Turf piles and Allotments in the Phoenix Park WWII – Local History Castleknock

As World War II started when I was twelve, I remember those years well. Although Ireland was neutral, precautions still had to be taken to combat the difficulties with imports and exports and the danger of attack, so the Government brought in certain measures during this period, which was  known as ‘The Emergency.’

Cycling along turf-lined Chesterfield Avenue, the main thoroughfare in the Phoenix Park

TURF MOUNDS

During the Emergency, The Turf Board, now Bord na Mona, was established to organise the cutting of turf on the midland bogs and transport it to the cities and towns. Between 1942-47, over a half million tons of hand-cut turf was transported to Dublin by canal, by train and by army lorries to be stored in high mounds of up to thirty feet, on the Fifteen Acres and along Chesterfield Avenue in the Phoenix Park, also known as the “Long Straight” from Grand Prix racing days and later, by another name, “the new bog road.” In addition, wire bales and timber bollards, side-by-side and up to roof height, were placed at intervals of about 200 yards, to prevent planes using the road as a runway. As cyclists could not get by, a few of them used to get together and move the bollards, leaving gaps so that cyclists could at least dismount and negotiate around the turf banks. Every now and then, the powers-that-be dragged them in close again. For the duration of the Emergency, this performance went on of alternate gaps-no gaps.

Collecting turf from the Phoenix Park

In the early 20th century, a range of state and voluntary organisations followed the lead of UK and USA organisations and started an allotment movement. One such charitable organisation called the Vacant Land Cultivation Society (VLCS) begged and borrowed derelict or uncultivated land from both private individuals and Dublin Corporation and carved it into allotments. The aim was to help supplement the diets and incomes of the city’s poor by enabling plot-holders to grow their own vegetables, fruit and flowers. Each year, a produce show was held in the Mansion House with prizes presented by Dublin nursery firms, James W. Mackey Ltd. and Messrs. Alex Dickson. The Royal Dublin Society, in association with the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland, used to  award monetary prizes for allotment holders.

After World War I, Dublin Corporation built houses on lands once used for allotments and this caused a significant reduction in the availability of land for allotments. While replacement allotments were set up further out in the suburbs, travelling distances discouraged take up and overall, interest in allotments waned. With the arrival of WWII  and food shortages, there was a renewed interest in grow-your-own and a corresponding increase in applications to Dublin Corporation to rent allotments.

During WWII, there was a scurry to listen to news bulletins on the radio and newsreels were shown before films in cinemas to keep people abreast of the happenings. People were obliged to keep lights off at night and employ ‘blackout’ curtains to cover the windows, as lights were liable to attract attention from stray bomber planes. At one stage, bombs were dropped at the North Strand and in the Phoenix Park.

The Government rationed gas supplies during the war and employed men called ‘glimmermen’ to police usage of gas. They had the power to swoop unexpectedly and enter households to check for excessive gas use. Once the word went around that the glimmerman was in the area, householders quickly blew out the pilot light but he often arrived and put his hand on the cooker before it had time to cool down. Then the household was in trouble as their gas supply was cut off for a few weeks.

Farmleigh newspaper delivery round – Local History Castleknock

Front Lodge, Knockmaroon          College Lodge

One of the newspaper delivery rounds from our shop, ‘Glen Stores,’ was the Farmleigh round, which also covered residents in the Phoenix Park. The route by bicycle from our shop in Carpenterstown started along the College Road, right turn at the College Lodge and along Tower Road.

Farmleigh’s Gate Lodge at Clock Tower, former Lennon family home. Courtesy Reynolds Family Private Collection

Gate Lodge, Clock Tower                             Clock Tower

Next, it was in past Farmleigh’s clock tower and the gate lodge where the Lennon family lived. On up the avenue and straight up to the front portico door of Farmleigh where a retainer answered the door or sometimes, he’d be out front waiting on the newspaper.

Farmleigh, former home of the Earl of Iveagh

After delivering at the big house, it was down the front avenue, past the ornamental lake and out through Farmleigh’s main entrance gate into the Phoenix Park.

Farmleigh’s front gate lodge

Park Lodge, Phoenix Park (beside White’s gate)

The first delivery was to the park keeper, Fred Fisher, who lived at Park Lodge beside White’s Gate.

Entrance gate, Ordnance Survey

Back on my bike again, I continued my paper round at the Ordnance Survey. In through the gates to deliver newpapers to four or five residents there. When they upped security for some reason at the Ordnance Survey, deliveries had to be left with the gateman which suited fine as it made the round quicker.

Originally, the Ordnance Survey building was home to Lord Mountjoy. It was later converted into a cavalry barracks called Mountjoy Barracks. This is how the nearby crossroads junction at Chesterfield Avenue became known as ‘Mountjoy corner.‘ In 1824, the Ordnance Survey of Ireland (OSI) took up residence and officers had charge of a survey that mapped Ireland for valuation and taxation purposes. After 1998, military involvement with the Ordnance Survey was phased out. Over the years, the building expanded to include a print works and a shop with maps for sale that is still open to the public.

Rose Cottage, Phoenix Park

Out the Ordnance Survey gate and back into the Phoenix Park. The next delivery was to the park deerkeeper, who lived at Rose Cottage, a detached hexagonal-shaped cottage surrounded by a high hedge. The cottage is unchanged today.

As this ended the newspaper round, it was back to White’s Gate and down White’s Road past Lord Iveagh’s farmyard at Farmleigh. Incidentally , it was never called White’s Road when I was growing up – locals always called it Weekes’s Road. Straight through the crossroads then down the College Road towards home.

White’s Road (aka Weekes’s Road) with Farmleigh’s farmyard in the background

National School, Phoenix Park – Local History Castleknock

National School, Phoenix Park

The national school in the Phoenix Park was known locally as the ‘Park School.’ It was attended by children of families living in the Phoenix Park and the adjacent area – Blackhorse Lane (as we knew it) and Ashtown. My mother’s family – the Reillys – lived in a cottage directly across the road from the entrance to St. Vincent’s, Navan Road so all the Reilly children attended the ‘Park School’ in the late 1800s/early 1900s. (My mother was born in 1898.) Children did not learn the Irish language at school back then as Ireland was still ruled by the British. Along with many others, my mother started to learn the Irish language in 1922.

The Park School closed as a national school in the 1960s but has since been used as a school for children with intellectual disabilities.

The school is used as a polling station for General elections and referenda; the President of Ireland, who resides at Aras an Uachtarain in the Phoenix Park, is often photographed going into the school to vote.

Reilly sisters from back left:- Genevieve Smith, Helen Reynolds, Mary Reilly, Maggie Reilly

Concrete cottage, Phoenix Park

Beside the Park School, there’s a turreted cottage. It is known as the ‘concrete’ cottage, because mass concrete was used in its construction.

Knockmaroon Gate, Phoenix Park – Local History Castleknock

Tower Road heading towards Chapelizod and the Knockmaroon Gate, Phoenix Park.

 

Lodge Gate at the Knockmaroon Gate, Phoenix Park.

The Lodges of Glenmaroon House – Local History Castleknock

 

The neo-gothic cut stone lodge standing beside the Knockmaroon gate of the Phoenix Park was at the main entrance to Glenmaroon House. Glenmaroon Gate Lodge was constructed between 1900 and 1910. A chap I knew called Gerry Willoughby once lived in this lodge. Porter’s Guide of 1912 shows Gerry’s father, J. Willoughby, living at Glenmaroon, Park Gate” – my father knew him well.

Views of the White Lodge & Stable Block leading to North House, Glenmaroon

The White Lodge, a single storey gate lodge, has the Old Stable Block to its rear. In times past, the stables were on the ground floor and the living quarters were overhead, but the ground floor rooms were long since converted into offices and meeting rooms.

  

Views of Glen College. Courtesy niah.ie                  Wall-mounted cast-iron post box, c.                                                                                                    1885, with ‘VR’ monogram. Set into                                                                                                    quadrant entrance wall to Glen                                                                                                          College, Chapelizod Road.

Porter’s Guide of 1912 shows a John Vincent  living at Glenmaroon Cottage. 

Glenmaroon House – Local History Castleknock

South House, Glenmaroon (formerly ‘Knockmaroon Lodge’). Photo credit – An Taisce.

Glenmaroon House is a house of two halves – the North House and the South House – located on either side of Knockmaroon Hill. The South House, on the River Liffey side of the road, predates the 1850s. Formerly named Knockmaroon Lodge, it has a long garden with an Italian-style water feature and a terraced garden that sweeps down to the Liffey. The South House was in existence before the North House, which is on the Phoenix Park side of the road.

                       

North House, Glenmaroon                                               Portico entrance to North House

In the early 1900s, the Honourable Arthur Ernest Guinness, of brewery fame, acquired Knockmaroon Lodge and the adjacent lands. He completed construction of the North House on the Phoenix Park side of the road. Upon completion this was then known as Glenmaroon (or Glenmaroon House). The North House and South House were connected via a covered bridge that spanned Knockmaroon Hill. Having married an aristocratic society lady, Marie Clothilde Russell, work got under way to make their home luxurious. The fairytale Tudor Revival design had a ‘smoking lounge’ and an indoor swimming pool. The house had a portico-style baronial entrance that led into a panelled hallway. Its decorative red earth chimney pots in barley twist style can still be seen.

Wood panelled hall, Glenmaroon House. Photos credit Coonan Estates

Arthur’s heiress daughters – Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh – were known as the ‘Golden Guinness Girls.’ With eight husbands between them, their antics inspired the gossip pages. Aileen’s father gifted nearby Luttrellstown Castle to her and she lived there for years.

Wood panelled stairway, Glenmaroon House. Photos credit Coonan Estates

When Ernest Guinness died in 1949, the entire property was transferred to the Government of the time in part payment of death duties. It was the subject to a famous court case in 1951. The entire complex then passed to the Daughters of Charity who renovated and extended it for use as a care home and a girls’ school called ‘Holy Angels.’ In time, a dormitory was added in 1956 and a chapel was added c.1967. More recently, it was used for the care of people with intellectual disabilities.  

Fingal County Council zoned the property ‘High Amenity’ in the Fingal Development Plan 2011 – 2017. This objective provides for the protection of highly sensitive and scenic locations from inappropriate development to reinforce their character, distinctiveness and sense of place as well as recognising the potential of opportunities to increase public access to such areas.

Although the houses are protected structures, the land is destined for development. The two privately-owned walkways which spanned the road at Knockmaroon Hill and linked the properties were the subject of a recent appeal by the local historical society to An Bord Pleanala. Following the rejection of this appeal, permission was granted for the removal of both bridges. The ‘open’ walkway made of wrought iron, reached by means of a spiral stairway, has already been removed. The enclosed bridge is destined for removal soon.

Gerry Creighton Senior’s 51 year career as keeper in the Zoo – Blanchardstown-Castleknock History Society

Gerry Creighton Senior, retired curator of Dublin Zoo.

Gerry gave an inspiring talk at the April meeting of the Blanchardstown-Castleknock History Society. He started off by relating how he never liked school. On his first day at school, his mother arrived home from the shops to find him sitting on the doorstep.

He always loved animals; he felt an affinity with them and that he had a type of healing power. He lived near the Phoenix Park and from about the age of 12, he’d often wander up to the park and as far as the Zoo to feed the ponies. His father worked in the Guinness brewery and wanted to get him started there but he wasn’t interested. At the age of 14, he looked for a job in the Zoo and they took him on.

Even now, Gerry can recall all the animals names and their distinctive characters. He went on to describe the animals’ basic instincts and their heightened senses and how male animals often felt threatened by him, as a male of another species. Bit by bit, Gerry accumulated a huge insight into animals and their behaviour. Over the next 51 years, he put this knowledge into practice, eventually becoming senior curator at Dublin Zoo, and a key figure in the Zoo’s development.

As a young lad, Gerry had been transfixed by a book called The Man Eaters of Tsavo, about a couple of man-eating lions that terrorised the workers building the Kenya-Uganda railway. Gerry went on to describe various close encounters with the animals over the years where he had faced danger. One time he was cleaning out the cage of a male lion, Rusty, when Rusty entered the cage and surprised him; one of the other keepers had let him in by mistake. The lion seemed to be as surprised as he was so when he ordered him out using his usual language, Irish, the lion simply slouched out of the cage. Another time, when five young lions escaped their enclosure, Gerry rattled the keys of the gate and because they were used to that, the lions slunk back into their home. There was no need for tranquilliser guns, rifles or nets.

Not alone did Gerry love his job, but he often took his work home with him, playing host to orang-utans, leopards, lions – or even some the largest of the world’s primates. Gerry described how Grace was the first gorilla born in Ireland but unfortunately, she had a bit of a lesion on her forehead, so he took her down to Harcourt Children’s Hospital where a consultant there diagnosed a fractured skull. There was no question of Grace returning to the gorilla enclosure, so for the next year she was hand-reared, spending every night at the Creightons’ home. Grace had to be bottle fed every two hours and she slept in a little cot but often ended up sleeping on Gerry’s chest.

It was a full time job keeping a wild animal at home and it couldn’t be left on its own, so when their electric cooker needed to be repaired, they had to bring the gorilla with them, wrapped up like a baby. In the shop a little girl came over. Gerry said: “Would you like to see the baby? She’s very like her mother.” When the girl saw the baby gorilla, she screamed and ran back to her mother, shouting: “Mammy, mammy, that man’s baby looks like a monkey!” The mother was mortified and told her not to be saying things like that. But when the mother herself came over to have a look, she nearly collapsed.

The Creighton household also played host to a snow leopard. One of the rarest of the big cats, this particular one was abandoned by her mother and had to be reared in an incubator. “I brought her home and before long she was chasing round the house with our German shepherd. But when it came to sleeping, she had to have the washing machine on. She slept beside it. She loved the vibrations.”

In between turning on the washing machine for leopards, bottle feeding gorillas and sticking baby orang-utans in the hot press, Gerry and his wife Catherine brought up five children. The two boys – Gerry Junior and James – followed in their father’s footsteps and both are senior keepers at the zoo.

Gerry Creighton (Junior)

Gerry Senior is completing his memoirs by the end of 2018 – it promises to be some read.

Gerry told us it is indeed true that MGM’s trademark lion, Cairbre, was born in Dublin Zoo – on the 20th of March 1919. Dublin Zoo is the third oldest zoo in the world.

Fawn Lodge and adjacent houses up to the Phoenix Park Racecourse – Local History Castleknock

    

These two storey houses opposite the Castleknock gate of the Phoenix Park, were built  c. 1885. Courtesy National Inventory Architectural Heritage.

When I was growing up, ‘Fawn Lodge,’ the dashed house on the left in the photo above, was home to Dr. Merrick, a former British Army doctor. Both houses are gone now and the apartment block that stands there now carries on the name, ‘Fawn Lodge.’ This was the grant of planning permission for ‘Fawn Lodge’:-

PLANNING PERMISSION – DECISION TO GRANT – 31st August 2008:

Location: Deerpark House and Fawn Lodge, Castleknock Road, Dublin 15. Proposed development: demolish house and outhouses/stables for a three-storey block with 18 apartments (five two-beds and one three-bed at ground floor, first floor and second floor level). Car-parking, landscaping and site works. Applicant: Fiancon Builders Ltd.

An elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Sikes, lived in Deerpark House beside Fawn Lodge. It was said that they had been tea planters in India. Mrs. Sikes used a large basket chair to get around – of course, there was virtually no traffic on the road back then. An opening to one side of Deerpark House led to a large stable block at the back. Over the years, many race-horse trainers including the Grassicks operated from here as it was ideally located beside the Phoenix Park and the race-course. In the early morning, the race horses were brought to ‘the gallops,’ a ploughed area at ‘The Fifteen Acres,’ which extended in front of the American Legation and beyond where the Pope’s Cross now stands.

On the opposite side of Fawn Lodge, just around the corner, the Robinson family lived in a large old house. I remember two sons of the family – Frank Robinson was in my class at school and his brother, Christy Robinson, was a member of the scouts and involved in the community. He used to do some gardening for my father.

Beyond Robinsons was a block of three two storey houses – the local Jubilee nurse worked from the last house and further on was Mahady’s cottage. At a point near where Castleknock Garden Centre once stood, was the lodge leading up to the ‘Rasher’ Byrne’s house and horse training establishment.

Photo of W.J. (‘Rasher’)Byrne. Courtesy Irish Racehorse Trainers Association

Beyond that was a wide entrance to the Phoenix Park Racecourse which operated between 1902 – 1990. The grounds once housed a branch of Squash Ireland as well as Silks Nightclub.

The more familiar entrance to the Racecourse was on a bend opposite the Ashtown entrance gate to the Phoenix Park, with ornate railings and a tudor lodge style kiosk, now demolished.

Medical matters – Local History Castleknock

Ard na Greine, Castleknock. Photo courtesy Dr. Mark Humphrys.

The Dispensary in Castleknock is still there, located opposite the traffic light junction at Auburn Avenue. In my early years, Dr. Cullen lived in the doctor’s residence behind the Dispensary; later on, it was Dr. Lavelle. Many a time I was sent off on my bicycle to fetch the doctor. The doctor’s practice covered an area extending across to Porterstown and Clonsilla. Back then, doctors were available 24/7, house visits by car were commonplace. There was no such thing as having to make an appointment with the doctor.

 

Eastern Health Board Child and Family Centre. Photos courtesy niah.ie

 

Two storey houses c. 1885 opposite the Castleknock gate of the Phoenix Park, courtesy National Inventory Architectural Heritage.

Dr. Merrick, who was formerly a British Army doctor, lived with his wife at ‘Fawn Lodge,’ the dashed house on the left in the photo above, which was situated beside Deerpark House, opposite the Castleknock gate of the Phoenix Park. The apartment block built there now carries the name, ‘Fawn Lodge.’ Dr. Merrick and his wife are recorded as being buried in the cemetery at St. Brigid’s:

Merrick, Dr. W.J, d. 22 May 1950, h/o Irene Edna, [AR]
Merrick, Irene Edna, d. 13 Oct 1938, w/o Dr W J, [AR]

 

The Jubilee nurse for the Castleknock area was a jolly woman who lived around the corner from Dr. Merrick in the row of two-storey houses facing the wall of the Phoenix Park. That row of houses is long gone. Her clinic was based at Castleknock Dispensary. When a new Jubilee nurse took over, she lived in a brand new house in the row alongside Kelly’s pub, the Half Way House on the Navan Road. Many a time I called over there for her to dress various gashes sustained while participating in sporting activities and in the workplace. The Jubilee nurses worked alongside the doctors in the community and cycled all over the district on home visits, armed with their Gladstone bags.   

Gas Lamplighters in the Phoenix Park – Local History Castleknock

Paddy Hunter, former Dublin Corporation Lamplighter, Phoenix Park, 1989. Above photos courtesy Dublin City Council Photographic Collection. Quotation from James Plunkett’s Strumpet City.

The Phoenix Park was one of the first places in Dublin to use gas street lighting back in 1825. There were 175 lamps in the Park, each which had to be lit at dusk and quenched at dawn. Lamplighters were engaged by the Board of Works, later the Office of Public Works (OPW) to do this work.

In earlier times, they went from lamp to lamp on foot carrying a five-foot malacca cane pole over their shoulder like a rifle with an eighteen inch torch at the end of it. The torch worked by means of acetylane which was kept in a brass container. To ignite the lamp, the torch was lit and the pole extended to touch off the gas head. The Lamplighters toolkit included a duster, a sponge and a tube of solution to clean the lamps and a chamois to polish them.

Later on, Lamplighters were supplied with standard Raleigh bicycles, red in colour; they balanced a ladder across its handlebars. They had no uniform but were provided with a short waterproof jacket and pull-ups. By then, they were paid extra for Saturdays and Sundays. An inspector monitored their work, following them on bikes or by car.

This lonely job meant interrupted sleep, unsociable hours and having to go out in all weathers, even on Christmas night, although Christmas often brought a drink or a pound note from Aras an Uachtarain or the American Embassy. A handful of families traditionally did the job of Lamplighter, the Flanagans being one such family. Thomas Flanagan did the job for 51 years until 1975. Lamplighters often encountered strange happenings under cover of darkness.

In the 1970s, the gas lamps in the Phoenix Park were replaced with electric wiring, although the old Victorian stands and lanterns were retained. In 1988, over 100 gas  lamps were restored along the main thoroughfare in the Phoenix Park but these ignite automatically, negating the revival of the Lamplighter.

Dublin Corporation lamplighter

Streetlighters also turned up in songs and stories by famous writers such as James Joyce, James Plunkett and Charles Dickens and even children sang a ditty:

“Oh Billy the lamplighter at the garden gate

 How I used to remember where you used to wait.”

The Dublin streetlighters are long gone too, yet they’ve left a few physical reminders behind them, such as the Lamplighter Public House in the Coombe.

Parkgate Street 1910

Phoenix Park tram

Phoenix Park map c. 1845