Patrick Comerford
The squares of Dublin 6 tell of the development of south Dublin suburbs by benign Victorian developers and architects who had a vision for the expansion of a growing and prospering city. The squares of Ranelagh, Rathmines, Rathgar and Terenure include Dartmouth Square, Mountpleasant Square, Belgrave Square, Brighton Square, Grosvenor Square, Kenilworth Square, Leinster Square and Eaton Square.
But today, the residents of Kenilworth Square in Rathgar believe the future of their square is under threat. The majority of the gates and railings of the houses – and many front doors – are festooned with Christmas wreaths declaring: ‘All we want for Christmas is to Protect Kenilworth Square.’ To date, over 3,000 supporters have signed a petition organised by Protect Kenilworth Square Committee.
This is a square I have known such my childhood, and members of the Comerford have lived in the area across three on more generations, on Kenilworth Square, Rathgar Road and Grosvenor Road.
Martin and Colette Joyce, who are involved with the Protect Kenilworth Square Committee, invited me to coffee in their home on the south-east corner Kenilworth Square one morning this week to discuss their hopes and fears this Christmas.
Kenilworth Square has over 155 years of history and heritage. It consists of three hectares (7.4 acres) of unspoilt parkland, a wide variety of shrubs and healthy, mature heritage trees, many dating back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The wildlife population includes squirrels, foxes, a variety of birds, and at least four recorded bat species.
Now this Victorian Square ‘is under threat like never before’, Martin Joyce told me over coffee, as we looked across the square. ‘Fortunately, residents of the square have united since we discovered the plans last April,’ he says, referring to proposals by Saint Mary’s College to redevelop their sports grounds in the green heart of the square.
They ‘never contacted residents in the four years they spent putting their plans together in secret, and they have refused to engage with us in the past eight months,’ he says mournfully.
The Congregation of the Holy Spirit, or the Spiritans, own and manage both Saint Mary’s College, Rathmines, and the parkland of Kenilworth Square. Four months ago (22 August 2024), the Spiritans were granted a Section 5 Exemption from Planning Permission from Dublin City planners for Phase 1 of their Kenilworth Square Redevelopment Plan.
The exemption allows them to replace a grass rugby pitch with a full size (100 m x 70 m) 4G synthetic pitch, install a 1.2 m high fence around it and cut down eight healthy, mature trees, all without planning permission.
They will apply for planning permission for the rest of the plan, which involves six 18 m high floodlights, a 10-room pavilion, a car park inside the Square, and more as Phase 2 of their full plan for Kenilworth Square.
Martin Joyce, who recently retired after a career in publishing, told me how the committe members and the residents of Kenilworth Square are now wondering what Phase 3 of those plans could entail, and he explains how those fears are founded on what they have seen happening to other squares in the Dublin 6 area.
The Kenilworth Bowling Club on nearby Grosvenor Square has a synthetic bowling surface and bar facilities. They applied recently for floodlights. The tennis courts beside the bowling club already have floodlights.
The Georgian square at Mountpleasant Square in Ranelagh is fully surrounded by tall, densely-planted conifers, so that no-one can any longer enjoy what was once a beautiful visual amenity. Over time, Mountpleasant Square has also acquired synthetic playing surfaces, floodlights and a massive clubhouse, complete with a gym, a bar and lounge.
He asks: ‘Is this what the future holds for the tranquil, naturally-lit green space that Kenilworth Square currently is? Will Astroturf pitches be installed next in Palmerston Park, Dartmouth Square or Belgrave Square?’
Martin and Colette Joyce, who have lived at 67 Kenilworth Square since 2002, are determined, along with the committee, to ensure this does not happen to Kenilworth Square. He describes it as one of Dublin’s finest Victorian squares and ‘a vital green lung amidst a sea of ever-expanding high-rise developments just a short distance away on Harold’s Cross Road.’
Kenilworth Square in Rathgar was developed by different developers between 1858 and 1879. Unlike the squares of Georgian Dublin, such as Merrion Square, Fitzwilliam Square or Mountjoy Square, Kenilworth Square developed more organically around a central square plot of land. All the houses are finished in red brick but they are built in a variety of different styles.
Most plots surrounding Kenilworth Square had already been laid out and built on by 1867, as the Ordnance Survey map of 1867 shows.
The names of Kenilworth Square and many of the streets and roads off the square, as well as some of the houses in the area, including Kenilworth Road, Kenilworth Park, Leicester Avenue, Waverley Terrace, Waverley Ville and Dudley Lodge, were inspired by the Waverley novels of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), published between 1814 and 1831.
Kenilworth was published in three volumes in January 1821, and republished in 1830. It is set in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and centres on the secret marriage of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.
Saint Mary’s College bought the leasehold on their grounds on Kenilworth Square for £1,000 in 1947 from a Mr White, a property developer who bought the land from the residents for £500. He sold the green area to the Spiritans because he had been refused planning permission for any development. They described the acquisition of the park as ‘a gift from heaven’ and ‘fortuitous.’
Martin Joyce believes this is ironic in light of the current plans from Saint Mary’s College for the redevelopment of the square. They include making the synthetic pitch available to clubs from all over Dublin, nightly and at weekends, on a rotational basis. This would require floodlights, a car park, a third vehicular entrance and a 10-room pavilion.
From 1947 until now, the park at Kenilworth Square has been used exclusively by Saint Mary’s College Rathmines for rugby training and matches on some Saturdays, as well as for occasional cricket, annual school sports days, and for their own Boy Scouts group.
The residents of Kenilworth Square and the public lost access to the park in 1999 when high railings were erected around it and locked the gates.
Residents who attended a meeting with Saint Mary’s on the Square at the time say Saint Mary’s had promised to give keys to the park to the residents if they did not oppose the erection of the high fence. The residents agreed, but no keys were given, and a park that had been open to the public since the 1860s has been solely available to Saint Mary’s pupils for the past 25 years.
Martin Joyce describes the latest proposals as ‘a plan to create a mini stadium at Kenilworth Square.’
Many residents of Kenilworth Square and the surrounding area regularly do circuits of the outside perimeter, walking or jogging, while enjoying, through the railings, the beautiful, tranquil views across the park.
Martin Joyce believes all this ‘will be lost forever if floodlights, a synthetic pitch, a car park and densely planted conifers are permitted.’ He is passionate about how the square must be protected from what he believes are ‘wholly inappropriate development plans.’ Please support our campaign to protect the Square by signing the petition.
I have known Kenilworth Square in intimate detail since my childhood. Some years ago, I photographed many of the houses and explored the stories of the families who lived there for a photo-essay and extensive blog posting (13 January 2021).
Many famous people have lived here. Kenilworth House at No 1 Kenilworth Square, was once the home of Sir Thomas Devereux Pile (1856-1931), High Sheriff of Dublin in 1898 and Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1900, when he welcomed Queen Victoria to Dublin.
Charles Eason, founder of the Eason’s chain of bookshops, built No 30. Kenilworth Bowling Club, the longest-established bowling club in southern Ireland, was established in 1892 in the back garden of Charles Eason, behind Nos 29 and 30 Kenilworth Square. The club moved to Grosvenor Square in 1909 but retains the Kenilworth name.
John West Elvery and his wife Catherine Jane (Fuller) built No 31 in 1861. The Elvery family, a famous Dublin business family, claimed to be descended from Spanish or Portuguese Sephardic refugees who had changed their name in England from Alvarez to Elvery.
John West Elvery was the founder of the Elvery chain of shops that sells sports goods.
Their son, William Elvery, married Mary Teresa Moss of No 23 Kenilworth Square, and their children included the artists Daphne Kaye and Beatrice Elvery Moss, who married Gordon Campbell (1885-1963), who succeeded as Lord Glenavy in 1931. Lady Glenavy’s son, Patrick Campbell (1913-1980), was a well-known writer, Irish Times journalist, satirist and television personality and 3rd Lord Glenavy.
During the War of Independence, Éamon de Valera (1882-1975) moved his office to 53 Kenilworth Square in 1921, when his house in Blackrock was raided. It was in this house that Arthur Griffith presented Lloyd George’s proposals for the Anglo-Irish Treaty to de Valera four days before the Treaty was signed in London.
No 60 Kenilworth Square was the home of Charles William Comerford (1877-1953), the only member of the Comerford family who was actually in the GPO in Dublin in Easter Week 1916. His granddaughter, Angela Marks, believes Charles recalls family tradition that tells of him crawling out along the street and swearing to leave Ireland.
The Comerford family left Ireland ca 1922, but the memory of the family home on Kenilworth Square continued in the name ‘Kenilworth’ which they gave to his house on Nore Road in Portishead, near Bristol. Charles and Elizabeth Comerford had three daughters, Lillian, Nora and Kathleen, who were born while they were living at No 60. All three daughters became teachers in England. After the Comerford family moved, No 60 Kenilworth Square was home to the Little family for almost a century until it was placed on the market in 2016.
From July to December 1939, 65 Kenilworth Square was the home of Professor Ludwig Hopf (1884-1939), a German-Jewish refugee and theoretical physicist who had been the first assistant to Albert Einstein and introduced Einstein to the psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Writing to friends in Germany, he describes living in ‘a very beautiful, very famous and very expensive corner of Europe.’ Shortly after taking up a post at TCD, he died of thyroid failure on 21 December 1939. Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961), described him as ‘a friend to the greatest geniuses of his time,’ adding, ‘Indeed, he was one of them.’
No 67 Kenilworth Square, where Martin and Colette Joyce live, was once the home of Dr Ernst Scheyer (1890-1958), a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. He was rounded up after Kristallnacht, and spent almost a month in Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp near Berlin.
He arrived in Dublin on 14 January 1939, and the Scheyer family made their home at 67 Kenilworth Square. He later taught German at Saint Columba’s College, Rathfarnham, and in TCD. He died in 1958 and was buried in the Progressive Jewish community’s cemetery in Woodtown, Rathfarnham.
Philip Baker (1879-1932), who lived at No 77, was an Irish chess champion. He was born in Riga in 1879, and eventually ownws his own clothing factory.
Philip Baker’s son, Professor Joshua Baker (1906-1979), lectured at TCD for 30 years in Hebrew and as Reid Professor of Criminal Law. Another son, David Baker, was the Hebrew/Gaelic interpreter when the leaders of Israel and Ireland met.
The Protect Kenilworth Square Petition is available to sign HERE.
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