Found-The Missing River Poddle
13 May 1973Found..The Missing Poddle
My discovery of the week was that the River Poddle still flows above ground in the heart of Old Dublin. The members of the Old Dublin Society who will lead the walking tours of the Liberties this afternoon, as part of the Liberties Festival could well make the Poddle part of their itenary.
The spot where the famous old river runs for a fast 30 yards above ground is at the back of Sweeneys Terrace, at the southern corner of Mill Street. And William Talbot, who lives in a house beside the Poddle, is a descendant of an old Dublin Hugenout family of weavers.
William Talbot remembers the Hugenout houses that stood on the site of the present row of modernish house. His mother had told him how the river had been used for tanning purposes. Indeed, he showed me stored in an old cow byre, (yes, a cow byre), a piece of wood from one of the Hugenout tanning tanks. “Tanks as big as a room,” he says.
Larry Dillon, perhaps the most vociferous spokesman for the LIberties, should push the Corporation or An Taisce, or whatever body can take action, to turn the poddle above ground into one of Dublins sights.
Most of us thought it hadnt been seen since Dean Swift was around.
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