Rathmines

Rathmines Library.

Rathmines (Ráth Maonais in Irish) is a suburb on the southside of Dublin, about 3 kilometres south of the city centre. It effectively begins at the south side of the Grand Canal and stretches along the Rathmines Road as far as Rathgar to the south, Ranelagh to the east and Harold's Cross to the west.

Rathmines has thriving commercial and civil activity and is well-known across Ireland as part of a traditionally known "flatland" - providing rented accommodation to newly arrived junior civil servants and third level students coming from outside the city from the 1930s to the present day. In more recent times, Rathmines has diversified its housing stock and many houses have been gentrified by the wealthier beneficiaries of Ireland's economic boom of the 1990s. Rathmines, nonetheless, is often said to have a cosmopolitan air, and has a diverse international population and has always been home to groups of new immigrant communities and indigenous ethnic minorities.

Name

Rathmines is an Anglicisation of the Irish Ráth Maonais, or directly translated to English, Fort of de Meones (sometimes Maoghnes). Like many of the surrounding areas, it arose from a fortified structure (a ráth) which would have been the centre of civic and commercial activity from the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. Rathgar, Baggotrath and Rathfarnham are further examples of Dublin placenames deriving from a similar root.

History

Rathmines has a long history stretching back to the 14th century. At this time, Rathmines and surrounding hinterland were part of the ecclesiastical lands called Cuallu or Cuallan, later the vast Parish of Cullenswood, which gave its name to a nearby area. Cuallu is mentioned in local surveys from 1326 as part of the farm of St. Sepulchre (the estate of the Archbishop of Dublin, whose seat as a Canon of St. Patrick's Cathedral takes its name from this). There is some evidence of an established settlement around a rath as far back as 1350. Rathmines is part of the Barony of Uppercross, one of the many baronies surrounding the old city of Dublin, bound as it was by walls, some of which are still visible. In more recent times, Rathmines was a popular suburb of Dublin, attracting the wealthy and powerful seeking refuge from the poor living conditions of the city from the middle of the 19th century.

Arguably, Rathmines is best known historically for a bloody battle that took place there in 1649, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, leading to the death of perhaps up to 5,000 people. The Battle of Rathmines took place on 2 August 1649 and led to the routing of Royalist forces in Ireland shortly after this time. Some have compared the Battle of Rathmines - or sometimes Baggotrath - as equal in political importance to England's Battle of Naseby.

In the early 1790s the Grand Canal was constructed on the northern edge of Rathmines, connecting Rathmines with Portobello via the La Touch Bridge (which through popular usage became better known as Portobello Bridge).

For several hundred years Rathmines was the location of a "spa" - in fact a spring - the water of which was said to have health-giving properties. It attracted people with all manners of ailments to the area. In the 19th century it was called the "Grattan Spa", as it was located on property once belonging to Henry Grattan, close to Portobello Bridge.^[1] The "spa" gradually fell into a state of neglect as the century progressed, until disputes arose between those who wished to preserve it and those (mainly developers) who wished to get rid of it altogether. In 1872 a Dr. O'Leary, who held a high estimate of the water quality, reported that the "spa" was in "a most disgraceful state of repair", upon which the developer and alderman Frederick Stokes sent samples to the medical inspector, Dr. Cameron, for analysis. Dr. Cameron, a great lover of authority, reported: "It was, in all probability, merely the drainings of some ancient disused sewer, not a chalybeate spring". Access to the site was blocked up and the once popular "spa" faded from public memory.^[2]

The borough of Rathmines had a unionist majority up to the late 1920s, when a local government re-organisation abolished all Dublin borough councils.

Dartry Road in Rathmines was the scene of the still-controversial killing of IRA member Timothy Coughlin by police informer Sean Harling on the evening of 28 January 1928. It happened opposite 'Woodpark Lodge', where Harling lived at the time.

Rathmines Township

One of Rathmines' most prominent buildings is the Town Hall and its clock tower. This building, now occupied by Rathmines Senior College, once housed a town council for the Rathmines Township, made up of local businessmen and other eminent figures. The Rathmines Township was created by Act of Parliament in 1847, and its area was later renamed "Rathmines and Rathgar" and expanded to take in the areas of Rathgar, Ranelagh, Sandymount and Milltown. The township was initially responsible only for sanitation, but its powers were extended over time to cover most functions of local government.

The township was incorporated into the City of Dublin in 1930, and its functions were taken over by Dublin Corporation, now known as Dublin City Council. Rathmines is still a local electoral area of Dublin City Council, electing four city councillors.

Places of interest

Church of Mary the Immaculate

Rathmines is well known for the large army barracks which is located there, Cathal Brugha Barracks (known in the past as Portobello Barracks), home to many units of the Irish Army including the 2nd Infantry Battalion.

Another well known feature is the prominent copper dome of Mary Immaculate, Refuge of Sinners Church. The original dome was destroyed in a fire in 1920 and replaced by the current dome when reopened in 1922. The dome was to be used in St Petersburg but the political and social upheaval in this city caused it to be diverted to Dublin.^[3]

Rathmines is also home to two well-known primary and secondary schools, St Mary's College (C.S.Sp,) and St Louis Primary and secondary school.

Transport

From the 1850s horse-drawn omnibuses provided transport from Rathmines to the city centre. Portobello Bridge, which had a steep incline, was often a problem for the horses, which led to the fatal accident of 1861.^[4]

On 6 October 1871 work was commenced on the Dublin tram system on Rathmines Road, just before Portobello Bridge, and a horse-drawn tram service was in place the following year. The following year also the long-awaited (since the 1861 accident) improvements to Portobello Bridge were carried out, the Tramway Company paying one third of the total cost of £300.

Rathmines and Ranelagh railway station opened on 16 July 1896 and finally closed on 1 January 1959.^[5]

Rathmines is served by the Luas light rail system, the Beechwood stop on the Green Line being within a short walking distance from the main street.

Notable people associated with Rathmines

• Richard Henry Geoghegan lived at 41 Upper Rathmines Road. He was the first Esperantist in the English-speaking world and was a friend of Irish Nationalist leader Joseph Mary Plunkett. He designed the original official Esperanto flag.
• Cathal Brugha, Irish Nationalist, leader lived on Rathmines Road.
• Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Irish suffragist, pacifist and writer, lived in 11 Grosvenor Place Rathmines.
• Vincent Dowling, Director of the Arts, born the sixth of seven children in Rathmines.
• Grace Gifford, an Irish artist and cartoonist who was active in the Republican movement, was born in Rathmines. She married Joseph Plunkett in 1916 only a few hours before he was executed.
• Paddy Finucane, Second World War fighter pilot, was born in Rathmines.
• John Mitchel was living with his family at 8 Ontario Terrace when he was arrested in 1848.
• Walter Osborne, a famous Irish impressionist painter, was born at 5 Castlewood Ave.
• Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, British admiral of the Second World War.
• Lafcadio Hearn, ghost-story writer who settled in Japan, was brought up in Rathmines.
• Frederick William Cumberland (1820-1881), architect, railway manager and politician, grew up in Rathmines. His father Thomas was employed at Dublin Castle.^[6]
• George William Russell was educated at Rathmines School.
• Annie M. P. Smithson, novelist, nurse and Nationalist, lived at 12 Richmond Hill until her death.
• The Earl of Longford had a large house in the Grosvenor park area of the Leinster road between Rathmines and Harold's Cross. The house was demolished and replaced with a modern housing estate in recent decades.
• Conor Cruise O'Brien was born in 1917 in Rathmines, the only child of Francis Cruise O'Brien, a journalist who worked for the Freeman's Journal and Kathleen Sheehy.
• Éamonn MacThomáis Born in Rathmines in 1927 was an author, broadcaster, historian, Republican, advocate of the Irish Language and lecturer. Noted for numerous RTE documentaries on his native Dublin.
• Michael Cleary (priest) lived on Rathmines road when the controversy about his child was first reported.
• Constance Markiewicz, Irish Revolutionary, in 1903 after a visit to the Ukraine, she and her husband Kazimierz Dunin-Markiewicz returned to live ina house provided by the Constance's mother in Rathmines to bring up her daughter maeve and stepson Stanislaus.

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland

References

• This article is partially based on the article with the same name on http://www.irelandinformationguide.com, licensed under GFDL.

Coordinates: 53°19.5′N 6°15.9′W / 53.325°N 6.265°W / 53.325; -6.265