. The observances lingered on, however, and down to about 1835, on each anniversary there assembled in the fields adjoining the road a number of country cans fashioned into improvised booths in the manner usual at the time, by blankets, patchwork quilts, &c., stretched on arched wattles, while in all directions might be seen turf and bramble fires with pots swinging over them, containing legs of mutton, pigs’ feet, bacon, potatoes, cabbage, and other appetising delicacies for the hungry multitude. Around the well collected the votaries with tumblers or horn goblets, mixing whiskey with its saintly waters, or sleeping off the effects of this irreverent mixture.

In 1538 Doctor Staples, Bishop of Meath, preached to the multitude assembled at St. John’s Well against the celebrated Archbishop Browne, of Dublin, of which the latter bitterly complains in a letter preserved in the State Papers.

In 1710, the proceedings at this well having attracted public attention, the Irish House of Commons passed a resolution declaring that the assemblages of devotees here were a menace and a danger to the public peace of the kingdom, and prescribed fines, whippings, and imprisonments as the penalties for these “dangerous, tumultuous, and unlawful assemblies,” which, as Dalton quaintly remarks, was certainly a severer penance than those persons intended to inflict upon themselves.

Even up to the time of its disappearance, the well was not without a few old pilgrims on St. John’s Day, some for devotional purposes, and others to procure some of the water, which on the anniversary was believed to possess a peculiar sanctity.

A flat slab of stone in the waste plot adjoining St. John’s Terrace appears to mark the recent site of this ancient well, which it is presumed has met the ignoble fate of being drained into the street sewer.

Within the wall on the opposite side of the road is the famous Bully’s Acre burial ground, which from ancient times was the chief place of sepulture for the inhabitants of Dublin, and in the duelling days of the 18th and 19th centuries became the scene of numerous encounters, its notoriety in this respect quite eclipsing its historic interest. About the year 1760 General Dilks, Commander of the Forces, attempted to convert this ancient burial place into a botanic garden for the Royal Hospital, and in order to carry out this act of desecration he caused the graves to be levelled, spread a thick covering of lime over the entire surface, and enclosed the place with a high wall. The working men of the Libenies, however, exasperated at this indignity to their ancestors and relatives interred there, collected in a body one night, levelled the wall, and restored the place to its original purpose. As the only free burial place for the poor, it thereafter continued to be used until the cholera epidemic of 1832, when 3,200 interments having taken place in six months, the Government, apprehensive of pestilence finally closed it.

According to remote tradition, an Irish chieftain who fell at the Battle of Clontaff, erroneously conjectured to be Murrough, sleeps in this graveyard beneath a tall headstone marked with curiously interlaced carvings, supposed to be the shaft of a large cross. About one hundred years ago this stone fell from its pedestal, and in replacing it, a number of Danish coins and a fine sword of the 11th century were found immediately adjoining. This weapon probably belonged to the dead chieftain, and was buried with him in accordance with ancient military custom.

When Strongbow came to Ireland, he granted the lands of ‘Qilmainham to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, and Henry II. by charter confirmed the gift. A record of the contents of the original charter will be found in Sir John Gilbert’s Historic and Municipal Documents of Ireland. The members of this historic order seem to have combined the functions of soldier, physician, and ecclesiastic, and to have been thoroughly proficient in the arts and duties of all three.

At the Suppression of the Monasteries this ancient body suffered the common penalty, and was dissolved by the Government of the day, all their property and estates coming into possession of the Crown.

In 1534 the citizens of Dublin having received private information that the O’Tooles were escorting to the mountains the proceeds of a foray in Fingal, sallied out to intercept them at Kilmainham Bridge, where Island Bridge now stands, but were surprised and overpowered by the spoilers at the wood of Salcock, and obliged to retire with a loss of eighty of their number.

In 1680 King Charles II. directed the building of a hospital at Kilmainham for the maintenance of aged and maimed soldiers of the army of Ireland, such hospital to be erected upon part of the lands of the Royal Park, near the old ruinous building called the Castle of Kilmainham5

formerly occupied by the Knights Hospitallers. Portions of the walls of the old chapel of the Hospitallers were taken down and used as materials for the construction of the flew edifice, but one mullioned window of the original structure yet remains, incorporated in the buildings of the Royal Hospital.

Adjoining Kilmainham is Island Bridge, deriving its name from an island formed by a loop in the river immediately to the west of the bridge, but now separated from the southern bank by a mill-race only, instead of by a branch of the river.

In 1535 Sir William Skeffington, Lord Deputy of Ireland, while escorting the Lord Chancellor and other officers of State returning to Dublin from Trim, had an encounter at this Place with the adherents of Silken Thomas, then in insurrection against the Government. Skeffington’s route from Trim lay through Castleknock to Chapelizod, and thence along the banks of the Liffey to Kilmainham Bridge mentioned above, a narrow structure across which he proposed to take his men on their way into the city. Immediately at the other side, between the Bridge and Kilmainham, was then the wood of Salcock, and under cover of this, the Geraldines had laid an ambuscade for Skeffington’s force, intending to fall upon them as they emerged from the narrow bridge. The circumstances were particularly favourable for the project, for according to Skeffington’s account in the State Papers of Henry VIII., a phenomenal fall of rain had caused such floods that the foot soldiers, in passing the low-lying parts of the road along the river, had to wade up to their waists in water, and in consequence, the strings of their bows had become so soaked with moisture as to be useless, while the feathers of their arrows had fallen off from the same cause, so that, had the attack been made, matters would undoubtedly have gone hard with the bowmen, as they could have done little to defend themselves. Luckily for Skeffington, however, he managed, at the last moment, to get wind of the arrangements made for his reception, whereupon he laid his guns in position beside the bridge, passed his bowmen across, and simultaneously opening fire upon the wood, cleared out the party concealed in it, thereby enabling him to bring his men safely to Dublin by the main road through what are now James’s Street and High Street to the Castle.

While the use of cannon, introduced now for the first time into Ireland, had at this period become fairly general, the long bow still continued to be the principal weapon of the infantry; and although it is not possible to state definitely when the final supersession of that historic weapon took place, there is no doubt that in England at least, where the archers attained their highest degree of perfection in the reign of Elizabeth, the bow survived the introduction of firearms by more than two centuries. It is recorded that a body of English archers were employed as mercenaries by Cardinal Richelieu at the siege of La Rochelle in 1627-8.

Neade, a celebrated authority on archery in the reign of Charles I., states that the ordinary range of the bow was from 300 to 400 yards, and that an archer could shoot six arrows in the time occupied in charging and discharging a musket. Even at so recent a period as that of the Peninsular War, the musket was regarded as utterly unreliable beyond a hundred yards, and the instructions for its use issued to the soldiers enjoined that they should not fire until they could see the whites of their adversaries’ eyes.

In 1577 a new bridge was erected in lieu of that at Kilmainham, and this having been swept away by a flood in 1787, the existing fine structure was built, which in consequence of the first stone having been laid by Sarah, Countess of Westmoreland was for many years afterwards generally known as Sarah Bridge.

Resuming our journey, we presently pass, on our left, the dilapidated locality known as Goldenbridge, so called from the original name of the bridge by which the main road crosses the Camac, a little river which rises at the head of the Slade of Saggart. After passing under the railway bridge, the Inchicore Railway Works will be seen on the left, adjoining which near the road, are a number of the employees’ cottages. Turning

down the St. Laurence Road we descend into the Liffey valley, with grassy, wooded banks rising high on the left, the picturesque village of Chapelizod in front, and the Catholic church prominently in view at the opposite side of the river.

Facing the bridge, on the near side, the road up the Steep hill leads to the old church and churchyard of Ballyfermot, near which formerly stood a castle whose site is now occupied by Ballyfermot House. Between the house and the road is a curious brick wall built in a series of curves, and stated to have at one time formed portion of the enclosure of an orchard belonging to the castle. A quarter of a mile further, on the eastern side of the road, between the railway and the canal, is an old house known a hundred years ago as Ballyfermot Lodge, whose dilapidated garden walls, overhung with immense growths of ivy, testify to the antiquity of the place. A tiled roof of an old pattern on an outhouse adjoining, would suggest that the original roof on the main building was also a tiled one. If this surmise be correct, it would seem probable, from the position and appearance of this old establishment, that it is the weird “Tiled House” referred to by J. S. Le Fanu in his story of The House by the Churchyard.

Crossing the bridge we enter Chapelizod, once a favourite residence for Dublin citizens, and still possessing some traces of the old world respectability which characterised it at the period of which Le Fanu wrote in his famous novel. Between the two approaches from the main street to the Protestant Parish Church is an old-fashioned house, which is evidently the actual “House by the Churchyard” that plays so prominent a part in the story.

The lands of Chapelizod appear to have been among those reserved by the Crown at the Invasion, and they continued to be part of the Royal demesne up to the 14th century, when they came into possession of the family of de la Feld. In the 171 century the Crown had again acquired possession of a house and lands here which were situated to the left of the road from Dublin, on the banks of the Liffey. For some years during

the Commonwealth the house was occupied by Sir Theophilus Jones~ brother of Colonel Jones) who distinguished himself at the Battle of Rathmines, and at a later period it was used as a ~iceregal residence. A ruined turret near the river indicates the position of the gardens of this old mansion, which was called “The King’s House,” on account of its having been used for a short time in 1690 by King William Ill. as a residentce.

In the 18th century it fell into decay, and was subsequently disposed of by the Crown.

Retracing our steps and recrossing the bridge we pass through what is now commonly accounted part of Chapelizod, but is properly the village of St. Laurence, deriving its name from a leper hospital dedicated to that saint in early times, when leprosy was a common malady in the country, and closed in 1426, when its owner surrendered custody of it and its lands to the Crown. The name of the saint is still retained in the local nomenclature, and a fair used to be held here on St. Laurence’s Day.

A long and uninteresting stretch of road between high walls conducts us past the Stewart Institution, formerly the residence of Lord Donoughmore, into Palmerston, somewhat resembling Chapelizod in the character of its buildings. Just as the village is entered, on the right will be seen one of the old stables SUrviving from the coaching days, when numerous coaches for Mulling~~ and other towns on the great western highway used to pass daily through this place. Adjoining is a terrace, the style of Which would point to the existence, in former years, of a well-to-d0 class of residents, while on the opposite side of the road Was, until recently, a stately old mansion, now replaced by a row of small dwellings.

At the close of the 18th century this village possessed six calico printing mills, two oil mills, one dye mill, three wash mills, as well as lead, iron and copper works.

Approached by a lane from the high road is a pretty chapel of-ease, with a small belfry bearing a clock which has long ceased to record the flying hour, and in front of the entrance is a lime tree with a circular seat around the trunk.

Beside the old stable referred to above, a by-road on the right leads to the lower and probably the original village, with the ruins of the old church of Palmerston, thickly covered with ivy, in a picturesque position overlooking the river. Adjoining is the once famed village green, where a fair used to be held on the 21 St August, an institution which at one period of its existence was regarded as second only to the historic saturnalia of Donnybrook.

A mile and a half beyond Palmerston, along the main road, is the little hamlet of Cursis Stream, recently improved by the erection of some handsome villa residences. There is nothing in this locality worthy of notice; and after passing the power station of the Dublin and Lucan Electric Railway, we reach Ballydowd Hill, a considerable elevation over the surrounding country, but commanding only a very restricted view. About a mile further on we pass the long, straggling hamlet of Ballydowd, consisting mostly of neatly-kept detached cottages,

and immediately beyond this the road branches, both routes ~ntering Lucan by a long down hill.

At the top of the hill, where the road forks, and almost within a stone’s throw of the village, a monumental slab, inserted in the wall, commemorates the murder on this spot, of Father MacCartan, of Lucan.

The inscription runs as follows:-

I.H.S.

HERE PREMATURELY FELL BY LAWLESS VIOLENCE THE REV. JAMES MACCARTAN, ON THE 3RD OF JUNE, 1807. TALENTS RICH, REFINED, AND SPLENDID, INNATE BENEVOLENCE AND PECULIAR URBANITY OF MIND DISTINGUISHED THROUGH LIFE THIS ZEALOUS MINISTER OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH AND GENEROUS FRIEND OF HUMANITY.

It appears that on the night of the murder, Father MacCartan (or McCarthy as the name is given in the newspapers of the time) dined with Lord Donoughmore’s steward at Palmerston House, now the Stewart Institution, having held a station for a few days previously in the neighbourhood. When returning home about 10 o’clock he was wantonly fired at by one of a gang of robbers, who had no knowledge of him or his sacred office, and who apparently attacked him for the sake of whatever articles of value he might happen to have in his possession.

The following account of the trial is abbreviated from that in the Freeman’s Journal of the 27th June, 1807:

COMMISSION INTELLIGENCE.

MURDER OF MR. MCCARTHY.

Thomas Weir and Christopher Walsh were indicted for the murder of the Rev. Mr. McCarthy near Lucan, on the 3rd of the current month, for that they, instigated by the devil, &c., did murder the said Mr. McCarthy, by lodging the contents of a pistol under his left breast, of the wound whereof he died. There was another count charging the prisoners with robbing the said Mr. McCarthy of - (1) a silver watch, and (2) ten shillings English. To both these counts the Prisoners pleaded not guilty.

The prisoners being asked had they any agents, Walsh announced he had no attorney but God Almighty.

James Clarke, keeper of the turnpike near Lucan, deposed that he saw deceased about 11 o’clock on the night of the 3rd June, lying on his back, dead, nearly at the top of Lucan hill, with his right hand extended, and bleeding proftisely from a wound in the left breast. Witness joined in the Pursuit of the murderers.

John Murphy, one of the gang, who turned King’5 Evidence, identified both prisoners. On the 3rd June he saw Weir with three men, named Donohoe, MacMahon, and Larkin. A meeting was ultimately arranged for that night in Thomas Street, at which the prisoners, the three men named, and witness attended, and it was there planned that they should that same night proceed to Lucan and attack the house of a man named Kenny, who, it was understood, had £180 in his possession. A car was accordingly hired by two of the party, who told the driver that they were bailiffs going Out to arrest a deserter in Lucan, and they drove first to Mount flrown, where the remainder of the gang mounted the car. Witness stated that when he got to Lucan his heart failed him, and he gave his pistol to Walsh, who was a soldier in plain clothes, and who in return gave him his bayonet. When they reached Kenny’s house they found there only his wife and daughter to whom they read a document which they said was a search warrant; they then searched the house, but, finding no money, quitted it without offering any violence to the inmates.

On leaving, they divided into two parties, whereof witness and two others were the first; Weir, Walsh, and Donohoe following at a short distance. The first party overtook and passed a gentleman in black on the road, but did not molest him; after passing him witness looked back and observed that when the others came up, Walsh put his hand to his bosom, drew out a pistol, seized the gentleman by the throat, and fired against him. Witness saw a man fall, who he at first thought was Walsh, whereupon he immediately separated from his companions and ran away across the open country; witness saw no more of the gang that night, and was himself arrested next morning.

On cross-examination, witness stated that his pistol was loaded with swan drops, that he did not take it out with intent to murder, and that only for the Union he would not have come so near the gallows, his trade, that of a silver plater, having been an exceedingly good one until the passing of that measure.

John White, the car driver, deposed that on the night of the 3rd June, his car was hired by Walsh and Weir to carry a party to Lucan, for the purpose, as alleged by the hirers, of apprehending a deserter.

Eleanor Burke, a servant at James Kenny’s, near Lucan, gave evidence as to the visit by the party.

Major Sirr, who took the depositions of John Murphy, the King’s Evidence, deposed that he took them down verbatim.

The confession of the prisoners, Weir and Walsh, was produced in evidence; it charged Donohoe with the murder, but agreed otherwise with the evidence of John Murphy.

The jury without leaving the box, returned a verdict of guilty against both prisoners, and Judge Daly, in passing sentence of death, advised them to indulge in no vain hopes of respite. Weir begged for some time to prepare, but the judge observed that there were no circumstances in the case which would warrant any departure in the least degree from a strict compliance with the law, and sentenced the prisoners to be hanged next morning.

The murderers were executed, according to the usual custom of the time, on the spot where the crime was committed. Weir was only nineteen years of age and Walsh thirty-four. ‘be three other members of the gang were never apprehended, and probably escaped abroad.

It may be here mentioned that the left hand road, on which the tram runs, was not in existence at the time of the tragedy.

Descending the steep hill by either road, we enter the pretty town of Lucan, picturesquely situated in the wooded valley of the Liffey at the junction with its tributary, the Griffen.

In 1758, the medicinal qualities of the spa having been discovered, this place at once came into notice, and for a number of years was quite a fashionable resort, until the proverbial fickleness of fashion consigned it to its original obscscurity.

Dr. Rutty, in a detailed account of this spa, and cites over fifty cases of various diseases which came under his observation as having been cured by taking its waters.

The Lucan demesne was originally the patrimony of the Sarsfields, the last of whom was the famous General Patrick Sarsfield, afterwards Earl of Lucan. He fell in action at the Battle of Landen in 1693, leaving a son, on whose death in 1719, the title became extinct. The estate then passed to Charlotte Sarsfield, niece of the late Earl, and she marrying Agmondisham Vesey, the property came into possession of the Vesey family, from whom it subsequently passed by a similar process into the hands of the Colthursts.

Adjoining the entrance gate of the demesne, but almost concealed from observation by trees, is the ancient castle of the Sarsfields, beside which is the ivied ruin of a church containing a mural tablet to the memory of Lady Jane Butler and her husband.

Not far from the town, on the road to the Great Southern and Western Railway Station, is a hillock surmounted by a rath in excellent preservation. In the interior are several walled chambers which were formerly reached by an opening at the top, but are now inaccessible owing to portion of the entrance passage having fallen in.

Leaving Lucan by the Esker road up the steep hill, and passing the new cemetery, we presently enter the little village of Esker, more populous in former years, and once possessing a grammar school and a cotton factory. The district of Esker was one of the four ancient Royal manors of the County Dublin, the revenues of which were on occasions applied to the defence of the Pale against “the Irish Enemie.” Esker means a ridge of sandhills, this place marking the commencement of the great Esker-Riada, a line of low hills which extends almost uninterruptedly to the County Galway, and was fixed upon as the boundary between the North and the South of Ireland in the 2nd century by Owen More and Conn of the Hundred Battles (Irish Names of Places, Vol. I., p.402).

On the summit of one of these sand hills, and in a commanding position overlooking the little hamlet, stand the ivied ruins of the ancient church of Esker, probably dating from the 12th century. Within the hallowed circuit of its mouldering walls, a large tombstone, shattered to pieces, marks the restingplace of the murdered priest, Father MacCartan, whose tragic fate is commemorated in the following epitaph:-“The United Parishes of Lucan and Palmerstown erected this tombstone over the Mortal Remains of the Reverend James MacCartan, R.C. Curate of said Parishes. As a grateful tribute of their Respect for, and as a fitting monument of their sincere regret for the loss of that Worthy Clergyman, by whose death Society was deprived of a Valuable Member, and Religion one of Her most zealous Ministers. namentable to add, He fell a Victim to the Sacrilegious Hands of a Sanguinary Banditti, by whom he was Robbed and Murdered on the Hill of Lucan on the 3rd day of June, A.D. 1807, And in the 42nd year of his Age. Requiescat in Pace. Amen.”

It is difficult to account for the mutilated condition of this tombstone otherwise than by the supposition of malicious injury, as from the marks on it, it would appear to have been deliberately broken, either by dropping heavy stones upon it or by striking it with some weighty object.

In 1248 the Manor of Esker was granted to Peter de Bermingham, whose descendants retained possession of it until the middle of the following century. From a “regal visitation” of 1615, it appears that the church was then in repair, but that the chancel was in ruins.

Rising out of Esker, the road is carried along an elevated ridge commanding exquisite views of the mountains in extended panorama, some bathed in sunshine, others more sombre, shadowed by passing clouds, or picturesquely wreathed in the blue smoke of the gorse fires.

A short distance further, on a by-road to the left, will be seen Ballyowen Castle, consisting of a square ivied ruin, with a modern farmhouse erected against it. Several old doorways, now built up, can be distinguished in the masonry, and the original well of the castle, in the adjoining field, is still used for drinking purposes.

This castle is somewhat different from the ordinary type, in being equipped with a lofty turret, a feature copied in the design of a modern residence in the neighbourhood. Commanding so extensive a view, this addition to a stronghold must have been a great advantage to the occupants during troublous times, in securing, to a great extent, an immunity from surprise attacks. Some traces of the old fosse which surrounded the building may be distinguished to the south of the ruin.

Returning to the main road, we presently cross in succession the Great Southern and Western Railway and the Grand Canal, half a mile beyond which we enter the village of Clondalkin. From here we ascend the long hill past Mount St. Joseph’s Monastery to the Naas road, whence the return to town may be made via Kilmainham, Dolphin’s Barn, or Terenure, according to the district desired to be reached.

The following authorities were consulted in the preparation of this chapter:- An article on Lucan and Leixlip by Mr. E.

R. McC. Dix and Mr. James Mills in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland for 1896; Dalton’s History of the County Dublin; Wakeman’s Old Dublin; The Dublin Penny Journal; and several articles in old Dublin magazines.

Distances from G.P.O. - Chapelizod, 4; Palmerston, 5½,Lucan, 9; Clondalkin, 12½; back to G.P.O., 19 miles.