A new biographical study of the ‘Rake of Rathfarnham’ reconnects with the Spanish branch of the Comerford family

José Antonio Peña Martínez has published a new biographical study of Philip Wharton (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

A new book is always a pleasant present that brings a smile to my face. It is even more welcome when the book is unexpected and when it is signed by the author. And the pleasures are added to when I find that I am referred to a number of times in the text and that I am fully referenced in the citations and the footnotes.

José Antonio Peña Martínez worked for most of his life in the pharmaceutical, agro-chemistry and food technology sectors in Spain. But since he retired, he has concentrated on historical research, particularly focussed on Aragon and on his home town of Llíria, 25 km north-west of Valencia.

Over the past 20 years or so, he has written and published a series of historical studies and biographies, and his latest book is a study of the infamous ‘Rake of Rathfarnham’, Philip Wharton (1698-1731), who became Duke of Wharton and Earl of Rathfarnham. Wharton inherited the Rathfarnham Castle and neighbouring estates, including Knocklyon and Scholarstown, when his parents died in 1716. His property in England included a large estate at Winchendon near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, about 20 miles south of Stony Stratford, where I now live.

Philip Wharton also inherited his parents’ great influence and wealth, with an estimated income of £14,000 a year. But within less than a decade, while he was still in his early 20s, he had dissipated a heritage that had passed to him from the Loftus family.

Later, Philip Wharton married his second wife, Maria Theresa Comerford, in Madrid in 1726 – just three months after the death of his sadly neglected and abandoned first wife Martha Holmes and after a very public affair with Lady Mary Montagu (1689-1762). Maria Theresa’s mother was Henrietta Comerford, her father was Colonel Henry O’Beirne, an Irish colonel in the Spanish army, and her step-father was Major-General John Comerford (ca1665-1723), of Finlough in Loughkeen, Co Tipperary, of Waterford, and of Madrid.

Despite having converted to Catholicism when he married to Maria Theresa Comerford, Wharton founded a lodge of English Freemasons in Madrid in 1728. He continued his dissolute life, and his health broke down completely in the winter of 1730. He died a destitute in the Cistercian Monastery of Saint Bernard at Poblet, near Tarragona, at the age of 32 on 31 May 1731, and was buried in the church there the next day. At his death, all his titles, apart from that of Baron Wharton, became extinct.

Alexander Pope wrote of him in his first Moral Essay, probably noting Wharton’s death, in 1731:

Wharton, the scorn and wonder of our days,
Whose ruling passion was the lust of praise …

Wharton appointed his widow as his ‘universal heiress’. But there was nothing for the widowed duchess to inherit. Some time after her mother died in Madrid in August 1747, the former Maria Theresa Comerford moved to London, where she subsisted on a small Spanish pension.

She died at her house in Golden Square, Soho, on 13 February 1777, and was buried in Old Saint Pancras churchyard. There were no children to inherit her claims to her husband’s former wealth and titles in Ireland, including the estates and castles he had disposed of at Rathfarnham Castle, Knocklyon Castle and Scholarstown House. The south Dublin estates had been returned to the Loftus family ten years earlier in a legal victory in 1767.

I have long been interested in Philip Wharton and this duchess related to the Comerford family, and I have spoken about them in lectures organised by Rathfarnham Historical Society and Knocklyon History Society about 20 years ago.

In his new biographical study of Philip Wharton, José Antonio Peña Martínez is particularly interested in his role in establishing freemasonry in Spain and in the masonic symbolism on his tomb in Poblet, one of the largest and most complete Cistercian abbeys in the world.

I am hardly equipped to critically engaged with these aspects of Philip Wharton’s life, but I am pleased that substantive portions of the genealogical details take account of my papers 20 years ago in Rathfarnham and Knocklyon and on my biographical details of the former Maria Theresa Comerford on the Comerford Genealogy site.

José Antonio Peña Martínez has been interested in history and historical figures since childhood. His first book, Edeta. Our Iberian Past (2007), was followed by Llíria in the 13th Century (2008); Martin I the Humane, a King without an Heir (2010); The Compromise of Caspe. A Historical Perspective 600 Years Later (2014); Roger de Lauria, a Titan of the Seas (2016); Saint Teresa of Jesus Jornet Ibars. Her Historical Context (2018); Charles of Trastámara and Évreux. The First Prince of Viana (2019); and The Prince Without a Kingdom (2020), and Marie Curie. La cientifica en un mundo de hombres 2022.

His latest book, a new biography, El Misterio del Masón Enterrado en Poblet (The Mystery of the Mason Buried in Poblet), was published this year. Although I am not descended from Philip Wharton or his Comerford duchess, I am related to her Comerford stepfather. That side of the Comerford family continued to be engaged in Spanish politics and life well into the late 19th century.

Perhaps the exotic and eccentric life of her half-brother’s granddaughter, Doña Josefa Eugenia Maria Francisca Comerford MacCrohon de Sales or ‘Josefina’ de Comerford) (1794-1865), who was involved in Spanish political intrigues in the early 19th century. She was given the title of Condesa de Sales and is the one figure in the history of the Comerford family in Spain who stands out as a femme fatale. She might even make a good subject for another biographical study.

My school-level Spanish helped me to read this well-researched and delightfully illustrated book. book. The author José Antonio Peña Martínez thanks me for sharing my research with him. But I have been more than delighted to be in touch again with this Spanish dimension to my family history.

Saint Colmcille’s Church in Knocklyon: a south Dublin parish celebrates its jubilee

Saint Colmcille’s Church, Knocklyon, Co Dublin … the parish is celebrating its jubilee in October 2024 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Colmcille’s Church in Knocklyon, south Co Dublin, is celebrating the jubilee of the parish this month (October 2024). The year 1974 was the pivotal year in the birth of what is now Knocklyon Saint Colmcille’s Parish. The celebrations include a jubilee concert next Friday evening (18 October).

I lived in Knocklyon for over 20 years, from 1996, when I moved from Carriglea Court in Firhouse to Glenvara Park off Ballycullen Road, until 2017, when I moved to Askeaton, Co Limerick, where I lived until 2022.

I still return to Knocklyon throughout the year, and I got to know Saint Colmcille’s Church through invitations from neighbours and friends to baptisms and funerals, and spoke at events in the parish occasionally.

Inside Saint Colmcille’s Church, Knocklyon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Knocklyon takes its name from cnoc (hill) and linn (pool), close to Knocklyon Castle, on Ballycullen Road, which was once a bend off the old Knocklyon Road. Ballycullen Road leads up to Saint Colmcille’s Well, from which the parish and the church take their name.

Hundreds and thousands of new houses were being built throughout the early 1970s, on the green fields that formed what became Knocklyon Parish. Knocklyon lacked a local village for a new suburb to develop around, but there were several historical houses, including Woodstown, Orlagh, Idrone, Castlefield, Delaford, Scholarstown and Prospect House. In time, these landmark buildings all gave their names to housing estates in Knocklyon.

Amenities were inadequate or non-existent, there was no street lighting, no shops, emergency phones only and limited public bus service. The nearest Sunday Mass was in the small chapel in the Carmelite Convent on Firhouse Road.

Inside Saint Colmcille’s Church, Knocklyon … the foundation stone was blessed by Pope John Paul II (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Archbishop Dermot Ryan of Dublin invited the Carmelite Provincial, Father Joseph Ryan, to send the Carmelites to the young parish in 1974. The parish was formed on 1 October 1974 and was placed under the patronage of Saint Colmcille.

Father Paddy Staunton, later the Assistant Provincial of the Carmelites, and Father Seán Dunne were two of the first Carmelites in the parish, and Father Paddy was the first Parish Priest.

They began their new mission in a rented house on Knocklyon Avenue, then known as Firhouse Avenue. Initially, Ballyroan Parish Church nearby was used by new priests for celebrating Mass, but evening masses were said in the homes of parishioners, building a sense of local parish.

The first parish council was formed at a meeting in Terenure College in November 1974. A committee meeting later that month discussed a Mass centre, a school, a residence and fundraising.

One of the major housing developers in the area, McInerny’s, donated their site-office-canteen as a temporary church building, a rough wooden building and the first parish Mass was celebrated in that canteen space on 15 December 1974.

A church site was bought in 1975, and The temporary church opened on 10 August 1975, when the first official parish Mass was celebrated in the new Saint Colmcille’s Church. That new temporary church also became a hub for the growing community.

During the long hot summer of 1975, for several weeks, Mass was said in the open on the green opposite the temporary church.

As the houses were built, the congregation grew and a larger centre became necessary. The parish committee approached Archbishop’s House and secured permission to build a temporary church.

Saint Colmcille’s Church, Knocklyon, has a batik-style set of Stations of the Cross (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

When Pope John Paul II visited Maynooth during his visit to Ireland in 1979, he blessed the foundation stone of the new Church of Saint Colmcille, which opened in April 1980. The church was designed by Richard Hurley (1932–2011), one of the leading church architects in Ireland interpreting the post-Vatican II liturgical reforms. His other work includes the of the chapel in Saint Patrick’s College, Carlow (1969), the renovation of Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Longford (1975-1976), Our Lady of the Nativity Church, Newtown, Co Kildare (1975), the Eucharist Room at the Institute of Pastoral Liturgy, Carlow (1980), and renovations at Saint Mary’s Abbey, Glencairn, Co Waterford (1990), Saint Mary and Saint Anne Cathedral, Cork (1996), the Honan Chapel, UCC (1997), and Saint Mary’s Oratory in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth (1999), as well as Beaumont Hospital, Dublin (1977-1985).

Ten years after the church in Knocklyon opened, the Youth and Community Centre opened in 1989, thanks to a fundraising effort spearheaded by Liam Mongey of Glenvara Park.

Meanwhile, a seven-acre site on Idrone Avenue was bought in 1975 for £36,000 to provide a primary school for the Knocklyon area. The 16-classroom school was completed in July 1976 and admitted its first pupils in September 1976.

The school was officially opened in March 1977 by the then Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, who lived on Scholarstown Road. A second building was erected in 1982 and the original building became the junior school and the second new building became the senior school. Knocklyon Community School opened in 2000.

Bishop Eamonn Walsh opened the Iona Centre on 9 June 2000, the Feast of Saint Colmcille, and it has become the focal point of parish activity. Saint Colmcille’s Community School opened on 4 September 2000.

The Iona Centre opened on 9 June 2000, the Feast of Saint Colmcille (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The relics of Saint Thérèse de Lisieux were brought to the parish on 5/6 May 2001 during their visit to Ireland.

In recent years, the Carmelite community in Knocklyon included Father Fintan Burke, Father Martin Parokaaran, Father Joe Mothersill and Father Michael Morrissey. However, the Council of the Carmelites in Ireland informed the parish of the intention to return the care of the parish to the Archdiocese of Dublin from 30 January 2022.

The parish is now under the patronage of the Divine Word Missionaries. The Parish Priest is Father Cyril Ma Ming, the curate is Father Adrian Boysala, and the deacon is the Revd Michael Giblin.

• Sunday Masses are at 9:30, when it is streamed on YouTube, and 12 noon, with the Saturday Vigil Mass at 7 pm. Weekday Masses, Monday to Saturday, are at 10 am.

Looking out on the world from Saint Colmcille’s Church, Knocklyon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Updated: 5 November 2025, including links to other works by Richard Hurley

A short visit to Dublin and Bray brings back good memories from 40 and 50 years ago

Time moves on at McCloskey’s in Donnybrook … memories of poetry readings, drama groups and rugby matches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I was back in Dublin at the end of last week for a very short family visit, and we stayed for two nights in Bray, Co Wicklow, in the Martello Hotel on the Promenade, facing out onto the sea front.

Seeing the Bray People on a news stand in a nearby supermarket on Friday evening was a reminder that this was one of the titles in the Wexford People Group of Newspapers, where I had worked 50 years ago.

Until I left the Wexford People for The Irish Times in late 1974, one of my pleasant assignments each week was the design and layout of the front page of the Bray People.

Evening lights in Bray and a table at Butler and Barry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Bray has many family links and memories. Until, perhaps, the 1960s, an aunt had lived only three days away from the Martello, at Seanchara House, once known as Tullira, in Wavecrest Terrace on Strand Road. My parents first lived on Putland Road in Bray after they were married almost 80 years ago, at end of World War II in 1945.

I also remember many childhood trips to Bray, when I was able to sneak away and enjoy the thrills of the ‘Bumpers’ and the Ghost Trains or – when some of us were more adventurous – climbing Bray Head and pretending we could see across to the coast of Wales on the other side of the Irish Sea.

In more recent decades, I often enjoyed walks along the seafront in Bray or around the harbour, followed by coffee or lunch in cafés such as Carpe Diem.

Living near Milton Keynes for the last two or three years, it is difficult (though not impossible) to find the same opportunities for a walk on any beach. So, as we had dinner in Butler and Barry on one of those evenings, it was good to share the joys of looking out onto the sea below and beyond.

Friday was a packed day, with family visits in Rathmines and Knocklyon, and the Dart connections between Bray and Lansdowne Road were ideal for setting out on a walk through some of south Dublin suburbs that retain many sweet memories for me, and that allowed me to recall some key anniversaries that take place this year.

The former Bea House on Pembroke Park … memories of student days at the Irish School of Ecumenics 40 years ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

A short walk from the Lansdowne Road stop on the Dart line in from Bray brought me to Pembroke Park, off Herbert Park, and the house that was once known as Bea House when it was the administrative centre of the Irish School of Ecumenics.

I was burning the candle at both ends 40 years ago, when I studied post-graduate theology there in the 1980s while working at The Irish Times spending a lot of time campaigning with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

There were happy memories of Robin Boyd, who had been the director of ISE, Alan Falconer, who was my tutor and, at the time, also a neighbour, and Bill McSweeney, who supervised my dissertation, leading to my graduation through ISE from Trinity College Dublin in 1984.

Other part-time lecturers 40 years ago included Des Dinan, who was then working on his PhD and who is now a professor at Georg Mason University, while the visiting lecturers included Jürgen Moltmann, who died last week, and Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware), who died two years ago.

There were happy memories too of many walks with other students from Pembroke Park through Donnybrook and along Marlborough Road to Ranelagh and lectures in Milltown Park.

I had to stop too to see McCloskey’s pub in Donnybrook, although it is now closed and has been sold. This had been a favourite ‘haunt’ in the early 1970s, when I was involved in poetry groups and poetry groups based around the corner in Muckross Park on Marlborough Road. And there was the house at 52 Marlborough Road, where I stayed those weekends I travelled up to Dublin from Wexford until 50 years ago, when I left Wexford and the Wexford People and joined The Irish Times at the end of 1974.

Street art in Rathmines last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

I walked on through Ranelagh, once again sought out the house in Old Mountpleasant where my grandfather had once lived, and then found myself on Belgrave Road, where I worked 20 years ago, from 2002 until 2006, when I joined the Church of Ireland Theological College, later the Church of Ireland Theological Institute.

I stopped for lunch in Rathmines, visited my brother in Rathmines and once again visited the house in Rathmines where my father was born in 1918, and the house in Terenure where he spent his childhood.

By late afternoon, I was at the house where I lived in Knocklyon from 1996 until 2017, when I moved to the Rectory in Askeaton, Co Limerick. At the polling booth in Firhouse, I bumped into an old friend and neighbour, Dr Vincent Kenny. We caught up on many shared memories in Delaney’s, also known as the Knocklyon, before I caught a bus to Blackrock Station, and the Dart to Bray.

Evening lights at Blackrock Station last week waiting for the Dart to Bray (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on image for full-screen view)

I am working on a paper for Salvador Ryan’s next collection, looking at ‘Childhood and the Irish.’ Throughout the day, I found myself thinking of the various places James Joyce had lived as a child, including Brighton Square, Rathgar, and the house where he was bor, Saint Joseph’s Church in Terenure where he was baptised, the houses in Castlewood Avenue, Rathmines, and back at Martello Terrace, Bray, where he had spent parts of his childhood years, and the place in Terenure where his mother was born.

But next Sunday is Bloomsday (16 June 2024), and perhaps I should tell some of those stories then and more of them in that planned book that Salvador Ryan is commissioning and editing.

Meanwhile, as I was on my own Bloom-like odyssey around Dublin 4 and Dublin 6, Charlotte was back in Bray, and decided to climb Bray Head. Sorry to say, she did not catch a glimpse of the coast of Wales either.

We had dinner in the Martello on Friday evening, and caught the plane back from Dublin to Birmingham yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, and were back in Stony Stratford by early evening.

The ‘Bray People’ … still going 50 years after I left in 1974 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 81, Saint Colmcille’s Church, Knocklyon

Saint Colmcille’s Church, Knocklyon, Co Dublin … the Carmelites are leaving Knocklyon after a presence of almost half a century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Before the day gets busy, I am taking a little time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading. Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

My theme this week is churches in the Carmelite tradition, and my photographs this morning (18 August 2021) are from Saint Colmcille’s Church, Knocklyon, Co Dublin.

Inside Saint Colmcille’s Church, Knocklyon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Carmelites have been in Knocklyon since 1974. Archbishop Dermot Ryan of Dublin invited the Carmelite Provincial, Father Joseph Ryan, to send the Carmelites to the young parish.

Father Paddy Staunton, later Assistant Provincial, and Father Seán Dunne were two of the first Carmelites in the parish, and Father Paddy was the first Parish Priest. They planned a new church, celebrated Mass, and offered pastoral care and pastoral outreach.

When Saint Colmcille’s Church was proposed in 1974, Knocklyon had many new housing estates, but amenities were inadequate or non-existent. There was no street lighting, no shops, emergency phones only and limited public bus service. The nearest Sunday Mass was in the small chapel in the Carmelite Convent on Firhouse Road.

The parish was formed on 1 October 1974 and the first parish council was formed at a meeting in Terenure College in November 1974. A committee meeting later that month discussed a Mass centre, a school, a residence and fundraising.

The first Mass was celebrated on Sunday 15 December 1974 in the canteen at the McInerney’s building site office, a rough wooden building. A church site was bought in 1975, and the first Mass was celebrated in a temporary church. Saint Colmcille’s Primary School opened in September 1976.

Pope John Paul II blessed the foundation stone for the new church during his visit to Maynooth in 1979. The new Church of Saint Colmcille opened in April 1980. Ten years later, the Youth and Community Centre opened in 1989, thanks to a fundraising effort spearheaded by Liam Mongey.

Bishop Eamonn Walsh opened the Iona Centre on 9 June 2000, the Feast of Saint Colmcille, and it has become the focal point of parish activity. Saint Colmcille’s Community School opened on 4 September 2000.

The relics of Saint Thérèse de Lisieux were brought to the parish on 5/6 May 2001 during their visit to Ireland.

The Carmelite community in the parish in recent years has included Father Fintan Burke, Father Martin Parokaaran, Father Joe Mothersill and Father Michael Morrissey. However, the Council of the Carmelites in Ireland has informed the parish of the intention to return the care of the parish to the Archdiocese of Dublin from 30 January 2022.

The Parish Pastoral Council petitioned the Council of the Carmelites, requesting them to reverse their decision and continue their presence in the parish. However, the Prior Provincial, Father Michael Troy, replied on 3 August that the decision remains unchanged.

Inside Saint Colmcille’s Church, Knocklyon … the foundation stone was blessed by Pope John Paul II (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Matthew 20: 1-16 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 20 ‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the market-place; 4 and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went. 5 When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6 And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” 7 They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You also go into the vineyard.” 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, “Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.” 9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. 11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” 13 But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” 16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’

Saint Colmcille’s Church, Knocklyon, has a batik-style set of Stations of the Cross (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (18 August 2021) invites us to pray:

We pray for St Andrew’s Church [Tangier] and the Diocese in Europe. May Your blessing be upon the church as it serves the people of Tangier.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Looking out on the world from Saint Colmcille’s Church, Knocklyon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The Iona Centre opened on 9 June 2000, the Feast of Saint Colmcille (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

A first-time walk along a stetch of the Dodder River Valley in Firhouse

A new red pedestrian and cycling bridge spanning the Dodder was built and installed in November 2014 as part of the Dodder Greenway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

I try to do something new or something different at least once a week. It keeps my mind open and inquisitive, and it usually involved exercise and walking, so it is good for both mind and body. In these times of Covd-19 restrictions and social distancing, doing something new does not have to involve traveling great distances, and it is interesting to find how many new, undiscovered and interesting places are on our own doorsteps.

Last week, I was in Dublin for a consultation with my GP, including a check-up on my pulmonary sarcoidosis and a much-needed injection for my Vitamin B12 deficiency. During that visit, I took opportunities to visit Dún Laoghaire, to research a photo-feature on the architecture of Kenilworth Square, to take a New Year’s Eve after-dark walk in Marlay Park, and to visit the Dublin Jewish Progressive community’s cemetery, just 2.5 km from my home in Knocklyon.

I also went for a walk for the first time along a stretch of the River Dodder between Firhouse and Old Bawn, along paths and riverside walks that have been newly opened in recent years.

During the years I was working in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute full-time (2006-2017) and part-time (2002-2006), I often walked along the Dodder banks from Rathfarnham to Firhouse. But this was my first time to walk further west on this stretch of the Dodder Valley Park and Nature Trail.

A new red pedestrian and cycling bridge spanning the Dodder was built and installed in November 2014 as part of the Dodder Greenway. It is a landmark, single-span, steel structure that was designed for accessibility and decreased impact on its environment, with near level access to both sides of the Dodder River Valley.

The bridge links the communities of Firhouse and Tallaght, midway between Old Bawn and the M50. It also offers a wonderful opportunity to view the river from directly overhead, allowing park users to experience the full grandeur of the Dodder and its riverbanks.

Winter skies in the Dodder River Valley between Firhouse and Old Bawn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Dodder River Valley is an important wildlife corridor in an urban environment, allowing protected species like bats and otters to pass through the urban environment at night-time when the park is quiet and dark. The public lighting along the bridge was designed to ensure there is no overspill of bright light onto the river below.

The lime-rich soils that underlie the slopes around the bridge support grasslands that are rich in flowering species. These include flowers such as Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Clover, Cowslips, Ox-eye Daisy, Fairy Flax, Wild Carrot and Pyramidial Orchids.

These meadows are also important for pollinating bees, bumblebees, hoverflies, and also for other insects like beetles, butterflies and moths.

The Dodder River Valley between Old Bawn Bridge and the City Weir at Balrothery and Firhouse is a proposed Natural Heritage Area and hosts a range of interesting habitats like wet woodlands, flowering grasslands, and natural gravel riverbeds. It also hosts species like Kingfishers, Heron, Otter, Dipper and Wagtails.

Two of us walked as far as the Old Bawn Bridge, which marks one of the earliest fords of the River Dodder. A three-arch bridge was first built there in 1800, but it was undermined by the frequent floods of the turbulent upper Dodder.

The current single-arch bridge at Old Bawn was built in 1840, spanning the point where the river drops down over the weir to become the wider, slower-moving middle Dodder that makes its way through Old Bawn Park.

At this point, the riverbank is lower on the left bank, along the park’s riverside path. Woodland covers much of this bank, with willows, alders, sycamore, birch and poplar trees. The riverbanks on the far side of the river are sometimes undercut by the power of winter floods, exposing the underlying glacial till, sands and gravel. As the river passes into the woodland, it splits into many small rivulets and streams that wind their way through the willow and alder trees.

The Dodder Valley is unique in being an urban river that still retains many of its natural river processes and its special habitat and species. All this has been on my doorstep since I moved to Knocklyon in 1996, but it took until last week for me to find and explore this part of the Dodder Valley for the first time.

The Dodder Valley is a unique urban river that retains many of its natural river processes and its special habitat and species (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Scholarstown House, part of Knocklyon’s history, has been put on the market

Scholarstown House is on the market … rebuilt around 1909 but dating back to 1586 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I noticed during the week that Scholarstown House, just a short walking distance from my home in Dublin, is on the market through DNG, with an asking price of £2 million.

Scholarstown House is a handsome, well-proportioned period house with an interesting history and an attractive setting and it is listed on the register of Protected Structures due to its architectural and historical relevance.

Although Scholarstown House was built or rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century, the house retains substantial original fabric and it shows the continuity of style and form with subtle modifications that are prevalent in buildings of this type.

This is a detached three-bay two-storey house with roughcast rendered walls. The timber sash windows are wider to the first floor and paired to the ground floor outer bays. The central glazed timber door has a segmental-arched radial fanlight above the flat projecting bracketed timber hood.

The pitched slate roof has gable chimney stacks. There is a large, three-storey, square-plan wing to the rere, with further ancillary buildings in the garden.

The original Scholarstown House was first built in 1588 for Archbishop Adam Loftus, after he acquired the townland of Scholarstown as part of the Manor of Rathfarnham following their confiscation from Lord Buttevant in 1583.

By the time of his death in 1605, Archbishop Loftus was the owner, landlord and controller of much of the lands and estates in the Rathfarnham and Knocklyon area, including Scholarstown, Oldcourt, Tymon, Woodtown, Killakee, Ballycragh, Ballycullen and Mount Pelier Hill or the Hell Fire Mountain.

His descendants soon became one of the most prominent, manipulative and long-tailed families among the landed aristocracy in Irish politics.

Over the past four or five centuries, the residents of Scholarstown House were mostly tenant farmers. The earliest recorded tenant, Henry Jones, was killed during the siege of Rathfarnham in 1641. In 1659, David Gibson was living in Scholarstown House.

The Rathfarnham estates, including Scholarstown, passed to Lucy Loftus in 1691, when her father, Adam Loftus (1625-1691) of Rathfarnham Castle, Baron of Rathfarnham and Viscount Lisburne, died fighting on the Williamite side at the Siege of Limerick in 1691. The cannonball that blew his head off is now in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

Lucy Loftus was his only daughter and heiress, and when she married Tom Wharton as his second wife the following year, in July 1692, she brought a vast fortune and estate to the marriage, augmenting Tom Wharton’s income by some £5,000 a year.

Her vast Rathfarnham estates included Knocklyon, Scholarstown, Woodtown, Ballyroan, Ballycragh, and other tracts of land in Whitechurch, Cruagh, Firhouse, Oldcourt, Tymon and Tallaght.

Tom and Lucy Wharton were the parents of the infamous ‘Rake of Rathfarnham,’ Philip Wharton (1698-1731), who became Duke of Wharton and Earl of Rathfarnham. He inherited the Rathfarnham estates, including Scholarstown, when his parents died in 1716. He also inherited his parents’ great influence and wealth, with an estimated income of £14,000 a year. But he would quickly dissipate this heritage within less than a decade.

In 1723, while he was still only 24, Philip Wharton first tried to sell Rathfarnham Castle and Estates, including Scholarstown, to Viscount Chetwynd for £85,000. But he was forced to reduce his asking price when eventually he sold them for £62,000 to the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, William Conolly.

Conolly would never reside at either Rathfarnham Castle or Scholarstown House, instead letting both to a number of tenants.

Later, Philip Wharton married his second wife, Maria Theresa Comerford, in Madrid in 1726 – just three months after the death of his sadly neglected and abandoned first wife Martha.

Maria Theresa’s mother, Henrietta Comerford, died in Madrid in 1747. Maria Theresa used the family name of her step-father, Major-General John Comerford (ca 1665-1725), of Finlough in Loughkeen, Co Tipperary, of Waterford, and of Madrid.

When she was widowed, Maria Theresa moved to London, where she subsisted on a small Spanish pension, and died in 1777. There were no children to inherit her claims to her husband’s former wealth and titles in Ireland, including his estates and castles at Rathfarnham Castle, Knocklyon Castle and Scholarstown House.

‘Speaker’ Conolly, who bought the Rathfarnham estate in 1723, including Scholarstown House, left his name in local memory, and a field in the area was known as ‘Connolly’s Freehold.’

The house is shown clearly on John Rocque’s map of Dublin in 1757.

In 1789, Scholarstown House was leased to the Somervell or Somerville family.

However, during the first half of the 19th century, the La Touche family of Marlay Park became the immediate lessor of Scholarstown, probably through defaults on mortgages held by their bank.

Transactions in the mid-19th century show Scholarstown House and farm formed a 92 acre estate. Scholarstown House was leased in 1836 by John David La Touche of Marlay Park to Patrick Dunne.

Between 1845 and 1847, Father Matthew Flanagan, Parish Priest of Francis Street parish in Dublin and secretary to the board of Maynooth College, was living in Scholarstown House.

Flanagan was instrumental in the design, building and decoration of the Church of Saint Nicholas in Francis Street. He brought in John Hogan and some of the great sculptors, painters and craftsmen in early and mid-19th century Dublin to work on the interior of his new church.

But he also left reminders of his own family tree around the church. In the west wall of the north transept there is a monument to his mother, Mary Flanagan, who died in 1830, and his brother, Stephen Flanagan, as well as a white marble sarcophagus on the east wall of the south transept.

However, the house had returned to the Dunne family, and Griffith’s Valuation shows a Mrs. Dunne was living in Scholarstown House in the 1850s.

The house later passed to Richard Duncan King, and in 1876 Michael Walsh acquired King’s lease of Scholarstown House.

Walsh later mortgaged the house to the Munster and Leinster Bank, but in the 1890s he tried to burn down the house in an insurance scam. He was arrested, tried, convicted and jailed, and died in Mountjoy Prison on 17 May 1899.

Scholarstown House then passed to his niece, Ellen Tierney, from Killeen, Birr, Co Offally.

The Jolly family was living in Scholarstown House by 1901. They owned a dairy yard and shop in Rathfarnham village, and rebuilt and restored the fire-damaged house in the 1900s. The Jolly family sold Scholarstown House to the O’Brien family in 1928.

The surrounding farmland has been sold off in recent decades for housing development, but the house today stands on a site of 0.67 ha (1.65 acres), which is being advertised as a ‘superb residential development site (subject to planning permission).’ DNG says it ‘would suit a medium density residential development which would be sympathetically designed to take account of the protected nature of Scholarstown House.’

The entire site is zoned ‘R2’ for residential development. But Scholarstown House remains an interesting part of the architectural and historical heritage of the Knocklyon and Rathfarnham area, and hopefully it survives the next stage of its history.

Scholarstown House is part of the architectural heritage of the Knocklyon and Rathfarnham area (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A fading reminder of the cultural glories of the Wexford Festival

A poster that reminds me of Wexford’s quays and key landmarks (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

I have a poster from the Wexford Festival hanging in the breakfast room in the house in Knocklyon. It is 25 years old at this stage and for the last quarter century has been fading in the sunlight that streams through the south side of the house.

Perhaps I should have moved this fading poster many years ago. But it is a pretty depiction of the quays in Wexford, and I can pick out many familiar landmarks that shape the skyline of Wexford town. And it is a reminder too of happy days when I lived in Wexford until I moved to Dublin 45 years ago at the end of 1974.

Someone once told me the Irish definition of where you are from is found in the answer to who you hope, despite all the odds, is going to win the next All-Ireland. It is a particular Irish understanding of identity and a sense of place.

I lived on High Street, across from both the offices of the Wexford People and the Theatre Royal, already over a century old at that time. In those days, the Festival specialised in unfamiliar operas and, as Michael Dervan recalled in The Irish Times yesterday [16 January 2018], it was known for its ‘decisiveness and daring.’

I have memories of going to sleep in the mid-1970s listening to the sound of rehearsals across the street, and waking to the prospect of enjoying the fringe programme or a morning service in Saint Iberius’s Church with participants from the opera.

Today, the theatre is a major national cultural centre, and the Wexford Festival Opera this week announced the appointment of Rosetta Cucchi, who will succeed David Agler as artistic director. She has a long connection with Wexford that dates back to 1995 – the year after that fading poster I still treasure.

I am back in Wexford today, for a short overnight stay, with hopes to walk along the Slaney Estuary at Ferrycarrig and to meet some friends for a few drinks or for dinner.

It was a long journey by two buses from Askeaton through Limerick and Kildare, and then a journey by car through Carlow, Bunclody and along the banks of the River Slaney, crossing the the river at Enniscorthy. Once I had arrived in Bunclody this afternoon, my bearings were realigned, and old loyalties and hopes were reignited. I am staying tonight in the Ferrycarrig Hotel, in a room with a view that looks across the estuary of the River Slaney, expecting to wake tomorrow morning to the sound not of opera rehersals but of birdlife on the river.

This afternoon, in one of the corridors of the hotel, among a large collection of posters from the Wexford Festival, I was that same poster from the 1994 festival. Unlike my poster in Knocklyon, however, it is not fading.

Perhaps I may keep that poster a little longer, continuing to harbour hope against hope for an All-Ireland win for Wexford.

In the corridors of the Ferrycarrig Hotel in Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Two 18th century houses hidden behind old gates in Knocklyon

Mount Michael is hidden behind old gates on Scholarstown Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

During a recent walk through the suburban areas of Knocklyon, as dusk turned to darkness in one of these early winter evenings, I stopped to look at two 18th century houses than enhance the architectural legacy of this suburban part of south Dublin, Idrone House on Idrone Avenue and Mount Michael on Scholarstown Road. Both are close to Knocklyon Shopping Centre.

Idrone House, on Idrone Avenue, which has put on the market recently, and is attracting attention less for its architectural features and merits than the story of the celebrity who lives here and her reasons for selling the house.

Idrone House, facing Knockyon shopping centre and parish church, is a detached, five-bay two-storey former country house, built ca 1790. Although it is located behind electronic gates, it is not completely hidden, and from the footpath outside it is possible to appreciate that Idrone House is essentially a country house in the suburbs.

There is a full height bow to the south end. The house has rough-cast rendered walls, timber sash windows and a replacement glazed timber door with a timber surround and sidelights, all under a radial depressed-arched fanlight.

There is a channelled render surround, a hipped slate roof behind the parapet, and rendered chimney stacks. It has 3,500 sq ft of floor space, making it two or three times the size of an average semi-detached house in the Dublin suburbs. The house still has much of its original fabric and unusual proportions, with a low ground floor sill level, and it acts as a landmark in this area.There are extensions and outbuildings to the rere.

Despite encroaching suburban developments, this house still stands in grounds of half an acre and manages to retain some of its original and elegant settings, enhanced partly by an old, large tree standing in the garden.

Idrone House is ‘a landmark’ in the Knocklyon area (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Architectural archives describe Idrone House as ‘a landmark in the area.’ There is no evidence to substantiate a claim in recent reports of this sale that at one time Idrone House was the residence of the Archbishop of Dublin.

Idrone has a drawing room with sash windows and working shutters while the ceiling has ornate historically-sound mouldings.

A short walk away, facing onto Scholarstown Road, Mount Michael is another partly-hidden house in Knocklyon that is worth looking out for.

The older section at the rear of the house was built in the early part of the 18th century, at a time when coach road ran past the front door.

This is a detached, three-bay, two-Storey over basement house that dates back to the 18th Century house. The newer section, which is now the main entrance, was added about 200 years later and some local historians claim that it appears to be the work of an Italian architect. A feature of the house is a little spire on the roof.

For the past half century, Mount Michael has been the home of the Harrison family, and it remains a hidden oasis in the middle of expanding suburban developments.

Mount Michael was built in the early part of the 18th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

For other postings on the architectural heritage of South Dublin see:

Berwick Hall.
The Bottle Tower, Churchtown.
Brookvale House, Rathfarnham.
Camberley House, Churchtown.
Dartry House, Orwell Park, Rathgar.
Ely Arch, Rathfarnham.
Ely House, Nutgrove Avenue, Rathfarnham.
Fernhurst, 14 Orwell Road, Rathgar.
Fortfield House, Hyde Park, Terenure.
No 201 Harold’s Cross Road, the birthplace of Richard Allen.
Homestead, Sandyford Road, Dundrum.
Kilvare House, also known as Cheeverstown House, Templeogue Road.
Knocklyon Castle.
Laurelmere Lodge, Marlay Park.
Marlay Park.
Mountain View House, Beaumont Avenue, Churchtown.
Newbrook House, Taylor’s Lane, Rathfarnham.
Old Bawn House, Tallaght.
Pussy’s Leap, Firhouse Road.
Rathfarnham Castle.
Sally Park, Fihouse.
Scholarstown House, Knocklyon.
Silveracre House, off Sarah Curran Avenue, Rathfarnham.
Synge House, Newtwon Villas, Churchtown, and No 4 Orwell Park, Rathgar.
Templeogue House.
Washington House, Butterfield Avenue, Rathfarnham.
Westbourne House, off Rathfarnham Road.

Remembering old houses on the banks of the Dodder and some ‘Irish Times’ journalists

The Dodder Linear Park and the former grounds of Cherryfield House, once the home of ‘Pussy’ O’Mahony of ‘The Irish Times’ and his family(Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016; click on photograph for full-screen resolution)

Patrick Comerford

Earlier this week, on a damp and misty August morning, I walked some of the way into work along the banks of the River Dodder, from the weir at Firhouse through the Dodder Linear Park and the former grounds of Cherryfield House, to a point just past the junction of Firhouse Road and Knocklyon Road, by the travellers’ site at Cherryfield.

At a point on the river where Kilvare stands on the opposite bank, I came back up onto the main road just beyond the red-brick house once known as Saint Brendan’s and recently renamed Carrigburn, the former home of the actor and RTE radio personality, Ronnie Walsh, and close to the site of a house once known as Cherryfield.

Here at the bend on the river, the Dodder flows into a large pool famous for fishing called Pussy’s Leap, once a popular spot in the 1940s and the 1950s for fishing and swimming in the river.

Two more points along this stretch of the river that were once popular with swimmers were known in the 1940s and 1950s as Joe Alley’s Hole, close to Firhouse Bridge, and the Crusher, at Old Bawn. Closer to Pussy’s Leap, the Poet’s Pool took its name from former home of poet Austin Clarke at Templeogue Bridge.

The house that takes its name from Pussy’s Leap has been vacant for a few years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Pussy’s Leap was at a point where the River Dodder flows at the back of Old Bridge Road. The pool was well known for trout fishing and was popular with swimmers. But in the 1980s a large part of the pool was washed away in Hurricane Charlie.

The pool has since rebuilt itself and now consists of a series of smaller pools that are still used at times by anglers and are known for holding trout. The house above that took its name from Pussy’s Leap has a ‘sale agreed’ sign outside but has been vacant for a long time.

Cherryfield House… once the home of Pussy O’Mahony (Photograph: Patrick Healy Collection, South Dublin County Council)

I sometimes wonder whether Pussy’s Leap took its name from ‘Pussy’ O’Mahony, who lived nearby in Cherryfield House, which was demolished in recent decades.

Pussy O’Mahony (1900-1948) was a colourful character in The Irish Times and in Dublin life for much of the 20th century. He was the General Manager of The Irish Times, a friend and drinking companion of Myles na gCopaleen (Brian O’Nolan, aka Flann O’Brien) and part of the literary and intellectual circles in Dublin life throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

Gerard John Cullen Tynan O’Mahony was born in Dublin on 1 January 1900, into a member of a family that was prominent in Irish literature and journalism. His father John O’Mahony, was a Cork-born barrister; his mother, Nora Tynan O’Mahony from Clondalkin, was a well-known writer and former women’s editor of the Freeman’s Journal. His aunt, Katherine Tynan Hinkson (1861-1931), who wrote under the name Katharine Tynan, was a poet and writer who is best known for her poem ‘All in the April evening.’ She was a close friend of WB Yeats, and it is said Yeats once proposed to her when he was a young man.

Pussy O’Mahony had two younger brothers: John Michael Finbar (‘Barry’) O’Mahony and Daniel (‘Donal’) J Patrick O’Mahony.

Because of one of his middle names, he was known to his family as ‘Cullie.’ But he was given the nickname ‘Pussy’ by his friends and contemporaries because of the bow ties he wore, said to be similar to a certain drawing of a kitten of the period.

O’Mahony was educated at Saint Mary’s College, Rathmines, the Catholic University School, Dublin, Claude Fulcher’s Military Academy and Trinity College Dublin.

During World War I, he was commissioned in 1918 as a second lieutenant in the Royal Irish Regiment from the OTC at Trinity College Dublin and he was posted to Egypt and Palestine.

After World War I, Pussy O’Mahony worked with the Ministry of Labour. He joined the Royal Irish Constabulary on 20 January 1921 and remained in the Auxiliary Division until March 1922. Then, through the British Colonial Office, he enlisted in the British gendarmerie in Palestine.

In Palestine, he was responsible with Major James Munro MC for drawing up defence plans for newly-built Jewish colonies in Galilee and Phoenicia, and for building a road across the Judean Hills, linking Samaria and Jaffa.

When he returned to London from the Middle East in 1925, he joined the commercial staff of the Daily News and later worked with the advertising and news departments of the Daily Express. In 1928, he moved back to Dublin and to The Irish Times, where he became the Arts Editor. Later he worked in the editorial, advertising, circulation and commercial departments.

In 1940, he became Assistant Manager, and when John O’Dockery died he was appointed Manager in 1942.

At some stage, he lost a leg, and for the rest of his life he used a wooden leg. In his history of The Irish Times, Hugh Oram recalls the story of O’Mahony going to a fancy dress party dressed as a toffee apple.

Pussy O’Mahony and Austin Clarke in ‘Dublin Culture’ by Alan Reeve, published in ‘The Irish Times’ in 1940

Both Pussy O’Mahony and his neighbour the poet Austin Clarke, who lived a little further east on the banks of the Dodder by Templeogue Bridge, were among the writers and journalists to feature in a well-known drawing, ‘Dublin Culture,’ by Alan Reeve, that was published in The Irish Times in 1940.

The cartoon shows the editor RM ‘Bertie’ Smyllie in the centre of a gathering in the back room of the Palace Bar in Fleet Street, where Smyllie liked to hold court. He is surrounded by some of the leading writers, painters, poets and critics of the day.

Back row, from left-hand corner: John P Colbert (with pipe), George Burrows, Francis McManus, Maurice Walsh, Patrick Kavanagh (standing), Brian O’Nolan (Myles na Gopaleen), Liam Redmond, Donagh McDonagh, John Chichester (standing).

Sseated right-hand corner: Austin Clarke, Padraic Fallon, FR Higgins.

Standing at left with camera: Alec Newman.

Seated at the table below Newman and camera: Ewart Milne, Lynn Doyle, Leslie Yodaiken, Roibeard O Faireachain, MJ McManus (in hat).

Standing centre left: barman Tom.

Centre table from left: RC Ferguson, Esmonde Little, Bertie Smyllie, Brinsley MacNamara, William Conor.

Looking at book: Seumas O’Sullivan.

Right-hand table far side: Cathal O’Shannon, Jerome Connor, David Sears.

Near side: George Leitch, Desmond Rushton.

Bottom left corner: Alan Reeve (bearded), ‘Pussy’ Tynan O'Mahony, AJ Leventhal, Edward Sheehy.

Front centre table: Patrick O’Connor, Harry Kernoff, Sean O’Sullivan.

Bottom right corner: three barmen Jack, Sean and Mick.

A copy of the cartoon still hangs in the back room of the Palace Bar in Fleet Street, where it was pointed out to me with pride soon after I joined the staff of The Irish Times about 35 years later.

In 1942, Pussy O’Mahony bought Cherryfield House, which stood on the site of an older house, ‘Cherrytree,’ where the ‘Templeogue Ballad’ was printed in 1730. The Fowler family extended the house and reclaimed part of the river bank.

In 1888-1889, the Sunday Literary Society met in Cherryfield, and those who took part included the poet Katherine Tynan, Maud Gonne and the future President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde. In 1897, the architect James Franklin Fuller (1835-1924) designed a gate lodge and greenhouse at the house for James Talbot Power (1851-1916), a surgeon major in the army. He was a younger son of Sir James Power (1800-1877) of Edermine House, Co Wexford, owner of the Power Disillery, while his mother Jane was a daughter of Pugin’s Irish patron, John Hyacinth Talbot. At the time, Cherryfield House stood in grounds extending to 174 acres, which were used as a stud farm. Power later moved to Leopardstown Park, where he died in 1916.

Cherryfield was inherited by John’s brother, Sir Thomas Talbot Power (1863–1930), and from 1909 until 1940, the Harrington family leased Cherryfield from the Power family. John ‘Borneo’ Harrington, who married Mary Seymour, owned the Tynt Arms in Dunlavin, Co Wicklow. He bought land in Dunlavin and Dublin, built a church in Grangecon, Co Kildare, and died at 5 Idrone Terrace, Blackrock, Co Dublin. Before buying Cherryfield he is said to have lived near Esher and to have owned a shipping company, Hope and Harrington. He is said to have brought the first shipload of cattle to Paris after the siege of 1870, and a large picture of a highland bull on the landing at Cherryfield House was supposedly a gift to him from Queen Victoria.

In 1940, the Dock Milling Company bought the house, and in 1942 it was sold to Pussy O’Mahony. He remained the general manager of The Irish Times until he resigned in 1948 because of a prolonged ill-health. He died a few months later.

His funeral in the Church of the Annunciation, Rathfarnham, was attended by the Taoiseach, John A Costello, and he was buried in Saint Maelruain’s churchyard in Tallaght. The O’Mahony family continued to live at Cherryfield House until 1950.

Pussy O’Mahony married Jean Ballantyne Archer in Spanish Place, London, and they had three sons: Peter Cullen Tynan O’Mahony (1930-2000), John Robert O’Mahony (born 1933) and David Edward Tynan O’Mahony (1936-2005).

The youngest son, David Edward Tynan O’Mahony, was later known as the comedian Dave Allen. Another son, Peter Cullen Tynan O’Mahony (1930-1970), was Deputy Chief Sub-Editor and later Design Editor of The Irish Times and editor of The O’Mahony Journal. Peter and the late Ken Grey interviewed me in the mid 1970s for my first position in The Irish Times. He also edited the first book I ever contributed to: Eamon de Valera, ed. PT O’Mahony (Dublin: Irish Times Books 1976).

The Delaney family later lived at Cherryfield, and the house used to house a number of enterprise projects during the 1970s. The house was demolished in 1986 as the gardens, lawns and grounds made way for the Dodder Linear Park that I had walked along on Wednesday morning on my way to work.

In his last Christmas message, Peter described the ruined state of the 200-year-old farmhouse where his father and his family had lived. He described it as the genius loci of the Irish literary revival, and said it ‘stands in a ruinous state, neglected and vandalised, a sad and damning testament to the indifference of modern society to our cultural heritage.’

The name of Cherryfield survives in the traveller site beside Carrigburn.

The River Dodder close to the former site of Pussy’s Leap (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

‘On a rainy night in Bray The wind was whistling all its charms’

Vespa for Vespers … a Vespa on a rainy evening in Bray (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Someone I know has an interesting combination of interests that includes Anglican liturgy and small Italian scooters.

He is the ideal person to show a humorous interest in organising a cathedral event for enthusiasts that will be billed “Vespas at Vespers.”

I mused about this creative concept as I went for dinner in Bray yesterday [10 May 2016] and in the late evening rain spotted a neat little yellow and black and Vespa parked outside Platform Pizza on the seafront in Bray.

The original Vespa patent was for a “motorcycle of a rational complexity of organs and elements combined with a frame with mudguards and a casing covering the whole mechanical part.” The name Vespa means “wasp” in Italian. For the past 70 years, the Vespa has remained a style icon.

Meanwhile, the promised heatwave had not only failed to arrive last night, but heavy rain continued to pour down all evening, like the rainstorms that brought floods to many parts of Ireland only a few months ago.

As we left Platform Pizza, the rain was too heavy to even think about a walk on the promenade my mior on the beach. And on that rainy night in Bray, my mind was brought back to the lyrics of ‘Rainy Night in Georgia,’ a hit in the 1960s and again in the early 1970s.



‘Rainy Night in Georgia’ was written by Tony Joe White in 1962 and was a hit in 1970 for the R&B vocalist Brook Benton.

Brook Benton recorded this melancholy song in November 1969 and it became an instant hit, topping the charts by Spring 1970.

Since then it has been covered by many singers and musicians, including Ray Charles, Randy Crawford, Hank Williams, Tony Joe White and Rod Stewart.

Rainy Night In Georgia

Hoverin’ by my suitcase, tryin’ to find a warm place to spend the night
Heavy rain fallin’, seems I hear your voice callin’ ‘It’s all right.’
A rainy night in Georgia, a rainy night in Georgia
It seems like it’s rainin’ all over the world
I feel like it’s rainin’ all over the world.

How many times I wondered
It still comes out the same
No matter how you look at it or think of it
It’s life and you just got to play the game

[Instrumental Interlude]

I find me a place in a box car, so I take my guitar to pass some time
Late at night when it’s hard to rest I hold your picture to my chest and I feel fine

[Minor Scat]

But it’s a rainy night in Georgia, baby, it’s a rainy night in Georgia
I feel it’s rainin’ all over the world, kinda’ lonely now
And it’s rainin’ all over the world
Oh, have you ever been lonely, people?
And you feel that it was rainin’ all over this man’s world
You’re talking ’bout rainin’, rainin’, rainin’, rainin’, rainin’, rainin’, rainin’,
Rainin’, rainin’ rainin’, rainin’, rainin’ [etc. to end]

Heavy rain in Knocklyon last night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

And by the time we had arrived back in Knocklyon last night, it was still raining, raining, raining …

But while I was in the restaurant last night, I had posted a 30-second video clip on Facebook of a flickering candle on the table, with the caption: “30 seconds of candlelight in Bray this evening. Keep the flame of light and love alive in your heart.”

And in the rain in Knocklyon, thinking of love in the rain, the lyrics of another song came to mind: ‘Rainy Night in Soho’ by the Pogues.



Rainy Night in Soho, The Pogues (by Shane Magowan)

I’ve been loving you a long time
Down all the years, down all the days
And I’ve cried for all your troubles
Smiled at your funny little ways

We watched our friends grow up together
And we saw them as they fell
Some of them fell into Heaven
Some of them fell into Hell

I took shelter from a shower
And I stepped into your arms
On a rainy night in Soho
The wind was whistling all its charms

I sang you all my sorrows
You told me all your joys
Whatever happened to that old song
To all those little girls and boys?

Sometimes I’d wake up in the morning
The ginger lady by my bed
Covered in a cloak of silence
I’d hear you talking in my head

I’m not singing for the future
I’m not dreaming of the past
I’m not talking of the first times
I never think about the last

Now, this song is nearly over
We may never find out what it means
But there’s a light I hold before me
And you’re the measure of my dreams, the measure of my dreams

In Platform Pizza in Bray last night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Sally Park: part of the architectural heritage of Firhouse and Knocklyon

Sally Park … a once-elegant Georgian country house off Ballycullen Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

As I walked down to the polling station on Ballycullen Avenue late this afternoon, I stopped to look at Sally Park, once a fine country house in the Firhouse and Knocklyon area and in the townland of Tymon South. Sally Park is now a nursing home at the end of Sally Park Close, off Ballycullen Road, but at one time the entrance was at the junction of Knocklyon Road and Ballycullen Road, close to Knocklyon Castle.

Sally Park is a detached four-bay three-storey Georgian country house, built ca 1770 by Sir John Meade (1744-1800), 1st Viscount Clanwilliam, who became the Earl of Clanwilliam in 1776. It probably incorporates the structures of an earlier fortified house.

For three or four generations, Sally Park was associated with the Hancock family, although the house also has associations with the 20th century architect Thomas Joseph Cullen.

The house has a granite Doric entrance portico with an offset double-leaf glazed timber door. The two-storey wing to the west has a single Wyatt window on each floor.

When Lord Clanwilliam, built Sally Park, he had a Dublin townhouse on Saint Stephen’s Green that is now part of Newman House. His lavish lifestyle and his gambling debts forced him to sell extensive estates in Co Kilkenny, Co Tipperary and Co Cork, and in 1796 he sold Sally Park to Mathew Handcock (1758-1824), the first of the Handcock family to live in Sally Park. He was descended from a William Handcock who came to Ireland with Cromwell’s army and settled in Twyford, Co Westmeath.

In 1772, Mathew had been appointed Deputy Muster Master General to His Majesty’s Forces in Ireland, and he held this a post for 50 years. His office in the lower yard of Dublin Castle was broken into in 1794 and debentures to the value of £1,790 and £550 in cash were stolen. Handcock personally lost over £1,000 in the robbery.

During an investigation, in 1795, into a robbery at Cyprus Grove House, the thief, identified from sword cuts received during the robbery, confessed to both crimes and led to the recovery of some of the debentures.

In 1797, Mathew Handcock was appointed Church Warden in Saint Maelruain’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church in Tallaght.

Mathew Handcock extended Sally Park, made improvements to the grounds and planted over 7,000 trees of various species, including a large number of beech trees, which earned him praise from the Royal Dublin Society in 1801. He also provided trout ponds, gardens and conservatories.

‘The Primrose Walk’ … part of the legacy of Handcock’s tree planting near Sally Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Sally Park was a considerable estate with stables, a coach house and a dairy, and it provided employment for many local people. Some of Mathew Handcock’s trees still remain, a reminder of bygone days, but many have been cleared to make way for the surrounding housing estates, roads and the new motorway. Some of the trees survive behind Homeville, near the original entrance to Sally Park. The line of trees at the entrance to Monalea Park Estate was known as “The Primrose Walk” and the two fields near the house were known as “The Nine Acres.”

When Mathew Handcock died on 2 August 1824, he was buried in Donnybrook old churchyard, as was his widow, Margaret (Butler), who died in 1827. They were married in 1778 and had 14 children. Their children erected a monument to them in Saint Maelruain’s Church, Tallaght.

Sally Park was inherited by Mathew’s son, William Elias Handcock. His eldest son, William Domville Handcock (1830-1887), was the author of the History and Antiquities of Tallaght, first published in 1876, with important source material on the history of Tallaght.

William Domville Handcock was educated at Nutgrove School, Rathfarnham, and at Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 1852. He studied law for some years and became a solicitor. Later, he became the Dublin agent of the Scottish Union Life Insurance Company and the London and Lancashire Fire Insurance Company, and the Foreign Passport Office at 52 Dame Street.

In 1862, Handcock married Eleanor Olivier Rooke, daughter of Major Thomas Slator Rooke of the 12th Madras Light Infantry, a descendant of Thomas Slator, who ran a paper mill in Templeogue.

Large trees surrounded Sally Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Handcock describes his home at Sally Park as follows:

The house is very old. Apparently about half of it was first built and occupied, as the walls of this part are thicker and of a different style of building. The other half was subsequently added, thus making it square … it was very well wooded, many of the trees being very large. There are trout ponds, gardens, conservatories and everything to make a place comfortable, many thousands of pounds having from time to time been laid out here.

Handcock was a magistrate for Co Dublin, presided at Tallaght Petty Sessions, and was also a guardian of the South Dublin Union. There is a memorial to him in Saint Maelruain’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church in Tallaght.

The stone spheres at the entrance to Sally Park came from ‘Carthy’s Castlw’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The stone spheres, which stand on the piers of the gateway into Sally Park, were bought by Handcock from a Mr Carthy in 1880. They had been on the piers to Dollymount, also known as Carthy’s Castle.

Carthy’s Castle neither a castle nor a home to a Carthy family. What remains on the slopes of Montpelier Hill is the West Tower and some outbuildings of the once remarkable but long-ruined Dollymount House or ‘The Long House.’

Dollymount House was built in the late 18th century as a hunting lodge for Henry Loftus, Lord Ely, who lived at Rathfarnham Castle. It was named after the society beauty, Dorothea ‘Dolly’ Monroe, an aunt of Lord Ely’s first wife Frances Monroe.
The large stone balls that adorned the arched gates were sold to Handcock for decorative use at Sally Park by a man named Carthy in 1880. The remaining tower is now isolated partially covered in ivy.

William Domville Handcock died on 5 June 1887, and there is a memorial to him in Saint Maelruain’s Church in Tallaght. He and his wife Eleanor had no children, and the widowed Eleanor Handcock continued to live at Sally Park with his niece, Mary Butler White, who revised and republished her uncle’s History in 1899.

Eventually, when Eleanor Handcock died in 1920, Sally Park was inherited by Gussie Hargrave, a companion and house keeper. It is said that Ellen Handcock wanted Gussie to marry her nephew, the Revd Charles Vaughan Rooke (1869-1946), who played international rugby for Ireland from 1891 to 1897. His test debut was against England 125 years ago at Lansdowne Road on 7 February 1891 and he was on the first Irish team to win The Triple Crown in 1894. However, this hoped-for marriage never transpired, Charles emigrated to New Zealand, where he died in Wellington, and Gussie married a Major Medicott.

Sally Park was bought by the Dublin architect Thomas Joseph Cullen in 1936/1938 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The house was later sold to the Knox family, who were descended from Major Lawrence Knox, who was the founding editor of The Irish Times in 1859. A daughter of the Knox family, Raby White sold Sally Park in 1936.

By 1938, Sally Park was the home of a leading Dublin architect, Thomas Joseph Cullen (1879-1947), probably a cousin of Anne Cullen, the first wife of my grandfather, Stephen Edward Comerford (1867-1921).

Thomas Cullen was born on 9 December 1879, the eldest of the three sons of William Cullen of 10 Mountpleasant Square, Rathmines, who ran a grocery shop in Upper Leeson Street, and his wife Elizabeth (Chambers).

He spent his last school years at Clongowes Wood College (1896-1897). After a three-year apprenticeship with John Leslie O’Hanlon, Cullen spent three further years as a pupil in the offices of Ashlin and Coleman (1904-1907), and then worked there as an assistant.

He set up his own practice in 1908, working from his office at 25 Suffolk Street for the rest of his career. In 1908, he was proposed for membership of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland in 1908 by George Coppinger Ashlin, and was seconded by Charles James McCarthy and Thomas Aloysius Coleman. He was elected a fellow (FRIAI) in 1922.

As a young man, he was active in nationalist causes as a member of the National Volunteers and the Irish Volunteers, and he stood as a nationalist candidate for Rathmines East Ward in the local elections in 1914 and 1920. He also served on the governing body of University College Dublin. His wife, Dr Mary Kathleen (Delany) was a medical doctor by profession and the daughter of a Cork building contractor.

After much of O’Connell Street had been destroyed in the 1916 Rising, Cullen was commissioned in 1917 to design a unified façade for No 29-34 O’Connell Street in the destroyed area. Later, after independence, the new Irish government appointed Cullen and Patrick Hartnett McCarthy in 1922 as the architects for rebuilding of Cork City.

But Cullen’s main work tended to come mainly from public and religious bodies, for schools, hospitals and convents, and he also worked on factories and shops.

Through his association with Ashlin and Coleman, Cullen must have absorbed a keen appreciation for the work and legacy of AWN Pugin. This is reflected in his work on Gothic additions to Loreto Abbey, Rathfarnham, work on Saint Peter’s College, Wexford, Saint Michael’s Church, Gorey, and Saint Aidan’s Cathedral, Enniscorthy, where he designed a new nave roof (1936).

He also built a new mortuary chapel for Bride Street Church, Wexford, and worked on the Saint John of God Convent in Wexford.

His other works included the Hope Memorial Chapel in Coole, Co Westmeath, New grandstand for Old Wesley and Bective Rangers rugby clubs in Donnybrook – he was an enthusiastic rugby player – and Landore, an interesting house on Orwell Road, Rathgar.

He also converted the Tivoli Theatre on Burgh Quay, Dublin, to offices and printing works for the new Irish Press.

Cullen lived at 10 Mountpleasant Square (1901-1914), Castlewood Park, Rathmines (1921-1927), and 14 Herbert Park, Ballsbridge (1927-1938), before moving to Sally Park, Templeogue, where lived until he died on 22 January 1947. His practice, now named Cullen Payne Architects, continued at his original premises at 25 Suffolk Street until a recent move to nearby Drury Street.

The O’Moore family turned Sally Park into a nursing home in 1975 later it was sold to the Brady family in 1988, who continue to run the nursing home. They added a one floor extension in 1997 and added a second floor extension and one storey building to the rear in 2005.

The former elegrance of Sally Park is remembered in the names of the surrounding housing estates (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

For other postings on the architectural heritage of South Dublin see:

Berwick Hall.
The Bottle Tower, Churchtown.
Brookvale House, Rathfarnham.
Camberley House, Churchtown.
Dartry House, Orwell Park, Rathfarnham.
Ely Arch, Rathfarnham.
Ely House, Nutgrove Avenue, Rathfarnham.
Fernhurst, 14 Orwell Road, Rathgar.
Fortfield House, Hyde Park, Terenure.
No 201 Harold’s Cross Road, the birthplace of Richard Allen.
Homestead, Sandyford Road, Dundrum.
Kilvare House, also known as Cheeverstown House, Templeogue Road.
Knocklyon Castle.
Laurelmere Lodge, Marlay Park.
Marlay Park.
Mountain View House, Beaumont Avenue, Churchtown.
Newbrook House, Taylor’s Lane, Rathfarnham.
Old Bawn House, Tallaght.
Rathfarnham Castle.
Sally Park, Fihouse.
Scholarstown House, Knocklyon.
Silveracre House, off Sarah Curran Avenue, Rathfarnham.
Synge House, Newtwon Villas, Churchtown, and No 4 Orwell Park, Rathgar.
Templeogue House.
Washington House, Butterfield Avenue, Rathfarnham.
Westbourne House, off Rathfarnham Road.