A nun who dipped into history and got wet

A nun who dipped into history and got wet

16 Jun 1973

I FELL IN LOVE with a nun last night Sister Ann Dominica Fitzgerald endeared herself to me forever when she grinned with fiendish glee and described how she fell in the River Poódle — twice — while tracing the course of the long forgotten stream which_passes, mostly underground, through the old Liberties area of Dublin and reaches the Liffey at Wellington Quay. You see, Sister Ann is a ‘Poddleologist” — a decided expert on the course and history of this strange little watercourse which clever Sister Ann and a select few other enthusiasts can talk about for hours in torrents of information — clogged conversation.

She has written one of the fascinating pieces in a new book “The Liberties of Dublin – It’s History, People and Future” published in hardback and paperbook – E. and T. O’Brien.

In her exhaustive study of the stream, she asserts that the River Poddle is one of the reasons for Dublin’s existence — “artisans settled around its banks for their trades.” Sister Ann even claims that it was the Poddle rushing into the Liffey which caused the deep – blackpool which gave Dublin its name — “Dubhlinn.”

Her article, ” Dovvn the Old Poddle,” appears alongside pieces by such people as Breandan O’Riordan, J. B. Malone, Bishop Wyse Jackson, G. A. Hayes-McCoy and Dr. Tim O’Neill, among a terrific collection of photographs, old and new, drawings and etchings. The book is edited by Dublin journalist Elgie Gillespie.

Major study

AT A RECEPTION last night in Archbishop Marsh’s Library — ‘the first public Library in Ireland, built by 1707 — Sister Ann spoke with great gusto about her study. Her research of the River PoddJe is only part of a major study of the River Liffey and the history of life around it.

She has been working on it for four years now and hopes to produce a book on the subject in the near future. She sees the Liffey, the Liberties area and the Poddle course as being of major significance in the social history of Dublin. “There are no source books on my subject,” she explains with the air of a pioneer.

Her work is divided between trudging around back alleys and laneways and even longer hours poring over records in the National Library and elsewhere.

Sister Ann is an all-action nun. Even in her role as a teacher at the Dominican Convent, Muckross Park, Donnybrook, she prefers to bring her classes out and about whenevér she can.

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