The former Kodak building in Rathmines remains an outstanding example of Art Deco architecture in Dublin

The Kodak Building has been a landmark building on the corner of Lower Rathmines Road and Blackberry Lane for almost a century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

When I was staying in Rathmines last week during a very brief family visit to Dublin, I took another look at some interesting late 19th and early 20th century buildings in Rathmines, including the former YMCA building on Rathmines Road, Kensington Lodge around the corner from it on Grove Park, the former Belfast Bank on a prominent corner with Rathgar Road, and the former Kodak building, a listed Art Deco building.

For almost a century, the Kodak Building or Kodak House has been a landmark building on the corner of Lower Rathmines Road and Blackberry Lane and when it was built its design marked an important ‘modern’ moment in Irish architecture. It was designed by the architects Donnelly, Moore and Keatinge in 1930 and built in 1932 and was originally the factory and warehouse for Kodak Ireland.

Art Deco emerged as a design aesthetic in France in the early 20th century and was widely popularised in the 1920s and 1930s. It informed the design of many iconic 20th century iconic buildings, including the Empire State Building in New York.

Many examples of art deco architecture Dublin have been lost, including the Theatre Royal. But others have survived, including the Kodak Building and two other significant Art Deco buildings in Rathmines: the Stella Cinema, designed by Higginbotham and Stafford in 1923; and the Post Office on Upper Rathmines Road, designed by William Henry Howard Cooke (1881-1977), built in 1932-1934, and opened in 1935.

The founder of Kodak, George Eastman, ran ‘an image-conscious company’ and wanted the company’s building in Dublin to disguise the ‘raw factory’ within. Kodak hired Donnelly Moore and Keatinge, a partnership formed by Robert Donnelly, James Moore and William Sedgwick Keatinge in 1925. The new building was built by McLaughlin & Harvey.

One critical commentator said the building looks like ‘a stray project from Miami Beach that found itself cast adrift in Dublin’. On the other hand, when the Twentieth Century Society named the Kodak Building as its ‘building of the month’ in August 2019, it said that ‘the building itself, despite having its once-cream render painted white, still stands out against Dublin’s traditional red brick streets’.

Donnelly Moore and Keatinge designed a building that is made of concrete and supported by a steel structural grid, with horizontal steel windows that were embedded in the concrete walls, and with ‘a squat but imposing tower with vertical slit windows as its central feature’. It was said to ‘conjur[e up] a sense of defensive space as well as abiding by the symmetrical classical language of pediment, pilaster and entablature.’

Some of the machine-age ornamentation of Kodak House remains intact, including the vertical lines on the tower, the zig-zags facing the street, the strong lines leading to the parapet and the ziggurat-type finial. Other art deco touches include the vertical lines on the tower, the stacked antenna-like rectangles, the small areas of fluting around the parapet and the pilasters or projecting columns, and the minimal ornament.

On each street façade, the tower recedes behind the screen, symmetrical with multi-pane windows set deep between the thick, plain pilasters. The zigzag textures and plain bands framing the windows add further texture, and the windows are an indication of its past as a factory.

The partnership of Donnelly Moore and Keatinge lasted until 1937, when the three architects went their separate ways, forming their own practices. One of the original architects, William Sedgewick Keatinge (1887-1964), made alterations modifications to the building in 1949-1951.

The building remained the Kodak headquarters in Ireland for 50 years before they moved to Dun Laoghaire in 1982. Kodak sold the building to Quirke Lynch Ltd that continued the photographic processing business for almost two more decades.

Quirke Lynch decided to concentrate their photographic processing operation to the ground floor only in 1997 and major renovations were undertaken to restore the upper floor and the roof of the building.

Paul Keogh Architects carried out a complete refurbishment of the building in 1999. While the exterior is faithful to the original design, there have been some interventions in the interior, such as a new roof with a curved northlight that allowed a mezzanine level to be added inside. The renovation was recognised with an RIAI award and a Glen Dimplex Design award in 2002.

Kodak House now houses an advertising agency and other businesses. It is an outstanding example of Art Deco architecture in Dublin and is a List 2 building in the Dublin City development plan. Despite having its once-cream render painted white, it still stands out against Dublin’s traditional red brick streets. It remains one of the brightest, most unusual 20th century buildings in Dublin.

Art Deco did not have a huge impact in Ireland, although the style had its moments, and the Carlton and Savoy cinemas on O’Connell Street and the Tivoli Cinema in Francis Street used Art Deco.

Other buildings in the Art Deco style in Dublin include the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation at 23 Kildare Street, designed by James Rupert Boyd Barrett; the Gas Building on D’Olier Street, now home to School of Nursing and Midwifery of Trinity College Dublin; the DIT building on Cathal Brugha Street; the former Deluxe Cinema on Camden Street; and the bathing shelters along the Bull Wall in Dollymount, designed by Herbert Simms.

Art Deco housing designs included: Chancery House, a housing development near the Four Courts designed by Herbert Simms; the houses built in 1938 on Wasdale Park, between Terenure and Rathgar; and an Art Deco house on the Templeogue Road once known as Konstanz and built in 1939 for Stephen Carroll Held – it is known in Templeogue and Terenure as the ‘German house’ because Hermann Gortz, a Nazi spy, used it as a safe house during World War II.

But more about these Art Deco houses and buildings, hopefully, after another visit to Dublin.

Kodak House remains an outstanding example of Art Deco architecture in Dublin Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Praying with USPG and the music of Vaughan Williams: Friday 19 August 2022

‘The bells they sound on Bredon, / And still the steeples hum’ … Parson’s Folly on Bredon Hill (Photograph: Stephen Dawson, Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

Patrick Comerford

Before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose music is celebrated throughout this year’s Proms season. In my prayer diary for these weeks I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, Reflecting on a hymn or another piece of music by Vaughan Williams, often drawing, admittedly, on previous postings on the composer;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ (Matthew 22: 36) … the number of knots and fringes on a tallit or prayer shawl represent the 613 commandments in Jewish law (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist this morning in the Lectionary as adapted by the Church of Ireland is:

Matthew 22: 34-40 (NRSVA):

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37 He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

A limestone wall on Bredon Hill (Photograph: Stephen Dawson, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

Today’s reflection: ‘Bredon Hill’

Ralph Vaughan Williams was the composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores, a collector of English folk music and song. With Percy Dearmer, he co-edited the English Hymnal, in which he included many folk song arrangements as hymn tunes, and several of his own original compositions.

Throughout this week, I am listening to On Wenlock Edge, a setting by Vaughan Williams of six poems from AE Housman’s Shropshire Lad.

This morning [19 August 2022], I am listening to ‘Bredon Hill,’ the fifth of the six settings by Vaughan Williams of these poems by AE Housman (1859-1936), published in 1896.

Vaughan Williams composed On Wenlock Edge in 1909, a year after spending three months studying in Paris under Maurice Ravel, the French composer. The French influence on Vaughan Williams can be heard particularly in ‘Bredon Hill,’ and the accompaniment is redolent of ‘La Vallée des Cloches’ from Ravel’s Miroirs for piano (1905).

Vaughan William’s use of the piano quintet as the accompanying ensemble was an innovation in English music. Before he composed On Wenlock Edge, the string quartet alone had been used as an accompaniment to song by Henry Walford Davies in 1894 (Prospice).

Although it was used later by other composers, including Vaughan Williams, its use remained limited even though English musicians had started to rediscover the Golden Age of the Elizabethan period, and the quartet might have become the natural successor to the viol consort. Perhaps the introduction of the piano into the ensemble by Vaughan Williams was inspired by Ravel’s teacher, Gabriel Fauré. His Paul Verlaine cycle, La Bonne Chanson, was composed in 1892-1894 with piano accompaniment, and in 1898, Fauré arranged it for piano and string quintet.

In addition, the bell-like accompaniment of ‘Bredon Hill’ paints a picture of great dramatic intensity.

Bredon Hill in Worcestershire is a hill south-west of Evesham in the Vale of Evesham, with its summit in the parish of Kemerton. The hill is part of the Cotswolds, but millions of years of erosion have left it isolated, standing in the Vale of Evesham.

Bredon Hill has a number of ancient standing stones, the Bambury (or Banbury) and the Queen and King. Local legend says that those passing between the King and Queen stones will be cured of illness. The tradition of going to kiss the Bambury Stone for good luck on Good Friday is one shared with many other stones around England.

What about the bells that sound so clear on Bredon Hill, ‘in steeples far and near,’ calling all to church? A number of interesting churches are dotted about the villages surrounding Bredon Hill. Saint Giles in Bredon village was built in late 12th to mid-13th century. The church has a memorial to Bishop Prideaux, who was chaplain to King James I and King Charles I, magnificent stained glass windows, detached shafts of Purbeck marble supporting the Mitton Chapel, and mediaeval tiles in the sanctuary.

Saint Mary’s in Elmley Castle, 7 or 8 km to the north-east, dates from the end of the 11th century and contains grand monuments to Thomas Coventry, 1st Earl of Coventry, who died in 1699, and 17th century effigies of members of the Savage family.

Roman coins and artefacts have been found at Little Comberton, on the north side of Bredon Hill, where the 12th century church is thought to stand on the site of a Roman temple.

There are views of Tewkesbury Abbey about 5 km to the south-west. When Worcester Cathedral was damaged in the English civil war, it was repaired using stone brought from Bredon.

Bredon Hill is crowned by Parson’s Folly, or the Banbury Stone Tower built in the mid-18th century for John Parsons (1732–1805), MP, of Kemerton Court, as a summer house with a view across the surrounding countryside.

A local rhyme reflects folklore about the way Bredon Hill controls the local weather:

When Bredon Hill puts on his hat
Ye men of the Vale beware of that.
When Bredon Hill does clear appear
Ye men of the Vale have nothing to fear.

Bredon Hill features in the works of many composers, poets, writers and artists, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Ivor Gurney, George Butterworth and Herbert Howells; John Masefield and Cecil Day-Lewis; and Arthur Quiller-Couch. Bredon Hill is the birthplace of Fred Archer (1915-1999), who describes life on the farms and in the villages in the early 20th century. John Moore describes life at Bredon Hill in the early 20th century in The Brensham Trilogy.

But the hill is best known because of Poem 21 in AE Housman’s anthology A Shropshire Lad (1896). Although Housman names Tewkesbury and Bredon Hill in A Shropshire Lad, neither place is in Shropshire.



5, Bredon Hill

In summertime on Bredon
The bells they sound so clear;
Round both the shires they ring them
In steeples far and near,
A happy noise to hear.

Here of a Sunday morning
My love and I would lie,
And see the coloured counties,
And hear the larks so high
About us in the sky.

The bells would ring to call her
In valleys miles away;
“Come all to church, good people;
Good people come and pray.”
But here my love would stay.

And I would turn and answer
Among the springing thyme,
“Oh, peal upon our wedding,
And we will hear the chime,
And come to church in time.”

But when the snows at Christmas
On Bredon top were strown,
My love rose up so early
And stole out unbeknown
And went to church alone.

They tolled the one bell only,
Groom there was none to see,
The mourners followed after,
And so to church went she,
And would not wait for me.

The bells they sound on Bredon,
And still the steeples hum,
“Come all to church, good people.”
O noisy bells, be dumb;
I hear you, I will come.

‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 22: 39) … hearts hanging in decorations in a bar in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer, Friday 19 August 2022:

The theme in the USPG prayer diary this week is ‘Human Trafficking in Durgapur.’ This them was introduced on Sunday by Raja Moses, Project Co-ordinator of the Anti-Human Trafficking Project, Diocese of Durgapur, Church of North India.

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

Let us pray for the work of the Clewer Initiative which works to raise awareness of and prevent human trafficking in the UK.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Love All’ … a sculpture by Rachel Joynt in Templeogue Village, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

A walk through woodlands in Tymon Park with its sculpture and the ruins of Tymon Castle

‘Cliabhan’ (‘Cradle’) by the sculptor Linda Brunker in Tymon Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

I have been in Dublin this week for a consultation with my GP about my sarcoidosis and one of my regular injections for my Vitamin B12 deficiency.

I have stayed within a 5 km radius of the house in Knocklyon, and within my ‘family bubble.’ But after yesterday’s consultation I went for a walk in Tymon Park, a large suburban public park in South Dublin, between Tallaght, Templeogue and Walkinstown.

Tymon Park opened in June 1986 and is the second largest park in Dublin, after the Phoenix Park. It has an area of over 120 ha (300 acres) and is divided in two by the M50 motorway, with the two parts linked by a pair of pedestrian bridges.

Tymon Park Forest is designed to produce a rich and diverse woodland landscape for 125 different species, including beech, poplar, ash, horse chestnut, willow, maples, sycamore and birch, with alder, hazel, and hawthorn near the edges.

Tymon Park Forest is designed to produce a rich and diverse woodland landscape (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The park has a number of way-marked woodland trails, 29 sports pitches, and children’s playground close to the Greenhills Road entrance, beside Castletymon Road, beside the Willington Lane car park and at the Limekiln Road car park.

The River Poddle flows through the park, filling two bigger lakes and several inter-connecting smaller ponds and water features. The water features provide a valuable habitat for up to 92 species of flora and fauna, and a breeding ground for the popular waterfowl.

The PACT Woodland Project in Tymon Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The PACT Woodland Project in an attractively planted area by a lakeside is an innovative project by PACT in collaboration with South Dublin County Council. PACT is an adoption agency providing Irish families with a broad range of services in the areas of adoption, information and tracing and unplanned pregnancy. The project commemorated the 50th anniversary of PACT’s foundation in 1952 and 50 years of legal adoption in Ireland.

Part of this project is Cliabhan (the Irish for ‘Cradle’) by the sculptor Linda Brunker and unveiled on 9 September 2006. The sculpture, 1 metre wide and 2 metres high, consists of large bronze leaves in the form of an arm that extends from the ground up into three hands. These hands cradle a golden bronze baby in a nest of leaves. Linda Brunker designed the sculpture to symbolise the three-pronged nurturing aspect of the work of PACT.

Linda Brunker was born in Dublin in 1966 and graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, with a Diploma in Sculpture (1987) and a degree in fine art (1988). She has developed her own innovative style of bronze casting. She had solo shows in Dublin, New York and Los Angeles and has completed private and public commissions worldwide. She now lives in Toulouse in France.

Her other public works include ‘Voyager’ (2004) at Laytown Strand, commissioned by Meath County Council; ‘The Healing Tree’ (2002), Virginia, Co Cavan; ‘The Wishing Hand’ (2001), Department of Education, Marlborough Square, Dublin; and ‘The Children of Lir’ (1993) overlooking Lough Owel, outside Mullingar, commissioned by Westmeath County Council.

The site of Tymon Castle (left) on Tymon Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The area in Tymon Park was also the home of Tymon Castle, which once stood on a high ridge by Tymon Lane. The castle was once a local landmark, and Tymon Lane was an important link between rural areas and the centre of Dublin as a route on high ground through marshlands.

The castle was built some time between the 12th and 15th centuries, when many castles were built as defensive outposts along the edge of the Pale.

Although Tymon Castle was quite small, it stood on high ground that allowed its defenders to see for miles across the surrounding countryside. This high position and the surrounding marshy land ensured it was not an easy building to attack. A small projecting gallery over the entrance added to its defences.

However, the castle had deteriorated by the early 16th century and was in a ruinous state by 1547. It was partially repaired in 1779, but was only partially occupied.

During the 1798 rebellion, the body of an Irish rebel was left at the castle by a group of rebels after they were attacked by soldiers near Old Bawn. His body was later found by soldiers who hung it from a castle window where it was left to decay.

Children at Saint Mary’s School, Tallaght, described the ruins of the castle in the 1930s, saying ‘These ruins are on a great height and serve as a landmark for miles around.’ The ruins were a popular location for picnics, despite the dangerous state of the castle.

In his account of Tymon Castle in 1899, William Domville Handcock said it was almost in complete ruin, and recalled how the stones from the castle had been reused in other buildings. He added, ‘Probably in a few years more it will all be level with the ground.’

Tymon Castle was finally levelled in 1960 because of its dangerous condition.

‘Cliabhan’ (‘Cradle’) by the sculptor Linda Brunker in Tymon Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

When it comes to loving God and loving others, there are no Ifs or Buts

‘Love All’ … a sculpture by Rachel Joynt in Templeogue Village, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 25 October 2020,

The Fifth Sunday before Advent (Bible Sunday).

9.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer (Morning Prayer 2), Castletown Church, Kilcornan

11.30 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale

The Readings: Deuteronomy 34: 1-12; Psalm 90: 1-6, 13-17; I Thessalonians 2: 1-8; Matthew 22: 34-46.

‘Love is the answer’ … a window display in a shop in Skerries, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen

Did you remember to put the clock back last night?

Did you get an extra hour’s sleep last night?

Many years ago, almost 40 years ago, I was living on High Street in Wexford, across the street from the opera house, then the Theatre Royal.

This weekend marked one of the highlights of the Opera Festival. Many of the star singers would sing and take part in the service this Sunday morning in Saint Iberius’s Church, which was just around the corner from the theatre and from where I lived.

It was one Sunday when the church would be packed, an ecumenical congregation in the early days of ecumenism.

On the Saturday night, as the clocks changed … instead of putting my alarm clock back an hour … I put it forward one hour. Quick calculations and you’ll realise I turned up at church two hours too early!

Realising my own stupidity, instead of hanging around on the corner of Main Street and Rowe Street for two hours, I skipped back to my flat for a coffee, switched the clock back, fell asleep, and turned up at church … an hour late.

Changing the clocks at the end of October sometimes seems like a silly rule, a nonsense, especially when we notice from this evening how quickly the evenings are closing in.

There is no such objective thing as time. It’s not a quantity. I could not swop my lost hour or two that Sunday morning for an hour or two later in time. I cannot swop with you my Monday this week for your Tuesday next week.

But we have simple rules, conventions and commands that make life easier for all of us. If we decided on our own rules for measuring time, none of us would ever catch a bus, watch our favourite television shows, hold down a job or – in non-pandemic times – get to church on time.

Simple commands are not an imposition or a denial of human rights when we realise they are for the good of us all: put the clock back; drive slowly; don’t drink and drive; wash your hands; wear a mask …

Most conventions like this are for our own good and for the good of others. And we accept them, not as slaves, but out of love … for ourselves, for one another, for our neighbours.

My wearing a mask protects you; you wearing a mask protects me; when we both wear masks, we protect each other.

And it’s the same when it comes to the Ten Commandments. Our understanding of commands and commandments today is clouded by our understanding of individual freedoms rather than the common good.

It makes common sense not to allow idols that represent unlimited power, ill-gotten gains or political fanaticism to take the place of God.

It makes sense to honour not just our parents but all who go before us in age, in shaping our community, in passing on the faith and good values to future generations.

It makes sense to me that others are told not to murder me, not to steal from me, not to plan and plot to trick me out of house and home.

And it should be a joy to know that these limitations are there for my safety and security, for your safety and security, out of care and love for God and for one another.

Wear a mask … drive slowly … thou shalt not murder.

Among Jews, the word for a commandment is mitzvah (מִצְוָה). And each mitzvah brings its own joy in being fulfilled. That joy alone – knowing I have done the right thing, what is pleasing to God, what benefits others – is joy enough on its own.

The joy of doing something good, for its own sake, without having to be told to do so, without expecting any rewards or favours in return, gives rise to the popular exclamation, ‘It’s a mitzvah!’

It’s a feminine noun that means ‘good deed.’ Chasidic teachers say that because the root word (tzavta, צותא) means ‘together’ or ‘connection,’ every mitzvah is a way to connect with God.

Look what happens to Matthew 22:36-40 when the word mitzvah is properly used: ‘Teacher, which mitzvah in the law is the greatest?’ Jesus replied, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first mitzvah. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two mitzvot hang all the law and the prophets.’

The command to love, to love God and to love our neighbour, is at the heart of the Gospel. It is summarised in the two great commandments in this morning’s Gospel reading (Matthew 22: 36-40; see Luke 10: 27; Leviticus 19: 18).

It’s surprising, then, how Saint Paul, on more than one occasion, reduces it all down to one great commandment. For example, he writes: The commandments … are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13: 8-10).

And again: For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Galatians 5: 14).

In other places, he writes: The only thing that counts is faith working through love (Galatians 5: 6). Or: Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in harmony (Colossians 3: 14).

In the Orthodox Liturgy, the priest introduces the Creed with the words: ‘Let us love one another, that with one mind we may confess ...’ In other words, our statement of belief, in ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Trinity consubstantial and undivided,’ is confirmed, realised and lived out in our love for one another.

To love our neighbour as ourselves means to love them as we are ourselves, as being of the same substance – created in the image and likeness of God. The Church Fathers teach that we find our true self in loving our neighbour, and that love is not a feeling but an action.

To love one another is 50% of it all. And 50% was never a fail mark in my days.

When we love one another, not in feelings but in action, then loving God becomes a reality, and everything else fits into place.

And if we do anything, and claim we are doing it because the Bible says so, or because it suits us politically, but it goes against one of these commandments, it’s not Biblical, it’s not Christian.

This morning’s collect urges us to hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the words of the Bible. How do we show that we do this? By loving God and loving others.

If we have some prejudices against people because of their sexuality or their gender, their ethnicity or their social background, their language or their lifestyle, it’s not Christian, no matter how we search for or twist a Biblical passage. It’s not a mitzvah, it’s prejudice.

And Christ tells us in this morning’s Gospel reading there are no qualifications, no Ifs or Buts, no room for excuses or prejudices, no terms and conditions. Love God … full stop. Love others … full stop.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

.

‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 22: 39) … hearts hanging in decorations in a bar in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 22: 34-46 (NRSVA):

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37 He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: 42 ‘What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ 43 He said to them, ‘How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,

44 “The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet’”?

45 If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?’ 46 No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

‘How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord’ (Matthew 22: 41) … a copy of Michelangelo’s statue of David in Florence (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Colour: Green (Ordinary Time, Year A).

The Collect of the Day:

Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
Help us to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of all grace,
your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life and the word of his kingdom.
Renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your true and living bread,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

‘Satisfy us with your loving-kindness in the morning’ (Psalm 90: 14) … an early winter morning at the Rectory in Askeaton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Hymns:

515, ‘A new commandment I give unto you’ (CD 30)
525, Let there be love shared among us (CD 30)

‘Brother, sister, let me serve you’ (Hymn 517) … a painting in Saint Munchin’s College, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

Putting the clock forward instead of back on High Street, Wexford, ignored a simple rule or convention … and I missed church that Sunday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Which Earl of Lichfield gave his name to ‘The Drum’?

The Earl of Lichfield Arms on Conduit Street … known to generations in Lichfield as ‘The Drum’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

Since my visit to Lichfield two weeks ago, I have written about a number of pubs and former pubs that are of architectural and historical interest, including the Scales on Market Street, the former Castle Inn on Market Street, and the Three Crowns on Breadmarket Street, once patronised by Samuel Johnson, who was born next door.

But some readers have asked why I have not yet written about the Earl of Lichfield Arms on Conduit Street, known to many people in Lichfield as the Drum.

This is a cosy, traditional, friendly local pub, with a secret beer garden at the rear, right in the centre of Lichfield, tucked into a pretty narrow space between a bank and a certain ubiquitous fast-food business. The main bar area is long and narrow, with a space at the far end for the regular open mic nights and live bands that perform here. As well as the real ales, the pub also serves a variety of food and meals.

The Earl of Lichfield Arms has been described as ‘one of the most compact pubs in the whole of Staffordshire.’ It is known locally as the Drum, after the drum used in the 1830s by recruiting sergeants who tried to press gang vulnerable young drinkers into the army.

The seemingly modern rebuild at the front tends to mask its age. The Earl of Lichfield Arms, owned by Marston’s brewery, is said to date from the 18th century. When it was built, Conduit Street was known as Butchers’ Row. The old name of the pub derives from the time in the 1830s when this pub on what was then known as Butchers’ Row was used by army sergeants to drum up recruits. Later in the 1830s, it was known as the Masons Arms and was run by Frances Middleton.

The coat-of-arms of the Earl of Lichfield on wall of the pub (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

By the 1840s, the premises had been bought by the Anson family, Earls of Lichfield, and was renamed the ‘Earl of Lichfield Arms’. Frederick Marshall was running the pub in the 1861-1896, and George Burden was the licensee in 1906-1940. Burden was also a tailor, and in 1916 he was fined £2 for having a faulty weighing machine that belonged to Lichfield Corporation and for which he was the toll collector.

Like the Scales on Market Street in 1930s, the pub was threatened with closure in the 1956 when the licence was reviewed. But the Drum survived and when the barber shop next door was acquired in the 1970s, the pub expanded, so that it still has two different floor levels.

Since 1952, this has been a Grade II listed building. It dates from the late 18th century, although the projecting part of the front was rebuilt in late 20th century in replica.

The pub is built in brick with ashlar dressing, with a tile roof with brick stacks. This is a three-storey building, with a single-window range to the left and a single-window range projecting to the right in the rebuilt front. There are 12-pane sash windows with gauged brick lintels and six-pane sashes on the second floor.

The entrance is under the arcade, with a panelled door. The ground floor has a large two-light fixed window to the left of the entrance and a shop-type window to the left, with a richly consoled facia and three round-headed lights. Inside, there are chamfered beams and some exposed timber-framed cross walls.

The Earl of Lichfield Arms in the early 1970s … note there is no heraldic sign on the wall

But which Earl of Lichfield is the ‘Drum’ named after?

The title of Earl of Lichfield has been created three times, twice in the 17th century (1645 and 1674) and once in the 19th century (1831). The third creation is still extant and is held in the Anson family.

The title was first given by King Charles I to his namesake Charles Stewart (1639-1672), when he was made Earl of Lichfield in December 1645.

Originally, Charles I planned to give the title to Lord Bernard Stewart (1623-1645), youngest son of Esmé Stewart (1579-1623), 3rd Duke of Lennox, as a reward for his actions at the battles of Newbury and Naseby in the English Civil War. However, Bernard Stewart died before he was given the title. Instead, the title was given in 1645 to his six-year-old nephew Charles Stewart (1639-1672).

This Charles Stewart, who became Earl of Lichfield in 1645, later succeeded as 3rd Duke of Richmond and 6th Duke of Lennox in 1660. He married Frances Teresa Stuart, the celebrated beauty and alleged former mistress of his cousin, King Charles II.

King Charles seems to have been upset by the loss of one of his mistresses, and sent the duke into exile as ambassador to Denmark. There he drowned in Elsinore on 12 December 1672. He had no children; most of his property to his sister Katherine, wife of Henry O’Brien, Lord Ibrackan, while the title of Earl of Lichfield died with him.

His death in 1672 long precedes the Earl of Lichfield Arms in Conduit Street, so the pub cannot be named after him.

The coat-of-arms of members of the Lee family as Earls of Lichfield

The Earl of Lichfield Arms on Conduit Street dates from the late 18th century. If the name adapted in the 1840s had been traditionally associated with earlier Earls of Lichfield, then could it have been linked with a second version of the title that survived for over a century from 1674 to 1776.

The title of Earl of Lichfield was revived in 1674, two years after the original earl drowned in Elsinore, when Charles II gave the title to Sir Edward Lee (1663-1716) of Quarendon in anticipation of his marriage to the then 10-year-old Lady Charlotte Palmer, later Lady Charlotte Fitzroy (1664-1718), the illegitimate daughter of the king and his mistress, Barbara Villiers (later Palmer), Duchess of Cleveland.

They were married three years later in 1677, when Charlotte was still only a 12-year-old, and they had 11 children. Their house in London, known as Lichfield House, was later incorporated into No 10 Downing Street, but they abandoned this house when they followed James II into exile in France.

The first earl’s eldest surviving son, George Henry Lee (1690-1742), became the 2nd Earl of Lichfield and built the stately home of Ditchley in Oxfordshire.

His brother, Robert Lee (1706-1776), was the fourth and last Earl of Lichfield in the Lee family. He had no children, and when he died in 1776, the title of Earl of Lichfield died out once again, while the representation of this family passed to his niece Lady Charlotte Lee (1724-1794), eldest surviving daughter of his brother George, the second earl.

Two years earlier, in 1774, Lady Charlotte had married a celebrated Irish general and exile, Henry Dillon (1705-1787), 11th Viscount Dillon of Costello-Gallen, Co Mayo.

Henry’s father was Colonel Arthur Dillon (1670-1733), a son of the seventh viscount, a Jacobite colonel in Ireland and the founder of the Dillon Regiment in 1688. In 1711, Arthur Dillon was made Count Dillon in France, and Earl of Dillon in 1721 by the ‘Old Pretender,’ James Francis Edward Stuart, the Jacobite ‘James III.’ Henry’s paternal grandmother, Mary Talbot of Templeogue, Dublin, was a daughter of Sir Henry Talbot of Templeogue Castle.

Henry Dillon was a colonel in Dillon’s Regiment in the French army. He moved from France to England, and in 1744 he married Lady Charlotte Lee. In 1767, he conformed to Anglicanism to regularise his position in England and to ensure the legitimacy of his children. Lady Charlotte died on 11 June 1794.

The children of Henry and Lady Charlotte Lee included Charles Dillon-Lee (1745-1813), 12th Viscount Dillon, who inherited the Ditchley estate but not the Lichfield title. He changed his name from Dillon to Dillon-Lee under the terms of the will of his uncle, George Henry Lee, 3rd Earl of Lichfield.

The Dillon or Dillon-Lee family also held vast estates in Ireland, including Loughglynn and Coolagarry, near Frenchpark, Co Roscommon. In 1876, Theodore Dominic Geoffrey Dillon-Lee (1811-1879), 15th Viscount Dillon, owned 83,749 acres in Co Mayo, 5,435 in Co Roscommon and 136 in Co Westmeath. His nephew, Harold Arthur Lee-Dillon (1844-1932), 17th Viscount Dillon, sold his estates in Co Mayo and Co Roscommon, totalling 93,652 acres, to the Congested Districts Board in 1899. Ditchley remained the home of the Dillon family until 1934.

The coat-of-arms of members of the Anson family as Earls of Lichfield

However, the association of the Anson family with the pub from the 1840s probably means the name of the pub is dates from some time after the title of Earl of Lichfield was revived for a third time in 1831 when Thomas Anson (1795-1854), 2nd Viscount Anson. He lived at Shugborough Hall, about six miles east of Stafford and 15 miles north-west of Lichfield, and was made Earl of Lichfield at the coronation of William IV.

Later he was Postmaster General, overseeing the introduction of the penny post. But he was also a gambling addict and accumulated massive debts. To clear his debts, he sold most of the contents of Shugborough Hall and Lichfield House at 15 Saint James’s Square, London, and moved to the Continent. He returned to England in 1847, but Shugborough remained empty and shut up.

When Thomas George Anson (1825-1892), succeeded as 2nd Earl of Lichfield in 1854 he sold Lichfield House in London and used the proceeds to redecorate and refurnish Shugborough Hall.

His youngest brother, the Right Revd Adelbert John Robert Anson (1840-1909), was Bishop of Qu’Appelle (1884-1892) in Saskatchewan, Canada. When he returned to England, he became Master of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (1893-1898), an assistant bishop of Lichfield, and Chancellor of Lichfield Cathedral.

Saint John’s Hospital … Bishop Adelbert Anson was Master in 1893-1898 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The Lichfield title continued to descend from father to son until the death of Thomas Edward Anson (1883-1960), 4th Earl of Lichfield. He was succeeded by his grandson, Thomas Patrick John Anson (1939-2005), 5th Earl of Lichfield, the photographer known professionally as Patrick Lichfield.

In 1975, Patrick Lichfield married Lady Leonora Grosvenor, elder daughter of the 5th Duke of Westminster. She is remembered in a number of monuments and plaques that bear her name in Lichfield.

The couple were divorced in 1986; he died on 11 November 2005 and was buried in the Anson vault at Colwich.

Lady Leonara Grosvenor, Countess of Lichfield … a foundation stone at Saint John’s in the Cathedral Close in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

His son and heir, Thomas William Robert Hugh Anson, 6th Earl of Lichfield gave up the family flat in Shugborough, ending his family’s connection with Staffordshire after nearly 400 years. In 2009, he married Lady Henrietta Conyngham, daughter of Henry Conyngham, 8th Marquess Conyngham, known popularly as Henry Mountcharles.

Henry Mountcharles is famous for the open-air rock concerts organises at his home Slane Castle in Co Meath. These concerts have included performances by the Rolling Stones, Thin Lizzy, Queen, U2, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Guns N’ Roses, Oasis and Madonna.

The present version of the coat-of-arms on the walls of the Earl of Lichfield are those of the Earl of Lichfield on the left, and the Grosvenors of Westminster. An earlier photograph of the pub from the early 1970s shows no heraldic plaque in this place on the walls of the pub.

So, this sign is recent and it dates from the 11-year period 1975-1986. Photographs from earlier decades showing earlier arms of the Earls of Lichfield might help in telling the tale behind the name of the Drum.

The coat-of-arms of members of the Grosvenor family as Dukes of Westminster

Additional reading:

John Shaw, The Old Pubs of Lichfield (Lichfield: George Lane Publishing, 2001/2007).

Neil Coley, Lichfield Pubs (Stroud: Amberley, 2016).

Making the best use of a Monday visit to the doctor

Bright autumn skies at the weir on the River Dodder at Firhouse (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

It has been a few months since I last had a B12 injection and a check-up on my sarcoidosis. With a brief stopover in Dublin before returning to Co Limerick tomorrow, I decided to visit my GP for a check-up this morning.

GPs’ waiting rooms can be busy on Monday morning and, as I expected, I had a long wait today.

A colleague who was once an active trade unionist recalls how he was once called out in the middle of negotiations by a senior director in a company where the talks were getting rancorous, the management were digging in their heels, and the frustrated workforce was ready to down tools and walk out.

My friend was expecting a confrontational one-to-one session behind closed doors.

The director claimed he was exhausted by workers who were taking advantage of a benign company attitude to sickness and sick-pay.

He was challenged to produce figures to justify his hard-hearted attitude.

He dug his heels in and pointed out that 40% of sick days were taken on Fridays and Mondays, and claimed the workers were using these sick days to extend their weekends.

So, the calm response came, 60% of sick days are on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays?

Indeed, they are, the director affirmed.

He was challenged to make a quick calculation. Still not aware of how he was exposing the way he was challenged mathematically, it was pointed out that in a five-day working week, Fridays and Mondays were 40% of the working days. There was no evidence of anyone taking advantage of the proximity of weekends, he was told. He might have been better off looking at work conditions and company policies were contributing to health problems in the workforce, he was told, and the union now demanded to call in health and safety experts.

Needless to say, the union’s demands were met, the prejudiced manager soon moved on, and the company now has a happier and healthier workforce.

The waiting room was crowded this morning, not because there were too many laggards looking for sick notes, but because I have an exceptionally good GP, who takes time with each and every patient, and deals with the whole person and not just the presenting symptoms.

My B12 levels are low, I have noticed an occasional stagger, I needed a prescription for my inhaler, and I need some more tests over the next few weeks.

When I left, 2½ hours after joining the morning queue at my GP’s practice, there was a bright blue autumn sky, and despite the wind there was bright warm sunshine.

I walked back through the Dodder Valley Park, along the banks of the River Dodder from Templeogue Bridge as far as their weir at Firhouse. It was time for solitude and for prayerful thankfulness for all that is good in God’s creation.

Bright autumn colours at the weir on the River Dodder at Firhouse (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Searching for the Knights Templar at the tower by Saint Mary’s in Askeaton

The octagonal tower beside the ruins of the mediaeval church in Askeaton is said to have been built by the Knights Templar in 1298 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

For my first Sunday in the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes yesterday [22 January 2017], I presided at the Eucharist and preached in two of the four churches in the group: Castletown Church near Pallaskenry and Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale.

I have moved into the Rectory in Askeaton, and I am getting to know the parish and the parishioners, the towns and villages and the local people, the area and its antiquities.

One of the oldest buildings in Askeaton is in the grounds of Saint Mary’s Church. The present church was built in 1827, but beside it are the ruins of an earlier, mediaeval church, and on the south-east corner of the church is an unusual tower, associated in local legend with the Knights Templar.

The tower is said to have been built in 1298, which means it predates both the Desmond Castle, which was built in the 15th century on the site of an earlier ruined castle, and the Franciscan Abbey, which was founded in 1389 or 1420.

The tower in Askeaton is square at the base but becomes octagonal half-way up (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The tower stands at about six metres high with a base batter, built on a square plan at the base, but halfway up it becomes an octagonal tower, and the tower has a crenellated top. There is a similar ruined tower by the ruins of a former Augustinian Priory in Knocktopher, Co Kilkenny.

The adjoining mediaeval church is in a very ruined state, and only one window remains in the gable end. The church stands at about four metres in height, and is butted up against the present parish church, built in 1827.

In his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Samuel Lewis said in 1837 that the Knights Templars originally founded this church in 1298. However, this may not be wholly true, and Lewis mistakenly ascribes many early churches in Ireland to the Knights Templars.

The Knights Templar were one of the orders founded during the Crusades by warrior monks took monastic oaths to protect the Holy Land and pilgrims. Similar orders include the Knights Hospitaller, also known as the Knights of Saint John or the Knights of Rhodes or the Knights of Malta, as well as the Teutonic Order and the Order of Saint Lazarus.

The Knights Templar, or the ‘Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus Christ and the Temple of Solomon,’ were formed in 1118 in Jerusalem. They later adopted the Cistercian rule and formally received Papal recognition from Pope Innocent II in 1130. From humble beginnings, the Templars spread throughout Christendom, with strongholds and estates in most parts of Europe and the in the Holy Land.

The castle in Askeaton seen through a squint window in the tower at Saint Mary’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The Templars first came to Ireland in September 1220, a century after their original formation. Historians only agree on five Templar foundations in Ireland: Templetown, Co Wexford, where grave slabs in the churchyard mark the burial sites of ‘Poor Fellow-Soldiers’ and where the Templars had lands and houses near Hook Head; Clontarf Castle, Dublin, which was a Templar Preceptory, although the present castle has no connections with them; Baldongan Church, now in ruins, near Skerries, Co Dublin; Ballymote, Co Sligo, where the ruins of a Templar house give Templehouse Lake its name; and the Knights Templars Church at what is today Saint John’s Cemetery at Upper Saint John Street in Wexford.

Other places in Ireland that have links with the Templars include: Carrigogunnell Castle, near Clarina, Co Limerick, said to have been built by the order; Dungeel, near Killorglin, Co Kerry, where a church and a castle said to have belonged to the Templars are in ruins; Graney, near Castledermot, Co Kildare, where reputed Templar ruins stand near the ruins of the Augustinian nunnery; Kilberry, Co Kildare, where the ruins of a possible preceptory of the Knights Templar stand near the River Barrow; Roosky, Co Louth, where part of the priory may have belonged to the Templars; and Strand, Co Limerick, where the church at Temple Strand may be of Templar origin.

But there are many places in Ireland that are also linked with the Knights Templar mistakenly. For example, Kilmainham is often listed as a Templar foundation, although it was a house of the Knights Hospitaller.

The Knights Templar are also said to have built a castle or house on the site of Templeogue House, and this Templar house or castle was later replaced by or incorporated into Templeogue Castle. However, the name Templeogue comes from the Irish Teach Mealóg, meaning ‘New Church of Saint Mel.’

Temple Bar in Dublin, is sometimes linked with the order too, although the name actually refers to a land-owning family named Temple.

On the other side of the River Liffey, one of the mummies in the vaults of Saint Michan’s Church in Dublin is commonly known as ‘the crusader,’ and is sometimes described as a Knight Templar. But this dead knight lived centuries after the dissolution of the order.

The Knights Templar were also shrewd bankers and moneylenders, and this became their downfall. A heavily indebted Phillip IV of France accused them of heresy in 1307, had the leaders thrown into jail and orchestrated a show trial.

With the complicity of the Pope, the Templars were incriminated and tortured. They were suppressed in 1312, and their leaders burnt at the stake in 1313.

Within months, the Templars in Ireland were also arrested on suspicion of heresy and placed in Dublin Castle. Between 15 and 30 knights were taken, most having seen more than 40 years of service with the order. Today, they would be seen as vulnerable pensioners.

The Dublin trials of the Templars began in 1310 in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. The accusations against the knights were based on hearsay, and no evidence could be found and no confessions were forthcoming. The trials eventually fizzled out, ending after six months in an anti-climax. The Templars were admonished to be good Christians and pensioned off.

It is more than likely that, because of their age, none of them was expected to put up much resistance if left alone. Most knights in Ireland were either pensioned off or taken into other orders, who also acquired the estates of the Templars.

The property of the Knights Templar in Ireland was either confiscated by the crown or transferred to the Hospitallers. The vast network of the Knights Templar had crumbled less than two decades after they were said to have founded a house in Askeaton.

The story that there was ever a Templar Commandery here in Askeaton was first challenged by TJ Westropp in a paper in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquities in Ireland. Indeed, another local tradition claims that the church is one of three churches that were built by three sisters. However, the legend gives but no saint or founder is associated with the parish.

Whoever founded the church or built the tower, for centuries this tower also served as the bell tower of the mediaeval church. The bell-cote still has the bell in its place, and a bell rope still hangs from the bell into the tower.

Inside the ‘Knights’ Templar Tower’ at Saint Mary’s Church in Askeaton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

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)

A wayside cross and a promise of summer after a walk on the beach

The green and golden fields of Duleek this afternoon … holding out a promise of summer (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Patrick Comerford

These past few weeks have been exceptionally busy.

Reflecting on the week before last, I realised I slept in four different beds over seven days: in Grey’s Guest House in Dugort on Achill Island, Co Mayo; at home; in the Charlemont Arms Hotel during the General Synod in Armagh; back at home again; and then in Barberstown Castle, Co Kildare, after taking part in a wedding in Culmullen, Co Meath.

This was followed by a busy working week that ran into a full working weekend that included lectures on the Church History module and a field trip with students yesterday [16 May 2015] to the National Museum of Ireland in Kildare Street, Dublin, and the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle.

By this afternoon I was feeling tired and a little exhausted and needed some fresh air between those brain cells, either by the sea or out in the countryside – and I managed to do both.

The vast expanse of rippled sand on the beach at Bettystown this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

After a light lunch in the Village Café in Templeogue, two of us headed north to Bettystown on the east coast of Co Meath.

Although the skies were grey, the tide was out and the long stretch of beach between Laytown and Mornington seemed to extend for a greater expanse than usual, and there curious trailing pools and rivulets of water were forming shapes between the ripples in the sand.

There were few people on the beach, and apart from one or two cars driving on the beach, I almost imagined I had Bettystown all to myself.

A speed sign seems to disappear into the sand at Bettystown (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Two friends who live outside Navan had invited us to their house, and we headed back through Laytown and Julianstown before heading west towards Duleek.

The rain showers were intermittent, and at this time of the year the translucent effect of the rain brings out the colours on the fields and hills and in the rivers.

Before reaching Duleek, a hill of bright yellow rapeseed rose up before us, and we stopped for a few moments between the showers of rain to enjoy the sight.

A field of yellow rapeseed in the green countryside near Duleek, Co Meath, this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

After passing through Duleek, I noticed for the first time the Athcarne Cross on a raised bank at the corner of a small junction, about three miles south-west of Duleek.

This cross is national monument and was erected ca 1675 as a memorial to Sir Luke Bathe and his wife, Dame Cecilia Dowdall, who lived nearby at Athcarne Castle.

The Athcarne Cross embodies both Renaissance and Baroque influences, with the Crucifixion depicted on the west face and the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child on the East and West face. A coat of arms representing the Bathe and Dowdall families has also been carved out next to the implements of Christ’s Passion.

The cross, which was repaired in 1810, is one of a series of crosses erected by Cecilia Dowdall in memory of her husband, and there is another notable example in Duleek.

The Athcarne Cross south-west of Dulkeek was erected in the 17th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

In the distance, we caught a glimpse of Athcarne Castle, now in ruins on the banks of the River Nanny. This is an Elizabethan castle, and the original tower and house were built by William Bathe in 1590. When the house was rebuilt in 1830, the original tower was kept and an impressive turret was added.

James Gernon, the last resident, lived in the castle until the 1950s. I understand the original stone staircase at the north-west corner, survives with all 77 steps leading to the top of the ruins.

Nearby at Beaumont, the ruins of a large corn and flour mill stand on the side of the road.

Until at least the late 1830s, Duleek stood on the mail coach road from Dublin to Belfast. But today, these country roads are quiet and sleepy, apart from local traffic.

I was away from the bustle and busy-ness of life in Dublin, and the rain brought out the green and golden colours of the landscape that hold out the promise of summer.