City Scene

City Scene

2 Jan 1973

IF DUBLIN SHOULD forget all about the Liberties it certainly won’t be the fault of the Liberties. What they’re at now is compiling a book which is due out any day now. It will cover not just ‘he history but various other aspects of the area, through the medium of some 15 different sections, articles or contributions.

It is a kind of corporate effort expert historians, current politicians, people who have just jived there and people who are just interested having come together to offer what they know, deduce or have experienced. The book is to contain 150 illustrations and to come in hard-and-paperback.

LIFE WITHIN

It begins at the beginning with an account of Viking Dublin by Breandain O’ Riordain.

He calls his chapter “Life within the Walls” and the next chapter is, logically enough, Patrick Healy’s account of the City Walls of Dublin.

Various personages appear in the course of the book — Dean Swift, of course, and Robert Emmet and there’s a most intriguing invitation to information in a piece by Peter Walsh entitled “Dutch Billies in the Liberties.” I can hardly wait to learn all about that.

Another title that interests me greatly in prospect is “Down the Old Poddle” which is written by Ann Dominica Fitzgerald, O.P. / know the Poddle is still wandering around somewhere under- Winetavern and/or Dame Street just first where or why I don’t know but I would like to. I hope to that Sr. Ann Dominica will be telling us how she came about her finding through deduction from historical evidence, or by going round the streets sounding the lead. Dr. Tim O’Neill is contributing a piece on “A Bad Year in the Liberties”.

Photo: The last open stretch of the River Poddle near St. Patricks Cathedral – about 1890 – a picture in the Liberties Festival programme by courtest of Maurice Gorham from the “Dublin from Old Photographs”.

Note taken from:https://www.facebook.com/vintagedublinphotos/photos/visible-as-late-as-1973-the-mill-pond-at-the-historic-double-mill-of-st-thomas-a/514838028943887/ regarding photo.
Visible as late as 1973, the Mill Pond at the historic ‘Double Mill’ of St Thomas’ Abbey is of special interest; located within hailing distance of St Patrick’s Cathedral and embedded in the urban fabric of inner city Dublin which swelled around it. Like much of the Liberties, the immediate surrounding area owes much of its existence to the booming industry of the late 17th century, which this pond would have been designed to feed. Known as ‘Busby’s’, ‘Manor’s’ and ‘Double Mill’ at different times or references, the mill produced both oil and flour. Its pond was fed by combined sources of the stream coming from another mill at Greenmount Terrace, and another open branch of the Poddle down Sweeney’s Lane. The quality of the water is questionable, with the first source even labelled ‘factory water’ on the estate map of the Earl of Meath. In November 2003 an excavation was carried out at number 10 Mill Street, a site flanking Mill Street, Sweeney’s Lane, Warrenmount Lane and convent grounds, where it was expected that portions of the retaining wall for Mill Pond would be uncovered. No structural features were evident, however, indicating that the filling in of the millpond was rapid and deliberate.

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