The Little Book of Ballsbridge

By Hugh Oram

The Little Book of Ballsbridge is a compendium of fascinating, obscure, strange and entertaining facts about this leafy suburb of Dublin. Here you will find out about Ballsbridge’s famous (and occasionally infamous) residents, its proud sporting heritage, its churches and great houses and its natural history. Down wide streets and past elegant houses, this book takes the reader on a journey through Ballsbridge and its vibrant past. A reliable reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped into time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage and the secrets of Dublin’s ‘embassy belt’.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9780750958295

Hugh Oram

Hugh Oram is an author, broadcaster and journalist with countless articles and books to his name, who has lived and worked in Dublin for many years.

Book preview

To my wife Bernadette

CONTENTS

Title

Dedication

Acknowledgements

1.  Timeline of Events

2.  Famous Residents

3.  Houses and Mansions

4.  Churches

5.  Work

6.  Pubs, Restaurants and Hotels

7.  Transport

8.  Sport

9.  Ballsbridge Battles

10.  Crime and Mayhem

11.  Natural History

Copyright

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is dedicated to my wife Bernadette in thankful appreciation of all her help and support while I was writing it. They are also due to Mary Kenny, for her esteemed input into the book. Special thanks are also due to John Holohan of the Ballsbridge, Donnybrook and Sandymount Historical Society and to his wife, Jacqueline, for her wonderful line drawings. I’d also like to thank Grant Howie and Martin McElroy of Grant’s, Upper Baggot Street, for all their help with the images for the book. I much appreciate the help in its production given by Dean Lochner of the Bondi Group and Gerard Whelan, Royal Dublin Society library, who provided the cover photo.

I would also like to thank the following: Patricia Aitchison, Trocadero restaurant; Bahá’i information centre (Eleanor Dawson); Robert Ballagh; Ballsbridge College of Further Education (Dan Bradley) Bergin family; Bobby Barden, St Bartholomew’s; Ruth Barton, TCD film studies; Jonathan Beaumont; Ruth Brennan; Peter Brittain; Nigel Brophy, Ebiquity Ireland; Nicky Broughall; Paddy Byrne, Byrne’s pharmacy, Merrion Road; Sean Byrne, Ballsbridge Golf Society; Aileen Chapman; Rob Clarke, CEO, Spirit Radio; Paddy Cole; Michael Cullen, Marketing.ie; Defence Forces (Commandant Denis Hanly, press officer); Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (Bobby Smyth); Brian de Salvo; Donnybrook Fair, Upper Baggot Street (Stephen Doyle, Paddy McLoughlin) Gerry Downey; Erroll Dunne, Waterloo Garage; Peter Dunne, Mitchell and Son; Jim Eadie; First Church of Christ Scientist, Rodney Senior; Julianne Gall, Kings Inn library; German embassy, Dublin (Barbara Schmidt); Maria Gillen; Jennifer Gordon; Joanna Grimes, IPA library; Mary B. Guckian; Anthony Harrison; Bronagh Harte, Ginkgo florists; Donald Helme, RTÉ; Herbert Park Hotel, Paula Barry; Irish Daily Mail (Paul Henderson, Joellen Hanley); the late Paddy Kealy and his wife Chris; Irish Model Boat Club (Tom Shields); Joe Kelly, St Mary’s, Haddington Road; Barry Kenny, Irish Rail; Breda Keogh, Raheny; Jenny Kingston; Kurt Kullmann; Lansdowne Hotel (Frank and Michael Quinn); Trish Laverty, FM 104; Pat Liddy; Bruce McAllaster, 7–11, Dallas, Texas; Margaret McAllister (Irish Daily Mail) and her husband, Michael; John McCarthy, McCarthy Shoes, Ranelagh; Rev Andrew McCroskery, vicar, St Bartholomew’s, Clyde Road; Bob McDonagh; Deirdre McDonald, Sinead O’Carroll, Ariel House; Gerry Monaghan; National Library of Ireland, including Berni Metcalfe; National Print Museum (Carla Marrinan); Lindie Naughton; News Four; O’Brien’s pub, Sussex Terrace (Tony Kelly); Breandain O’Broin, Company of Words; Hughie O’Byrne, retired deputy principal, Marian College; John O’Donnell, County Clare; Ciara O’Hara, Carlton Screen Advertising; Pembroke Library; Margaret Pfeiffer; Gráinne Ross, Dylan Hotel; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Lorna Cahill); Royal Dublin Society library (Gerard Whelan); Royal Irish Academy of Music (Philip Shields); Annie Ryan; St Brigid’s primary school (Annemarie Hogan, principal); St Mary’s Home, Anne Kavanagh; Fiona Scott, Boys & Girls; Dick Spring; Sunshine 106. 8 FM radio (Karen Dwyer); Valerie Waters and Conor Linehan; Wellington Inn (John Gibney); Trevor White, The Little Museum of Dublin.

Margaret McAllister, a receptionist at the Irish Daily Mail/Irish Mail on Sunday newspapers. She and her husband Michael live in Anglesea Road. (Irish Daily Mail/Irish Mail on Sunday)

1

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

Crest on the US Embassy, Ballsbridge. (Jacqueline Holohan)

2

FAMOUS RESIDENTS

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AILESBURY ROAD

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Sir Alfred Chester Beatty was an Irish-American mining magnate and millionaire, often called the ‘King of Copper’. He became a naturalised British subject in 1933. He was also an avid collector of art and books from Asia and the Middle East. In 1949, he decided to leave Britain for tax reasons and settled in Dublin, buying a twelve-room house on Ailesbury Road for IR£12,000. He moved in in May 1950, along with 35 tons of artworks.

He then bought No. 20 Shrewsbury Road and had the Chester Beatty Library and Gallery built there. It opened in 1953 and when the extension was opened in 1957, it was attended by the then President, Sean T. O’Kelly and the then Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera. The library and gallery were relocated to Dublin Castle in 2000 and subsequent attempts to redevelop the site in Shrewsbury Road have been unsuccessful. After Sir Alfred died while in Monaco in 1968, he was accorded a State funeral, one of the few occasions on which a private Irish citizen has been given such an honour.

Kevin Haugh (1891–1969) was a barrister and judge; he was Attorney General from 1940 to 1942, when he became a Supreme Court judge, a position he held until retirement in 1968 and lived on Ailesbury Road. His son, also Kevin (1944–2009), followed his father’s path to the Bar and the High Court; he was also a circuit court judge. He was a popular and well-liked judge; subsequently, he became chairman of the Garda Ombudsman Commission, dealing with complaints against the force and its members, which began in 2007. One of the children from the marriage of Kevin Haugh and his wife Annette is their son Bob Haugh, who owns a well-known Dublin travel agency, The Travel Department.

J.P. McManus, a billionaire magnate with interests that include horse racing and soccer, lives permanently in Switzerland, but he has a Dublin residence.

The original house dated back to Edwardian times and became the Japanese embassy in 1970. The embassy was moved to offices beside the Merrion Centre in 1992; eventually the house was bought by Bernard McNamara, a property developer, for IR£2.95 million – a record for the road at that time.

McNamara demolished the house and built a new one on a lavish scale. In 2011 the house was sold for €10 million to J.P. McManus. He and his wife also have two mews houses at the rear, where they built an orangery in the garden of one of them.

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ANGLESEA ROAD

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Brendan Behan, the writer, lived all his married life at No. 5 Anglesea Road, close to the bridge at Ballsbridge. His wife was Beatrice, daughter of the painter, playwright, poet and publisher Cecil Salkeld. Behan died in 1964 but Beatrice continued to live in the house. After Behan’s death, Beatrice lived with Cathal Goulding, chief of staff of the Official IRA, until 1972. Their son was Paudge. The house at No. 5 had been bought by Behan in 1961 for IR£1,600, but in 2006 Paudge reluctantly sold it.

John Byrne, a noted property developer and great friend of former Taoiseach the late Charles Haughey, lived just off Anglesea Road for many years. He was 94 years old when he died in October 2013. One of Ireland’s wealthiest property developers, he was responsible for the construction of such modern architectural monstrosities as O’Connell Bridge House in central Dublin.

Neil Campbell-Sharpe, a noted photographer, lived at No. 2 Anglesea Road in the mid-1970s. He was married to Noelle Campbell-Sharpe, the one-time magazine publisher and subsequent art gallery owner, and the woman behind the Kilreilig creative arts centre in west Kerry.

Clara Dumbleton, who is in her late 80s, is one of the few residents