Leixlip Chronology 1900 – 2002
by
JOHN COLGAN
1900: HJ Gill of Roebuck House, [Sth Co Dublin] wrote a letter to the editor of the Freeman’s Journal, dated 19/7/1900, in which he disputes the meaning of Leixlip, commonly treated as meaning Salmon Leap. He claims that in old Norse hlaupa meant ‘to run’, not ‘to leap’. In modern Swedish, ‘to run’ is lœpa, and in modern Danish ‘to run’ is lœba. The old Norse for ‘to leap’ was stœkkva, and the modern word is springe. I think therefore, he writes that Leixlip means ‘the salmon run’. The salmon at this spot do not leap, but swim in a wriggling way. [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI.]
1900: Mrs Ferguson had moved to Marshfield from Toll/Bridge House, according to the St Mary’s CofI, Leixlip, Sustentation Fund accounts book, from which address she contributed £1 -10s on 22/10/1900 and a Robert Laracy, from the Bridge House, contributed ten shillings on 20/10/1899.
1900: Queen Victoria visited Ireland for the fourth and last time, staying in the Phoenix Park at the vice-regal lodge.
c1900: Pim’s Department store on South Great George’s St was open about now. Pim of Danford Lodge?
1900: Goodbody’s (Quaker family) jute factory, of Clara, Co Offaly, employed 600 people. Men earned 10s to 11s for a 57 hour week; women, 8s to 9s; girls a ‘few shillings until trained’. [DB Quinn, ‘Clara: A midland industrial town 1900-1923’, in Nolan & O’Neill (eds), Offaly Heritage & Society, Dublin, 1996, p799-830.] This example is quite similar to the development of Wookey’s flock mills at Leixlip: immigrant specialist managers; the owner a JP; very long hours (six days a week).
c1900: A newspaper clipping [title, date n/a] headed Dublin Tramway: Kildare Co Council petitioned the Dublin United Tramways Company for an extension of the tramway and electric lighting service to Leixlip on Wednesday. Their memorial said that Leixlip’s population was c800, and the railway station was one mile distant, the tramway being more convenient. At present buses are used; the service is indifferent. Many travelled to work in Dublin and purchased their household commodities there. “The village had very many attractions from a scenic point of view, and if the tram service were extended so far, it was certain that in a short time it would be a populous residential suburb”. [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI.]
1900: Neil [sic] McGettigan, aged 70, a shoe maker and amarried man, of Meenacross, Dungloe No 1 district, Glenties, died of malignant disease of the liver on 2/9/1900; John McGettigan was the witness. This person is presumed to be father of Mary Anne McGettigan, teacher, of Leixlip; it is possible that the person filling in the marriage cert. reversed the occupations of the bride’s and groom’s fathers. [Ref. No: 1900/3 Glenties 2 60]. This would put Neal McGettigan at age 61 on Mary Anne’s marriage, which, if she was born when he was 30, would put her at 30 years etc. In fact, if she were more than 27 years at marriage, her birth cert. would be unobtainable from the Registrar General’s office (which proved to be the case).
1900: At this time nearly 25% of children born in Dublin city would not live to the age of one; tuberculosis (TB) was rife. [Diarmaid Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000, London, 2004, p30.]
1900: Edmund Leamy, Nationalist, and CJ Engledow, Independent Healyite supporting Nationalist, were elected to Parliament for North Kildare. [BM Walker, ed, Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922, Dublin, 1978.]
1901: A newspaper report [title n/a], dated 20/7/1901, entitled ‘the address to Fr Hanly’ [formerly of Leixlip], was prepared by Miss May Fitzpatrick. The article is accompanied by pictures of the Church of St Mary [sic], Leixlip. [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI.]
1901: “The north bank [of the Liffey, Lower Road, Strawberry Beds] rises abruptly from the roadside, in many places richly wooded and in others devoted to the culture of strawberries and cherries, which in season may be purchased here and eaten al fresco at places along the road” [not so the opposite side]. [Lucan and its neighbourhood, Weston St John Joyce, Dublin, 1901, p8.]
1901: “The view from Leixlip Bridge is highly picturesque, particularly up the river, where the venerable Castle of Leixlip stands in a commanding position on the high and wooded ground forming a fork between the Rye and the Liffey. It [Leixlip] is now in a decayed state, but was formerly a place of considerable importance, and in recent times, during the early period of Lucan’s popularity, a favourite resort for the Dublin citizens.” [Lucan and its neighbourhood, Weston St John Joyce, Dublin, 1901, p15.]
1901: Census, Leixlip Village: an Emily Williams was described as a widow aged 34, (formerly Cooke of Galway), with four children from infancy to five years, lived in Leixlip. The 1901 census gave the number 85 to her dwelling, which was made of stone or brick, slated and had four rooms, all of which she occupied. The next house on the list, no. 86, was a shop occupied by the Doran family. From the Rates books, the house is more clearly located, on the north side of the Main Street, just east of Ralph Square. Emily Susan Williams (nee Cook or Cooke), of Galway, and daughter of John Cook or Cooke, a sexton, married Elias Francis (‘Frank’) Williams, then purporting to be a Sergeant in the RIC, son of a farmer, Richard Williams, and from Cavan, on 3 August, 1894 in the parish of St Nicholas, Diocese of Tuam, Galway – most likely her home parish. They had four children in quick succession: Richard Henry, born 25/4/1895 in Kenmare, Co Kerry, where Sergeant Williams was stationed; Lilian Maude (‘Lily’), b.15/10/1896 at Ballynacelligott, a few miles east of Tralee (to where they had moved); George Francis, b. 18/3/1898 at Kenmare, and Florence Mabel, b.9/4/1901 in Leixlip. Sergt Williams had died three months earlier, on 30/1/1901 at Athy Hospital (Work House), aged 40 or 41 years, of acute Bright’s disease following bronchitis; he was then described as a retired constable, RIC. According to local lore, Emily first lived with her children in a small cabin on the Barnhall Road, Leixlip, on income provided by the local authority’s welfare services. This would correspond with the 1911 census data, where she is seen to be residing in Leixlip townland (exclusive of the village area) in house no. 27; that was a thatched house (or one with a wooden or perishable roof) with four windows to the front and she occupied 3 rooms. Her landlord was a Patrick Halligan and her house was one of two thatched houses in the townland. All the houses in the village were slated at this time. Dave Cormack and James O’Toole, two Leixlip natives, both remember a thatched house on the north side of Barnhall-Celbridge Road by Elton Court which is the likely location. She is buried in St Mary’s graveyard.
Of 130 separate households and non-household premises, 13 vacancies were noted; ten households, the two churches and one flour mill. About ten of the households which were occupied on census night, were flats or rooms within single dwelling houses.
William Mooney, solicitor, JP (76) and Roman Catholic, born Co Dublin, occupied Leixlip Castle in the townland of Leixlip Demesne.
1901: Census, Lucan DED, Backweston Park townland: Frederick Wookey lives in a 13 room house with 7 persons; CofI; (49) wool-flock manufacturer, b. England; family b. Leixlip. William Lawrence, a 50 year-old gardener, his wife Mary and four children, most of whom were born in Co Wicklow, also lived at Backweston Park.
Frederick Wookey, JP, of Weston Lodge, d. 16/7/1918, aged 68, and is buried in St Mary’s churchyard with his wife, Fanny, who drowned in the sinking of the RMS Leinster, October 10, 1918. Wookey had been predeceased by his son, John Levesey, who d. 3/3/1880 aged 31. His father, Francis, d. in Southport, England, 27/12/1889, aged 74; they too lived at Weston Lodge.
Edmund Exley, Congregationalist, (51), flock mill manager, b. England; also son, Henry (25), rag and flock merchant, b. England. The Exley’s are buried in St Mary’s, Leixlip: Edmund’s first wife, Sarah Ann Millett, d.3/11/1895; Edmund, himself, d. 21/7/1912; his second wife, Martha Jane, d. 10/1925; his son, George Wm. Millett, d. 6/10/1954 and his youngest daughter, Gertrude Mary R. Coombes, 2/4/1970.
At Ballydowd townland: Patrick Farrell, RC, (61), carpenter, lived with his wife, Bridget, RC, (62), both b. Co. Kildare. Also in same townland, Wm O’Rourke, RC, (44), m. farmer and publican, b. Co Meath. [Nat. Archives, ref: 16/5].
In the Cooldrinagh townland (Ref: 16/22) Terence Brooks, RC, (41), publican, born Co Meath and his family are listed as No 18; most likely the Salmon Leap Inn, of which he was proprietor. Also at No. 8, was Alexander Gray, Cof I, (43), Head District Inspector of the RIC, and b. Co Tyrone.
1901: Elizabeth Kingston, nee Courtney, sister of Henry, the Leixlip iron founder, who married Arthur Johnston Kingston in 1818, died in Jan.1901 and must therefore have been about 100 years old.
1901: FJC Howard Esq resided at Collinstown House; he was an officer of the select vestry.
1902: George Soden resided at Hillford House, [Old Hill/Station Road] Leixlip; he was an active member of the select vestry.
1902: David J. Barbour contributed £1 each year from 1902 ’til 1908 to Leixlip Sustentation Fund from a residence at Bridge House [=Toll House]; there are no sustentation records after 1913. He remained at the Toll House until 1915, if the valuation books can be relied upon. Nonetheless, there is no record of him or any of his family in the 1911 census of population in Leixlip. However, this may be because the family members were not there on census night.
Another person contributing the same year was an Ambrose McEnerny, who gave £5, and who may belong to the well-known builders of the same name.
Brenda Collins, of 20A Lr Ballinderry Rd., Lisburn BT28 2JB, in a paper to the 3rd Irish Genealogical Congress, on the Irish Linen Industry observed that Barber (=Barbour) is a famous name in linen all around the world: perhaps David J Barbour was working in that industry here? In the census of 1901, David J. Barbour is head of family at 27 Leinster Road West, Rathmines, a Presbyterian, aged 39 and a flour merchant by occupation; he is not married and was born in Co. Down. The house was shared with Frances J Barbour, his mother, aged 67 and widowed, from Co. Down; his unmarried sister, Lily, aged 27, governess, from Co. Antrim and his unmarried sister Anna M., aged 23, from Belfast, Co. Antrim, of no stated occupation. All declare same religion. [Ref. 63, file 60, form B, no. 16, National Archives, 1901 census, Rathmines, Dublin.] ‘Lily’, Mary Elizabeth Barbour was born 7/6/1873 at Wolfhill, Ligoniel, Belfast, to Samuel Barbour (teacher) and Fanny (=Frances) nee McCullough.
In the 1911 census living at the same address were John Whittle, CofI, aged 33, a ‘merchanthouse man in drapery’, born in Co Kildare, and married; his wife, (32), mother (60), son (5) and daughter (infant), together with a servant (RC) lived at this address. Mrs Whittle was born in Co. Down, their infant in Dublin, son in Belfast and Mrs Whittle senior was born in Co. Wicklow. No Barbour lived at this address in 1911. [National Archives ref: Dublin, 61/108].
1902: Captain E M Conolly’s Estate,Castletown. Rentals for Half year ending 29th September and 1st November, 1902. Accounts for half year ending 31st December 1902
Little change from subsequent years in relation to key tenancies, i.e. Island Farm, Bridge House,Leixlip Mill, Jacob’s Holding near Bridge House.No 58, Island Farm was now attributed to tenant, Rev. M.B. Saunders, instead of reps of Jas Glascock, who was dead. And No 93a was ‘Leixlip – ‘Black Castle’ – reps. John Jacob [£1 14s 0d as usual].
By the next set of accounts, to half year ending 30/6/1903, No. 58 has reverted to reps Jas. Glascock. Under Miscellaneous Expenses (in the half yearly accounts) are two relevant items: " January 3: Search docket for will of Isaac Jacob – 1s 0d; and: June 10 – .fee to advise on lease to Cromer – £2 2s 0d".
In 1903, Mrs Williams was listed as occupier of No 53 Main Street (almost opposite Ralph Square). In January of that year the Sustentation Fund accounts book lists her as residing at ‘Leixlip’ and contributing 2 shillings then. From the following year until 1913 she contributed 2/6d each year to the Fund, her contribution being made ‘per Rev RNS (Somerville)’ in most years, on the same day as Somerville and his wife or other family member contributed in most cases. It seems that Somerville paid Mrs Williams’ contribution. Perhaps she worked for him?
Next available accounts are to the half-year ending 30/6/1905. No change in No 58; No 68B now called "Mill & Mill House" – John Cromer – £16.10s 0d per half year; No.93 is "Saunders Rev. Rep" £6. 1. 0 per half-year. No 93a as before. Under Miscellaneous Expenses has "Jan 12, 1905 – stamp on agreement and duplicate with Ml. Brennan for Bridge House – £0. 3s 0d". [Note that several other agreements incurred much smaller stamp duty for the same purpose, e.g. 1/- on several; 6d on a house in Tea Lane (Celbridge) and on Jas. Goff’ as a weekly tenant of a house in Mill Lane (Leixlip), 1905.] As Michael Brennan was described as a Saddler in Porter’s Post Office Guide & Directory (1910) under the Celbridge Commercial List his Bridge House tenancy was not at Leixlip, but at a namesake premises in Celbridge.
No change in accounts to y/e 31/12/1905 in respect of key tenancies of interest. However, under Miscellaneous Receipts there is an entry: "Sept 30 (1905) Woodhams & Moore (per R White) on account of £17 for old machinery in Cromer’s Mill – £17. 0. 0". Under Miscellaneous Expenses is an entry: "Aug 10/1905 M. Brennan repairs to harness 1/2/05 to 5/7/05 Farm – £4 1s 6d". [Castletown Papers, Box 63, IAA.]
1903: King Edward VII visited Ireland for the first time, staying in the Phoenix Park at the vice-regal lodge. He is credited with a new Land Act to satisfy Irish demands. He drove from the vice-regal lodge to Maynooth College, where he was welcomed by young priests in front of a picture of his Derby winner, Persimmon. They had decorated the frame with ribbons in his racing colours, and ‘the blend of loyalty, sporting spirit and religion amused the king’. [Adrian MacLoughlin, Historic Dublin, 1979, p132] Edward kept a fleet of Daimlers and brought them across the sea to tour the West of Ireland this year. [Anne Haverty, Elegant Times, Dublin, 1995, p41]
1903: On 19/3/1903, William (Bill) Murphy, a Leixlip guide to the Salmon Leap, was found dead in his bed, according to a newspaper report (name not cited) in RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI. A Wm Murphy
is listed in the Cancellation Books at Lot 6, Mill Lane, that year.
1903: Newspaper, probably the Evening Telegraph (on pink paper), dated Saturday, 5/9/1903 has a piece on the church/parish of Aderrig. It states that on an old map of a survey made by Abraham Carter in May 1690, the name of this place appears as Anderrick, not improbably an English phonetic of An Dairigh, ie, the (place of) oaks. On the old map an area of 40 Irish acres near here is shown under timber and named The Great Wood. [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI.]
1903: Tea lane Cemetery, Celbridge headstone : “To commemorate Richard Scott Lamb, b. 20/1/1866, d 31/1/1903 at Allen’s Grove, [sic] Leixlip. Erected by Elenor, his wife. And his son David Robert Armston Lamb, b 12/4/1911, d 5/8/1911.” He is said by Leland Bardwell to be a jam factory owner.
1904: King Edward VII visited Ireland for the second time, staying in the Phoenix Park at the vice-regal lodge. He was accompanied by his queen, Alexandra and attended Punchestown races on Tuesday and Wednesday, 26 and 27 April. [Padraic O’Farrell, A History of County Kildare, Dublin, 2003, p98.]
1904: A newspaper [title n/a], dated 26/11/1904, reports of Leixlip Gaelic Leaguers honouring their comrade’s memory. The story related to a James McGovern, who lost his life last summer in an unsuccessful bid to save another young man, Matt Fitzsimons, who while washing sheep in the river Rye near Distillery Bridge, got beyond his depth in a hole. Mr McGovern tried to save him but both drowned as Fitzsimons clung on to McGovern’s waist. Fr Dooley CC acted as treasurer of a fund in which the public were invited to subscribe for a memorial. This has now been erected by Mr James [=Canary, of IV] Farrell, Leixlip. The inscription includes the sentence: “Bhádadh san abhainn Rige é…”. There are sketches of the memorial and the bridge. [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI.]
1905: Edward Michael Conolly sold his interest in the lands now in Folio 1885, Co Kildare to Terence Brooks, Salmon Leap Inn, farmer, on 25/4/1905. That folio included the small parcel of land north of the now imaginary line of the northern mill race within the Toll House garden.
1905: The Rev Somerville, rector of Leixlip, was living at the Glebe House, Pound Street, for some years now. Evidently, he didn’t like it; partly because he claimed it was dark inside and didn’t get sunshine into the bedrooms etc. By letter of 17/7/1905 he asked permission to sublet the rectory as it wasn’t agreeing with him and he wanted to take another house – "there is a prospect of my getting another house in the Parish". He had written that as his house was at the end of the Main Street, people could see everyone coming and going from carriages which stopped there – and they stopped and stared.
1905: John O’Connor (of Barnhall?), Nationalist, was elected to Parliament to replace Edmund Leamy, who died. O’Connor was re-elected in 1906 and in 1910 (twice). [BM Walker, ed, Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922, Dublin, 1978.]
1906: William Mooney resided at Leixlip Castle, and he was a member of the Co Kildare Archaeological Society.
1906: A sailor, John Chambers East, was charged before Mr Ronaldson at the Curragh Petty Sessions with desertion of the navy and joining the land forces. Ronaldson said: ‘It is rarely that young me get such an opportunity of getting tired of both services in such a short time, though there are many in either both tired and sick’. [Leinster Leader, 30/11/1907.] Ronaldson was probably he of Barn Hall, Leixlip.
1906: Anna Montgomery Barbour, now aged 28 years, sister of David J Barbour, now of the Bridge House, Leixlip, was married on 27/6/1906 to Dugald Blue, an insurance clerk, of Foxrock, Co Dublin, and with a father of identical name, an agent by rank or profession. Anna’s father is described as Samuel Barbour, a merchant (long dead). They were married in Lucan Presbyterian Church, by Wm A Hill and George McCaughey. Her address on her marriage cert. was simply ‘Leixlip’. The witnesses were Colin Blue and Edith Katherine Sheldon.
1906: The Return of RIC (Sergeants and Constables) reported that as at 31/12/1906, there were 27 stations in Co Kildare, a force of 142, including 9 vacancies. This would have included Leixlip station. Co Dublin was part of the RIC remit.
1906 & 7: Includes Rentals for the two calendar years, 1906 and 1907, and accounts for same in four volumes. There were no changes in the key tenancies, above. However, Isaac Jacob, who is named as a tenant for another property, No 98a, earned an observation on this for the y/e 30/12/1907: "Proceedings threatened against Isaac Jacob." [Castletown Papers, Box 64, IAA].
1907: King Edward VII visited Ireland for the third time, staying in the Phoenix Park at the vice-regal lodge. It seems he bought 12 Galway shawls in Galway on his motoring trip in this year. He also visited Maynooth College, where the College President, Dr Daniel Mannix, a nationalist, resented flying the union flag and instead raised the king’s racing colours, to the amusement of the king. [Padraic O’Farrell, A History of County Kildare, Dublin, 2003, p88.]
1907: William Danford, Secretary to the Select Vestry and residing at Newtown House, Leixlip, wrote to the Diocesan Council, who were then considering a proposal to sell Leixlip’s Glebe House as a prelude to the planned merger of Leixlip and Lucan parishes, in a letter dated 24/4/1907, that the Select Vestry had resolved "to inform the Diocesan Council that the Parochial hall stands on the same plot of ground as the Rectory, and is included in the same lease".
1908: Account books and rentals for the Castletown Estate for the first half of 1908 have the reps. of Saunders at the Toll/ Bridge House; Leixlip Mill is occupied by John Cromer and Isaac Jacob occupied, as tenant, the land adjoining the Toll House [Castletown Papers, Box 65, IAA].
1908: The Old Age Pensions Act, 1908, provided five shillings a week for old people.
1908: [Frank] Porter’s Guide to the Manufacturers & Shippers of Ireland, 1908 Belfast, 1908 observed in the Preface [p15]: “.. Small industries are springing up here and there all over the country.. the principal place [for these] must be ungrudgingly given to the Gaelic League.. .. to the convents, which provide employment for about 10,000 girls in the manufacture of lace,…”
1908: Estimated populations: Celbridge (915), Leixlip (650) and Maynooth (950). [Porter’s Guide to the Manufacturers & Shippers of Ireland,1908 Belfast, 1908.]
1909: Kathleen Smith, formerly of Newtown Hill, Leixlip [=’Abode’] was buried in Leixlip Churchyard on 22/3/1909 aged 34; she was then resident at 3 St James’ Terrace, Malahide.
1909: The Evening Telegraph of 24/7/1909 carried an article ‘In and Around Lucan’ by Charles J Davey, in which he says that Leixlip castle “was rebuilt by Adam de Hereford in the 12th century”. . [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI.]
1909: Fianna Eireann, the Sinn Fein-inspired scouting movement, was formed this year by Bulmer Hobson and Constance Markievicz. Markievicz took the idea of a Nationalist Boy Scout movement mainly from Baden Powell who had in the previous year, 1908, founded his Christian Scouting movement in England. Hobson, then of the IRB, encouraged her to emulate him, telling her of his attempt to set up such a movement in 1902 in Belfast. At her request and her expense he rented a hall in Lower Camden St., Dublin, and helped her call an inaugural meeting with Sir Roger Casement and others on the platform. From then on the IRB kept a fatherly eye on the scouts, or Fianna – after the legendry warriors of old – as the Fenians did, too. Casement sent them £10 for kilts for the boys. [Sean O’Faolain, Constance Markievicz, London, 1934 & 1987, p85-6].
Liam (‘William’) Mellowes, a native of Lancashire, was organiser of the Irish National Boy Scouts, which, according to its own official statement, was formed for training boys to work for the independence of Ireland and requiring its members to make a declaration never to join England’s armed forces. When the Irish Volunteers were formed in 1914 he acted as their organiser, particularly in Co Galway. [Unattributed note, ‘William Mellowes’, Dublin Castle Special Branch files, CO 904.]
1910: Porter’s Post Office Guide and Directory for Counties Carlow and Kildare 1910 lists Mrs. Bobbett, Cooldrinagh House, Leixlip, as a ‘Private Resident’. The Leixlip population was then stated to be 650, having been 1,692 in 1833. In contrast, Celbridge’s population was said to be about 850 in 1910. Terence Brooks, of the Salmon Leap Hotel, was described as a wine and spirit merchant. John Cromer occupied Leixlip Mills – a corn miller and saw mills. WA West, land commissioner, resided at Newtown House. Fred Wookey was a bedding manufacturer; Patrick O’Neill, a builder; Miss Mary Muldoon, Confectioner; Anastasia Prendergast, draper; John Byrne, H Dalton, E Maher, Patrick O’Neill and Mrs MB Wardell were grocers; EJ Doran and MB Wardell were hardware merchants; Edward Pyke, a painter & decorator; John Jacob a poultry dealer/farmer; E Maher a butcher; other publicans were Mrs Eliza Moore, Mrs MB Wardell and Thomas Wogan.
David J Barbour, occupier of the Bridge/Toll House from 1902 onwards, and a flour merchant, was not listed in this source.
The Directory listed NO auctioneers, banks, bakers, boot warehouse, bottlers, brewers, brick manufacturers, carpet manufacturers, chemists, coal merchants, coach builders, cycle agents, dentists, dining rooms, distillers, fish mongers, forage contractors, hotels, house agents, implement manufacturers, iron founders, maltsters, merchant tailors, mineral water manufacturers, monumental masons, motor engineers, music teachers, newspapers, outfitters & clothiers, pawn brokers, photography, plumbers, sack & bag binders, saddlers, slaters & plasterers, solicitors, stationers & newsagents, surgeons & physicians, tanners, timber merchants, undertakers, vet. surgeons, watch makers, wine & spirit merchants, woollen manufacturers – in Leixlip.
1910 to 30/6/12: Includes Rentals for the half years ending 31/12/1910 to 30/6/1912 and in between, together with accounts for these periods. There were no changes in the tenants’ details for the key tenancies over this period. It was noted that there were several (usually about 4) "Labourers’ Cottage – Leixlip" tenancies to the "Rural District Council" at Leixlip, one at Barnhall, and about 3 in Celbridge – over this period.
For the period to 31/12/1911, under Miscellaneous Expenses is listed: Nov. 16 – Stamp on weekly agreement of Teresa Courtney – 2s 0d.
1911: Census of Population for Lucan DED, Cooldrinagh townland in the parish of Aderrig, National Archives Refs: 19/5 and 19/22 has, inter alia:
Four persons in 9 rooms at the Salmon Leap pub, with Terence Brooks (aged 51) as head of household;
House (now ruin at south west corner of Leixlip Liffey bridge) in charge of Matthew Sherry, RC, (74) agricultural labourer, b. Co Kildare, single; Rose Smyth, RC, (40), niece, widow, b. Co. Kildare; Mary Smyth (11) and Annie Smyth (8), grandnieces, both born in Co Kildare;
No 23 (on list): Richard Bobbett, head, RC (63), cattle salesman, married, b. Co Meath; Mary (26), Ethel (24) and Louisa (20), all single, RC, daughters, b. in England. Also 3 servants. Note absence of Rebecca Louisa Bobbett, wife. House had 13 rooms and many out-offices; Cooldrinagh House. By1929, Mary had married Alfred Mockler, and resided at Castle Annagh, New Ross, Co Wexford. [Admons. of RL Bobbett’s estate].
No 9 (on list): Jas. McKilloss? CofI (39), wool and yarn agent, b. England.
No 30 (on list): Philip Murras Bass, Soc. of Friends, (31), and family; accountant in woollen trade; he and his wife born in England, 2 children born in Belfast city.
No.31 (on list): Samuel Smith RC (31) and family; professional golfer, b. Co Westmeath.
1911: The census for Rathangan had John Lane (Protestant) as the constable and enumerator; his wife or daughter was the school teacher. [Seamus Kelly, in A Ramble in Rathangan, Rathangan, 2005, p29]. Lane was later a Sergeant and lived in 12 [Lot 41 or 42] Main St, Leixlip, in the 1930s, and had a reputation for ‘fining’ everybody for the least issue, according to Owen Roe O’Neill, of Leixlip. His wife’s name was Bridget Lane.
1911: King George V visited Ireland for the first time, staying in the Phoenix Park at the vice-regal lodge. He was accompanied by Queen Mary, the Prince of Wales and Princess Mary came in the first week of July. They visited Maynooth. [The Irish Times, 4th & 10th July, 1911]. For the people of Kildare the reception by the hierarchy, led by Cardinal Logue, and other bishops, was most memorable. Special trains brought loyal subjects from Dublin and elsewhere and the town of Maynooth was extravagantly decorated for the great day. There was no military presence. [Con Costello, A Most Delightful Station.., Cork, 1999, p263.]
1911: By this time one third of all people born in Ireland were living elsewhere; one quarter of those between 45 and 54 years old had never been married. [Diarmaid Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000, London, 2004, p44.]
1912: A committee was established in Maynooth under the chairmanship of Canon Hunt, PP, to prepare a congratulatory – if somewhat fawning – address from the people to the Duke of Leinster on his coming of age. It was signed by a great many locals (men), including a few who wrote in Irish, and dated 24/8/1912. Among the signatories were Joseph and Pierce Colgan and Michael Sullivan. [Duke of Leinster’s press cuttings etc. PRONI, D/3078/6/1 MIC 541.]
1912: For the Conolly Leixlip accounts ending 30/6/1912 there are observations in respect of No 93 (reps. Saunders) as follows: "Proceedings will be taken against Mrs Bobbett unless paid in 10 days" followed by, in red ink: "(Paid since account closed)". These were arrears of one year’s rent of £12 2s 0d. Of this sum £6 1s 0d had arisen in the half year ending 1/11/1911. (Note this was near the time that Mrs Rebecca Bobbett sold the Bridge/Toll House to Thos. Edmund Hornby and Jas Jobling.) [Castletown Papers, Box 66, IAA].
1912: Captain/Colonel/Major EM Conolly’s Estate Rental books for the period March, 1912 until June, 1924, records the tenancy of the Leixlip Mill as being John Cromer; that of the Island Farm, the reps of James Glascock; the reps of Saunders paying annual rentals of £12 2s (the rent of the Toll House, so presumably they are the reps of the late Saunders’ couple), with the reps. of Jacob occupying an adjoining plot from March 1913 onwards [Castletown Papers, boxes 67 to 69, IAA].
1912: A weekly half-day off for workers (leaving them work five and a half days) was now the norm in Dublin. A Shops Bill was passed in 1910 limited working hours to 60 per week. [Anne Haverty, Elegant Times, Dublin, 1995, p48]
1912: Francis Howard of Collinstown House, and Wm Mooney, of The Castle, Leixlip, were listed as members of the Co Kildare Archaeological Society [JKAS, Vol VII, No 2, July, 1912 p61].
1913: A Leixlip fife and drum band existed around 1913, when they are known to have marched to Lucan under the command of James O’Neill of Leixlip; their instruments were taken from the hall at some stage by persons unknown, but possibly by O’Neill or at his behest for another band of the Citizen Army. A similar band in Naas was treated with suspicion by the authorities and refused permission to play; they were seen as disloyal by the security forces. [Leinster Leader, 11/11/1916.] [Con Costello, A Most Delightful Station.., Cork, 1999, p291.]
1913: In the Rentals Book, with accounts for the half-year ending 30/6/1913, there was no change in the details for the above three properties. Under the subtitle, Miscellaneous Payments is a note: "June 16 – witnesses’ expenses on ejectment proceedings against Teresa Courtney – £0 5s 0d". No person of that name was listed as a tenant in that Rentals book; perhaps she was an under-tenant or a weekly paying tenant? [Castletown Papers, Box 67, IAA.]
c1913: RD Walshe’s ‘Cuttings & Notes, Lucan & Leixlip 20th century’, MS11658, NLI, includes a piece, undated, but about this year of a visit by the Old Guard to Confey cemetery to commemorate Nicholas Dempsey, the yeoman who protected Lord Edward FitzGerald in 1798. It was accompanied by a sketch of an elderly, bearded, Michael Larkin, of Leixlip, whom we may presume attended. A Michael & Catherine Larkin were sponsors at a christening at St Mary’s RC Church, Leixlip, on 23/7/1848. Griffith’s Valuation, which began in 1850, records a Timothy Larkin as tenant of a 10 shilling house [Cancellation Books – Leixlip, Valuation Office, Lot No 12a, Leixlip townland (excluding the Main St and environs) near Ryevale House from 1855-61, and later from 1882-5 in the same property. A Michael Larkin first appears as a property owner in another 10s house, at Leixlip townland where he was tenant from 1866 to 1885 [Lot, No 24f, opus cit]. He then moved to Rye Cottage, Main St, (the east side, now Mrs Farrelly’s residence) where he lived from 1886 to 1911. This property was improved and had a new roof put on in 1890; it was valued at £4 pa. Michael Larkin continued to reside on the Main St, next, from 1913-28 in a £2 house rented him by publican, Thomas Wogan, near the current Credit Union building [Lot No 74(a)]. Meanwhile, a new and younger Timothy Larkin took possession of a new cottage, built by the Celbridge RDC, facing Rye Cottage, Main St. That property remained in the possession of the Larkin family until c2001. That the first mentioned Michael Larkin attended a 1798 commemoration, suggests that he may be a close relation of his namesake, a journeyman tailor and Fenian from Lusmagh, south-west co Offaly, one of the three Manchester Martyrs executed in 1867. This Michael Larkin’s grandfather was publicly flogged in 1798 and transported for his part in the rebellion. [Brian S Murphy, ‘The land for the people, the road for the bullock: Lia Fáil, the smallholders’ crisis and public policy in Ireland, 1957-60’, in Nolan & O’Neill (eds), Offaly History & Society, Dublin, 1996, p 858-60 and footnote 27, p880.]
1913: At a meeting of the Civic League in November 1913 the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) was born, as a result of official force against strikers in Belfast, where James Connolly was organising the ITGWU. [Tim Pat Coogan & George Morrison, The Irish Civil War, London, 1999, p78.]
1913: The inaugural meeting of the Irish Volunteers was held in the Rotunda, Parnell Square, Dublin, on 25/11/1913. [Tim Pat Coogan & George Morrison, The Irish Civil War, London, 1999, p81.] During the early months of 1914 units were organized in nearly every parish in county Kildare. [Senator Michael Smith, Irish Volunteers, 1914-1916, MS Military Archives, Dublin, p1.] Among them was the editor of the Leinster Leader, Michael O’Kelly, 1912.
1914: By July 1914 a unit of the Volunteers had been established in Carbury and a section of Cumann na mBan in Athy. A county committee for the Volunteers was founded in August and the effective strength in the county was given as 6,000. [Buro Staire Mileata: 1913-1921, Chronology, Part 1.] Check source for Leixlip area. They were given permission to drill on the barrack square in Naas. After royal assent had been given to the Home Rule Bill in September, 1914, and John Redmond MP, speaking in Wicklow called on them to support the British army, the movement split, the majority going with Redmond as the National Volunteers, and the residue, kept their old title and were dominated by the IRB.
1914: A Maria Courteney, from 7 Upper Mount Pleasant Avenue, died, aged 75, on 7/2/1914 in the Workhouse, South Dublin Union. She was described as a widow [Registrar General’s ref No Vol 2, page 542, 1st Quarter]. The census of 1911 shows 7 Upper Mt. Pleasant Ave to be in four separate units. These were occupied by Mary Gartland, RC, (50), single, b. Co Meath, the landlady, or lodging house keeper as suggested by the head of another of the units; Barbara McBaine, Presbyterian, (80), widowed, b. Co Louth, and living on an allowance from son; Anna Bilson Kane, CofI, (36), single, b. England, living on interest of money; and in no. 7a: Mary A. Gillespie, CofI (25), single, no occupation, b. Co. Dublin, plus Chas Wm Ganly, CofI clergyman (58), married, boarder, b. Co Clare; Mary Anne Ganly, CofI (61), b Co Cork, boarder; and Charlotte Walker, CofI, (62), living on interest of money; b. Dublin city, boarder. In summary, this house was clearly a boarding house, with no Courtney there in 1911; perhaps she was hospitalised for some years before her death, either for health or poverty reasons?
See entry for 1892, where a Maria Courtney died aged 68 years. Perhaps she’s the one?
1914: "Whereas by Deed of Conveyance … of 18/7/1910.. between Richard Arthur Hartley of Beech Park, Clonsilla.. Lieutenant Colonel in His Majesty’s Army .of the first part… and the Rural District Council of Celbridge No.1 Rural District of the third part.. the said RA Hartley granted and conveyed to the Celbridge RDC .. about 2 roods for the purposes of forming an addition to the said burial ground (at Confey), the said Council has allocated a portion of .. five perches .. as a burial plot for Protestants and have requested us to separate the same from all common and profane uses .. and to consecrate it .. and we Joseph Ferguson DD, Archbishop of Dublin… dedicate, appropriate and consecrate it forever as a place of burial for Protestants alone, etc.. dated 10/11/1914. In a separate PETITION from Celbridge RDC dated 6/11/1914, signed by Jno Field, Chairman, Wm T Kirkpatrick, WG Dease (members) and Francis Shortt, clerk of the Council, the Council petitioned the Church to do the foregoing!
1914: Lord Decies purchased Leixlip Castle from the Conolly family. [Desmond Guinness leaflet on Leixlip Castle]. However, it seems the Lord may have been in possession then as the Conolly Rental records ‘miscellaneous expenses of 5s 0d incurred on July 10, 1914 on a Map for Lord Decies (Leixlip Castle)’. The 5th Baron Decies is aka John Graham Hope Beresford. In a later Rentals Book is recorded the date of the sale: 15/1/1917. [Castletown Papers, Boxes 68 & 69, IAA].
1914: After WWI had begun, an armed contingent of the Irish Citizen Army paraded outside Liberty Hall, HQ of the ITGWU in September, 1914. A large photograph of same in Tim Pat Coogan & George Morrison, The Irish Civil War, London, 1999, p88. The identity of those leading it are not readily discernable. Another photo is shown on page 91, same source.
1914: In May 1914, groups began drilling in Co Kildare and membership of the Volunteers rose to 3,000. By September, 1914 the county had 32 branches and 4,402 members, only 162 of them armed. RC clergy opposed the Irish Volunteer movement and interest in it waned; by the end of 1914 it had only 344 members in Co Kildare, with 24 weapons. [Padraic O’Farrell, A History of County Kildare, Dublin, 2003, p102.]
1915: In a report of commissioners appointed by the Church of Ireland to inspect Leixlip Glebe house (and likewise for all others), dated 17/9/1915, is noted that under the heading water supply "well and force pump and rain water storage" and under sanitary arrangements "pipe drainage to cesspool in yard with overflow eventually to river"; under hot water installation "yes, good condition".
1915: A discovery was made of tins of gunpowder, detonators, safety fuse, cartridges, milk cans and scrap iron, some of which was made into bombs, at St Catherine’s, Leixlip, early in February 1915. The discovery gave cause for concern and the inspecting officers believed the bombs were ‘undoubtedly intended for the destruction of human life.’ [BM MacGiolla Choille, (ed), C.S.O. Judicial Division – Intelligence Notes – 1913-16, Dublin, 1966, p160.] The maker of the bombs was James O’Neill, of Leixlip, Commandant of the Irish Citizen Army, 1917-23.
1915: An Isaac Skerritt lived at the Toll House until c1917, according to the Valuation Books. A Skerrett family lived at Athgoe Castle.
1916: In January, Baroness de Robeck sought funds to send hot water bottles and cigarettes to wounded soldiers in France. She and her husband lived at Leixlip Castle for a while, while their house was being renovated. He was then a rear-admiral and Admiral of Patrols in the Royal Navy. He later drowned in the Liffey at Leixlip when it was in flood. [Leinster Leader, 12/1/1916.]
1916: Freeman’s Journal newspaper of 9/6/1916 has piece on the Rising in Leixlip and Lucan.
1916: An official summary of the result of the rebellion in county Kildare found that it had inhibited recruiting to the army, and created support for the rebels from persons hitherto condemnatory. The RC clergy were not sympathetic and thought it politically stupid. In some cases they openly condemned it. Fr O’Brien, CC, at Kill was the exception; he went as far as he could in its favour. The clerical staff at Maynooth college were hostile, but many of the students were not. The only physical evidence of the rebellion in the county had been the holding up of a police patrol at Maynooth and the cutting of a telegraph pole on the railway line between Kildare and Athy. [Con Costello, citing BM MacGiolla Choille, (ed), C.S.O. Judicial Division – Intelligence Notes – 1913-16, Dublin, 1966, p204.] This is an understatement, as James O’Neill of Leixlip was quite busy with his bomb making.
1916: Twenty Kildare members of the Irish Volunteers, including Michael Smyth, were taken to Richmond barracks in Dublin, tried and sent to Wandsworth jail, London, and afterwards to Frongoch Internment Camp, Wales. [Michael Smyth, MS, Irish Volunteers, 1914-16, p8, Military Archives.] [See Kildare Observer and Leinster Leader of the day.]
1916/17: Mary MacSwiney Brugha, daughter in law of Cathal Brugha, writes that “After recovering from his injuries [suffered in the 1916 Rising] he [Brugha] organised the amalgamation of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army into one: the Irish Republican Army (IRA).” [Mary MacSwiney Brugha, History’s Daughter, Dublin 2005.]
1917: By letter dated 8th March, 1917, the War Office, London, wrote to the Command HQ, British Forces, Parkgate, Dublin, about Edward Daniel McGettigan, then staying with his aunt, Bridget McGettigan, Dromard, Milford, Co Donegal. He and his sister, Mrs Mallon, are Sinn Feiners, while he boasts that he is a revolutionary socialist, according to the letter. [Dublin Castle Special Branch Files, CO 904, 209]. McGettigan may be related to those of Leixlip.
1917: At this time – June, 1917 to July 1918 – and probably beyond on each side, Lord Decies was Press Censor with offices at 85 Grafton Street, Dublin. His office had links with the RIC, Army Command in Ireland and Chief government Secretary’s Office; there are examples of correspondence in the Dublin Castle Special Branch files, CO 904, 19, to hand.
1917: Mrs R L Bobbett, as beneficial owner, demised unto James Augustus Jobling and Thomas Edmund Hornby, a great parcel of land including Cooldrinagh House and lands, (33 acres+ “lately enclosed by Thomas Croker by walls of lime and stone.” A Lewis Hallion appeared to have the holding now occupied by the ESB south of the Liffey.) the Long House, Salmon Leap Inn, Bridge House, Black Castle and contiguous lands for the sum of £5,000. The memorial describes, in the Schedule attached "all that and those the house on the bridge of Leixlip known as the Bridge House with the land appurtenant thereto held under the Fee Farm Grant dated 16th day of February 1854 from Thomas Connolly [sic] to the Rev James Thomas Connolly [sic] Saunders and Augusta Sophia Saunders.. which said premises are edged yellow on the map enclosed on said premises." This map, which the writer has seen, showed the boundary of the site as the centre line of the river Liffey. [Registry of Deeds Memo No: 1917-46-123.]
James (Jimmy) Jobling, according to a family connection, owned a glass works (Pyrex) in Newcastle and is said to have sold it sometime before this transaction. Hornby, in a deed of sale of Leixlip Castle, [Registry of Deeds Memo No: 1917-10-172] is given an address at Blossom Street, York city, England, and is described as a surgeon (Member of the Royal College of Surgeons). A search of directories showed no person with such occupation.
Kelly’s Directory of Northumberland, 1910, had James Augustus Jobling residing at 27 Leazes Terrace, Newcastle on Tyne.The same directory’s trades’ section describes Jobling as "oil merchant and manganese mine owner", with an address at St. Nicholas Chambers, Amen Corner, Newcastle on Tyne.In the Directory for the British Glass Industry,1928, published by the Society of Glass Technology, Sheffield, are listed two companies in which Jobling had an interest:
Jobling, (James A) & Co., Ltd. Works: Wear Flint Glass Works, Sunderland. Offices: ditto. London Showroom, Pyrex House, 7 Charterhouse Street, E.C.1. Manufacturers of pressed table glassware of all description. Lenses for railway and torch lamps. Advertising specialities, etc. Pyrex transparent ovenware; Pyrex laboratory glass ware etc. Directors: James A. Jobling; Ernest J. Purser.
..And: Jobling (James A) & Co., Ltd., 72 Grey Street, Newcastle on Tyne. Manganese dioxide; feldspar; limespar, (i.e. the ingredients for temperature stableglassware).
A Charlotte Jobling, widow of the late Edward W Jobling, Belmont House, Portswood, Southampton, d. 28/10/1902, aged 78, and is buried in Mt Jerome Cemetry, Dublin Sth., also her dau., Geraldine Maud Jobling, d. 21/8/1924, aged 65.
Mr Thomas Edmund Hornby: There is no person of that name listed as a medical practitioner, as suggested by the Leixlip Castle deed of 1917, in either the Medical Directory, 1917 or 1923 editions, or the Medical Register, 1917 or 1921 editions. Neither is he listed under Medical in Kelly’s Directory of North & East Riding, Yorkshire, 1913in the City of York, nor is there conclusive evidence of his residence in the city over this periodfrom the street directories from 1913 to 1974. However, the calendar of wills [Microfiche, Guildhall Library, London] records one "Thomasine Hornby of West Ayton, Yorkshire, widow, died on 26/12/1911. Probate, London, 28/2/1912 to Thomas Edmund Hornby, brewery director and William Herbert Jackson, solicitor. Effects, £538 -1s-8d gross, net, £461 5s 4d.
A copy of the will (made 25/11/1907) makes clear that Thomasine is Thos Edmund’s widowed mother and Jackson is her son in law and she left all her property in equal measures to this pair in trust for her two daughters, Florence & Hilda. Probate was granted on 28/2/1912, after Thomasine’s death on 26/12/1911. Thos. Edmund Hornby had an address at time of probate at 5 The Crescent, City of York, brewery director.
It is speculated that Jobling & Hornby bought this parcel of land mainly for the breeding of horses for the British Army, but backed out after the troubles in 1922. Actually, the British War Office had established an office at the Curragh camp to acquire horses (‘remounts’) within 25 miles of the place on fixed days. The Co Kildare Agricultural Society was then considering new schemes to encourage the breeding of horses for the army. Mr E Kennedy of Straffan Station Study (related to Darby Kennedy of Weston Aerodrome?) was selling horses at Newmarket, England, and while the French army wanted to purchase Irish chargers and were offering more than the War Office, the breeders were not allowed to sell to the French as all horses were required for the British Army. [Costello, opus cit, citing Leinster Leader, 5/8/1916 & 16/9/1916.] In September 1918, when the imminent collapse of the German front was expected, the sale of troop horses commenced under RJ Goff of Newbridge. [Leinster Leader, September – December, 1918.] The price of horses collapsed early in 1919 after the onset of considerable unemployment and the departure of many troops for England from Kildare.
1918: Armistice Day, 11/11/1918, was a day of celebration. The Leinster Leader [16/11/1918] noted that Celbridge had been brilliantly illuminated on Monday night, and there was dancing in the street into the small hours.
1918 – 1920: Members of the KAS in these years included Wm Bobbett, Hansfield, Clonsilla (1920 only), Capt. R Colthurst, Lucan House; Lord Decies, The Castle, Leixlip; Duke of Leinster, Carton; Earl of Mayo, KP, PC. Palmerstown, Straffan [Thos. U Sadleir, Office of Arms, Dublin Castle. JKAS, Vol IX].
1918: Rev David Holmes Gillman MA made his declaration as incumbent in Leixlip on Sunday, 22/9/1918. His declaration was witnessed by A W West, F Bedford and J Wellesley Browne.
1918: A letter dated 20/6/1918 from A.J Dalgety, treasurer to the select vestry, declares that the "select vestry unanimously agreed to the necessity of the amalgamation" of Lucan and Leixlip parishes. In the amalgamation it was envisaged that the Lucan Glebe would serve both parishes and assurances were sought from the central powers that if the occasion arose again of a divide, Leixlip could acquire its own Glebe house out of the proceeds of the sale of the old one etc.
c1918: About this time the house at the west corner of Captain’s Hill and Main St was described in the Valuation Cancellation books as “The Soldiers’ Club”. Later the same place was described as a shebeen, which may have been a reference to the club use. If we can rely on the analogous situation at Clara, co Offaly, [DB Quinn, ‘Clara: A midland industrial town 1900-1923’, in Nolan & O’Neill (eds), Offaly Heritage & Society, Dublin, 1996, p818-9.], that World War I and the service in it of men from both (religious) communities brought some families on each side closer together. The return of the men of both denominations gave sections of the community a common background: many RCs had remained patriotic supporters of the war against Germany throughout the war period. The erection of a British Legion clubhouse at the foot of Bridge St (Clara) became the first interdenominational centre, where Protestant and Catholic men could meet together, and where their wives might join them for whist drives and concerts on occasion. Around the same time the Gaelic League ran classes in Irish and from them the IRA was to be partly recruited. (In Leixlip the Gaelic League is said to have run classes in Irish language, dancing and music, in No 1 Dublin Rd St, opposite the Toll House.)
1918: Domhnal Ó Buachalla, of Maynooth, a Sinn Féin candidate to the Westminster elections for Kildare North constituency, was elected, beating John O’Connor (Nationalist Party), with 68% of the vote in the single seat constituency. He and other Sinn Féin victors entered the first Dáil Éireann assembly in the Mansion House, Dublin, on 21/1/1919. [Padraic O’Farrell, A History of County Kildare, Dublin, 2003, p109.]
1918: Darrel Figgis (who may be related to the Figgis/Goodshaw family of Leixlip – see 1927), was a son of E J Figgis, Glen-na-Smol, Upper Rathmines, Co Dublin, and the Commercial Buildings, Dublin. He was born in Calcutta where his father was in business, and educated there and in England. He came to Dublin to his uncle’s home, Park Avenue, Sydney Parade and also at 10 Fownes St, when he was them married to Millie —. He became a member of the Young Ireland Branch of the United Irish league, was a journalist and produced dramas at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, with WB Yeates. On 26/7/1914, he was in command of a section of Volunteers who conveyed guns from Howth into Dublin. After the rising he was arrested and deported. On 22/2/1917 he was arrested in Dublin and deported to Oxford. Later he was elected an Hon. Secretary of Sinn Fein and on 17/5/1918 he was arrested and deported to England. [Dublin Castle Special Branch files CO904, 201.] His wife, Millie, was alone on 31/10/1918.
1919: The Gallivan family left Derry city this year and settled in Leixlip in Hillford House, at the junction of Old Hill and Station road. They gave their name to this junction. Mr Jeremiah Murray, from Donegal, married Miss Jenny Gallivan and purchased the Castletown Inn public house and land, Celbridge, in 1927. [Lena Boylan, Celbridge Charter, No.75, July 1979.]One of the Gallivans was a leading member of the IRA, operating in Co Meath. See notes of conversation with Mrs Camilla McAleese, daughter of Gallivan, who is deputy treasurer, Kings Inns, Dublin.
1919: A decision was taken by the select vestry to auction the Glebe at Pound Street, Leixlip, on or about 14/1/1919, by auctioneers James North. The house, complete with the parish hall, was purchased by Lord Decies for £700. The Representative Church Body held the Leixlip Glebe by deed of 13/5/1881, Samuel R Roe and others granted the house to the Church at a yearly rent of £3 3s 0d in present currency plus 12d in the pound fees, renewable forever after lives. The Glebe house was originally held by Sir Richard Steele, Bart., in a lease dated 18/7/1752. [Contents of a letter dated 29/11/1906] Richard Steele was a Dubliner and founder [?] of The Tatler. He was a friend and collaborator of the essayist, Joseph Addison; for both the national botanic gardens were a favourite haunt, a tree lined walk being called after Addison. [Adrian MacLoughlin, Historic Dublin, 1979, p206]
1919: A campaign of strike action began in Celbridge with 60 labourers, all members of the Co Kildare Farmers’ Association. Their employers threatened a general lockout if work did not resume immediately. In the face of this threat the ITGWU coordinated a strike throughout the county that soon spread to Co Meath. [See Rebel Worker, 1/6/1998.] Offending farms were blockaded and strikers wielding clubs prevented the movement of goods, boycotted urban suppliers of farm owners, disrupted fairs and auctions, engaged in cattle drives and damaged crops. A settlement was agreed on 23 August, 1919. [Padraic O’Farrell, A History of County Kildare, Dublin, 2003, p98-9.]
1919: The RC bishops assembled at Maynooth on 24/6/1919 condemned the British rule in Ireland. [Buro Staire Mileata: 1913-1921, Part 3, p82.]
1919: Following the establishment of Dail Eireann in January 1919, during the British occupation, the Irish Volunteers were recognised by the Dail as the army of that Dail and fought as such in the Anglo-Irish war [War of Independence]. After the release of men interned in Frongoch a North Kildare battalion was formed and early in 1920 the IRA, as they were then called, formed two battalions. Several RIC barracks in the county were fortified and during the War the RIC became the main targets of the IRA. (The Leixlip barrack, at Mill House, corner of Buckley’s Lane and Main St, was probably burnt; reports may yet confirm this.)
c1920: The former priest’s house, and afterwards an infants school, which was within the RC Parish Church of Leixlip, in a partitioned off space behind the altar wall, was removed and the church effectively lengthened as a result. [John Swan, in conversation with John Colgan, 11/8/2003.]
c1920s: A photograph taken looking north eastwards towards Leixlip’s Liffey bridge from the south bank of the river shows No 1 Dublin Rd St [=the former band practice hall] as a residence apparently in good condition, with slated roof with one chimney at gable to bridge and three bays wide white plastered front towards the river, two-storey, door centre ground floor. The porch and roof of Toll House can be seen, with roof apex tiles recently cemented. A timber fence existed immediately in front of the band hall residence, ie, over that stretch not over the river area, part of which was in poor condition. Of interest is the wall north of and in front of the Toll House. A timber door, conventional size, with a masonry lintel over, existed in the opening just south of the mill-race tunnel nearest the house. The high section of wall, which exists today, was there then, with a flat, horizontal top to it and raking down to the semi-circular coping on the wall to the porch. However, the brick pillar north of the aforementioned doorway rose up a foot or more above the high horizontal wall and was capped in a heavily sloped pillar capping [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI; photograph undated, first page].
c1920s: RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI, includes a review of Miss ML O’Byrne’s book, Leixlip Castle, MH Gill & Son, Dublin [undated], c650 pages – an historical romance of the penal days of 1690. Press comments by The Tablet, Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Limerick Reporter, Cork Examiner, The Nation, Freeman’s Journal and Weekly Register.
1921: 7 September 1921 – The Legion of Mary founded at 100 Francis Street, Dublin, by Frank Duff, Fr. Michael Toher [Leixlip curate] and Mrs. Elizabeth Kirwan (see also 7 November 1980). In 1928 the Legion of Mary opened a hostel for destitute men in Brunswick Street, named the Morning Star.
1921: November 11th 1921, Armistice Day, was celebrated in ‘ascendancy locations’.
1922: Richard Bobbett, the Gresham Hotel, Dublin and Cooldrinagh, Leixlip, Co Kildare. [P.R. Will, June 7, 1922.]
1922: Evening Telegraph of Saturday, 18/6/1922 carries a picture of St Catherine’s Wells, Leixlip, as part of an article. It shows a door and arch over to the lhs of the wells. [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI.]
In 1922, James Augustus Jobling, of 27 Leazes Tce., Newcastle on Tyne, and Thos Edmund Hornby, city of York, disposed of the Bridge House aka Toll House and garden to Emily Williams, Leixlip, widow, for the sum of £60 [Registry of Deeds Memo No: 1922-56-187]. She lived there until her death on 7/12/1947, at the Bridge House, (sic) Leixlip, of atherosclerosis, interstitial nephritis and uraemia. She was cared for by her youngest and unmarried daughter, Florrence (Florrie). During that time, particularly during the construction of the ESB hydro station, she took in lodgers. Florrie inherited her mother’s property and remained there until 1973, whereupon she sold it to speculative purchasers, Patrick Oman and Denis Drumm, who immediately transferred it to Michael Ramsden, then owner of the Black Castle. Ramsden had plans for a hotel and restaurant development on the site, but these came to naught. However, he secured planning permission for a small residential development on the contiguous lands, which were built in the 1980s. During the 1960s the Mill races which created an island on which the Bridge/Toll House stood, were filled in with rubble and prior to the construction of the small housing scheme, the lands adjoining were partitioned to create an approximately rectangular site for the Toll House, which ceded part of its easterly tail, south of the mill race to the sluice gates into the river Liffey. This is now public open space at the rear of Castle Park.
1922: Newspaper, possibly Irish Times, of 2/12/1922 carries extensive report of the battle near Collinstown and Pike’s bridge, in which 22 irregulars were captured, one – a Mr Kealy – killed, and 2 or 3 wounded. Private Joseph Moran was also killed, having been shot through the head. Mr Mullaney, an ex-member of the Dáil, led the attacking party. The prisoners were taken to Grangewilliam House, the residence of Mr Kiely. [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI.]
1922: Just before Christmas, 1922, seven men were executed (arising from the Civil War) [Kildare Observer, 13/1/1923].
1923: Mr Byrne of Leixlip claimed compensation for the death of her horse by an army lorry, 27-30/11/1923. [Cabinet file, FIN 1/2254, original no. 650/61, NAI.]
c1923: Sometime around the early 1920s an order of French monks lived at Ryebrook [aka Music Hall] and a Dr Skipper lived at Blakestown House, where Dennis Foley later lived. [John Swan, in conversation with John Colgan, 11/8/2003]. (Conor O’Brien adds: it was not unusual for a religious order to rent a house for their use for the Summer).
1924: The land in Folio 1885, Co Kildare, transferred to John & Owen Brooks, farmers, Leixlip, on 12/2/1924.
1924: Letter from R Claude Cane, dated 7/3/1924, to the editor of the Irish Times, published later, protesting at the proposed electricity dam etc. and its effect on the Salmon Leap etc [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI].
1924: Newspaper, possibly Evening Telegraph, dated 18/3/1924, has a piece entitled ‘Liffey at Leixlip’ in which the writer refers to Col Claude Cane’s timely reminder in the Freeman the other day of the danger of the Liffey being electrified beyond recognition and cites three projects, one of which includes the total submersion of the celebrate Salmon Leap [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI].
1924: A newspaper article entitled ‘Liffey Projects’, probably in the Irish Times and dated 19/12/1924, provides extracts of a report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee of Private Bills. Col [Claude] Cane told the Committee that he owned land on the banks of the Liffey, the mansion at St Wolstan’s, a house, gardens and out offices at Alensgrove and Newbridge lodge. He stated that the proposals, taken in conjunction with the Dublin Electricity Supply Bill, would have disastrous effects on fishery rights. Major Edward Conolly said he believed that it was in Leixlip Castle that King John [sic] gave the Charter to Dublin City. [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI.]
c1924: Weekly Freeman [date n/a] has a large picture of Wookey’s mill and Salmon Leap falls with note under that representatives of the Provisional Government and Dublin Corporation inspected the entire area. A second picture [source n/a] refers to the Liffey Syndicate Ltd and Anna Liffey Power Development Co., Ltd. [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI.]
1924: A map, [Ref No OS111 No. 29, NQ] entitled – Dublin & District Electricity Supply – General Plan of proposed Liffey Water Power Development, 1 inch to the mile, late 1924. Includes details of Leixlip development shown in colour.
1925: Rural District Councils (RDCs) maintained roads, water supplies, sanitation and housing up to this time; these functions were taken over by KCC.
1925: Two newspaper photographs [paper n/a], with a date 24/2/1925 appended, show what is called Lucan Castle, but is actually Leixlip Castle; the second shows a picture of Mr A Dalgity [an error, actually Dalgetty, or Dalgety] making a fishing cast on the Liffey bank at the rear of Shingled House, Main St. [RD Walshe, Cuttings and Notes, Lucan and Leixlip, 20th c, MS 11658 NLI.]
1927: The Dublin United Tramways (Lucan Electric Railways) Act, 1927, provides a list of shareholders in the Lucan and Leixlip Railway Company. [Cabinet file, s5442, NAI.]
1927: The Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI) association was founded this year by Fr Ernest Farrell.
1927: Mr Gillman is rector of St Mary’s CofI, Leixlip and Admiral Johnson resides at Leixlip Castle; both are members of Co. Kildare Archaeological Society.
1927: Johnsons’ Diamond Merchants of 94 Grafton St bought out by Switzers; stock included. Were they the Johnson family of Cooldrinagh? [Anne Haverty, ibid, p73]
1927: An indenture dated 8/9/1927 was made between Mary Elizabeth Fisher and her two spinster sisters and Glascott Symes of 2 Cooldrina Tce, Leixlip, Co Dublin. The premises mentioned in a deed of 17/9/1792 [which see] were sublet on 28/11/1854 by John Figgis to Thomas Johnston for a term of 100 years from 1/11/1854 at an annual rent of £20, and whereas Ellen Johnson[sic] Fisher by her will dated 25/11/1912 and following her death at 17/12/1925, part formerly in the Barony of Newcastle, Co Dublin, and now in the Barony of Salt North, Co Kildare) was sold as No 1 to Costello, and the other part, as No 2, sold to Glascott Symes. Mrs Ellen Johnson Fisher had purchased No 2 Cooldrina Tce from Wm Goodshaw Richardson in 1907.
1928: Rebecca Louisa Bobbett [480] died 12/11/1928, late of Hotel Palais D’Orsay, Quai D’Orsay, Paris, France. Administration of her estate was granted at Dublin to Mary Mockler, (her married daughter), on 13/8/1929. Effects, £6511 18s 9d. [Wills Books, NA, and administrations’ papers.] Her death notice in the Irish Times of 15/11/1928 stated that she was the widow of the late Richard Bobbett, of Cooldrinagh, Leixlip, Co Kildare and that her funeral was to Glasnevin Cemetery following Mass at Westland Row on 16/11/1928.
1928: Joan Hanmer West of Leixlip, daughter of A Wills West and Maida West (nee Hanmer) of Newtown, Leixlip, was married to John Charles Henry, descendant of Hugh Henry (d1743), a merchant banker, of Henry Street, Dublin, who purchased Straffan House and Lodge Park, Straffan, about 1710; Joan gave birth to a son, Michael Charles Henry, this year. The family lived in Lodge Park, which they sold in 1937. Hugh Henry was a trustee of the Dublin to Mullingar Turnpike and, with another, won the contract for the collection of the tolls when the turnpike first opened. [Bunbury & Kavanagh, The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of County Kildare, Dublin, 2003, p115-125.] Maida West is buried in St Mary’s graveyard, Leixlip and Joan’s sister is buried in Confey cemetery.
1929: Mary (Polly) Bobbett, d14/7/1929; of Hillsborough, Lucan. Administration granted to Eliz. F Bobbett, spinster. Effects, £1943 8s 0d. The Irish Times death notice of 15/7/1929 states that she was the daughter of the late Patrick Bobbett, Hansfield, Clonsilla.
1930: In a lease dated 14/4/1930, the French legation was established in Leixlip Castle for one year, while their permanent premises at 53 Ailesbury Rd, Dublin, were being refurbished. The chancellery and consulate services were located at 32 St Stephen’s Green during this period. The ‘extraordinary envoy and plenipotentiary minister’ was Mr Charles Alphand.
1934: The Army Comrades Association supported by large farm owners in Co Kildare who were prominent in anti-rates campaigning gave rise to the new name, National Guard. A Fine Gael [?] Deputy, Sidney Minch, of Co Kildare, wore a blue shirt to Dail Eireann on 17/9/1934 and the following day several of his colleagues followed suit, giving the name ‘Blueshirts’ to the movement. [Padraic O’Farrell, A History of County Kildare, Dublin, 2003, p109.]
c1939: An OS map of 1939 shows Leixlip Saw Mills on the site of the former iron mills and flour mills at the eastern end of the site. The remains of the mill-pond and sluice to river can be seen. Also shown was a line of mill workers’ cottages east of Black Castle.
1944: The land in Folio 1885, Co Kildare, transferred to Owen Brooks, farmer, Leixlip, on 16/5/1944.
1946-49: Leixlip’s hydroelectric power station and dam on the Liffey were built by the ESB.
c1946: Mrs Maire (spouse Peter) Cullen, Laraghbryan and formerly of Main St Leixlip and Music Hall, says that a Ms Mooney, formerly of Leixlip Castle, lived, when elderly, in Ivy House. When there she kept it in good condition.
1947: 7/12/1947, Emily Susan Williams died at home, the Bridge House, Leixlip. [Death cert]; death notice in Irish Times of 9th December 1947 gives the date of death as the 8th.
c1940s/50s: A photograph of GAA sportsmen from Leixlip, one with hurley in hand, may have been taken at the Tara Coop lands, shows in front row, left to right: George O’Boyle, Richard Sherry, Joe fox, Ned Malone, T Geoghegan. In back row, ditto: W. Duggan, Tony McLoughlin, G Smith, Vincent Ardiff. Copy to hand as jpeg; kindly lent by Colm & Sean Purcell.
1951: Letter to the Irish Times, dated 12/4/1951, from Mr Timothy O’Connor, Leixlip, in support of the Catholic Hierarchy in the matter of the Mother and Child Scheme, clipped for the Taoiseach’s files! [Cabinet file, No. s14997D, NAI].
1952: January, Deputy Cogan asked for an enquiry regarding increases in the rateable valuations of pubs, citing, in a list, Elizabeth Colgan, of Cooldrinagh [The Salmon Leap Inn] who had hers increased by £10. [Cabinet file, No. s6778B, High Court Judgement, NAI.]
1952-53: Matt Branagan described living in the Toll House as a lodger – along with about 5 others – during this period. He worked as a butcher with the Leixlip IMP meat plant and others on the construction of the houses at St Mary’s Park. He claimed that there was no running water or sewerage/toilets there at the time, but electricity.
1952-68: Margaret Daniels was a lodger at the Toll House on and off over this period, especially during the winters, along with several other performers in the Daniels dance troupe. She claims the mill-race was still in action with the water flowing across the garden in a narrow stream, across which was a narrow stone bridge for pedestrians. During that time there was sewerage. Florrie Williams was eccentric, elderly and kept to herself. She had a man friend, a Mr Isaac Graham, who stayed. [He was a widower; her mother’s sister’s husband.]
1954: Telegram from the Taoiseach to Mrs Greene, [Newtown Hill House?] Leixlip, on the death of her husband, 2/11/1954. [Cabinet file, s14426B, NAI.]
1954: 8th Dec, Severe flooding in Leixlip village, requiring the evacuation of the town centre.
1955: The land in Folio 1885, Co Kildare, transferred – for one day – to Louise Annie Mary Burke, Salmon Leap Inn, married woman, and thence, on 29/4/1955, to John Sisk, Dublin, civil engineering contractor.
1956: Major E.M. Conolly of Castletown, Celbridge, died. [JKAS, p.CIII, Vol XIII, No. 7, 1958.]
1958: Desmond and Mariga Guinness at Leixlip Castle.
1963: The land in Folio 1885, Co Kildare, transferred to Arthur John Richards, of Black Castle, Leixlip, civil engineer, on 1/5/1963.
1963: President John F Kennedy of the USA visited Ireland in June 1963. He may have travelled to Maynooth via Leixlip.
1963: Prince Rainier, Princess Grace, Carline & Albert of Monaco visited Maynooth College.
1969/70: The JKAS, Vol XIV, No 5, 1970, p647, published an obituary for Rev J O’Riordan, late PP of Maynooth (and Leixlip), who was a member of the society. He is credited with selling the Penal Church at Leixlip to a developer, despite pleas for its retention by Leixlip residents who sought to use it. See Leixlip Life for correspondence on the issue.
1971: By indenture of 16/7/1971 Florrie Williams sold the Bridge House aka Toll House to Patrick Oman (a furniture dealer and removals man) and Denis Drumm (an auctioneer partner introduced by Oman) of Dublin, for £4,400; they immediately sold it on to Michael Ramsden, antique dealer, of the Strawberry Beds, for £5,950 in the same transaction. Oman says that he wanted the house for his own use and approached Ms Williams originally to buy some furniture he could see in her window. Ramsden (according to his brother in law, Niall Kenny), wanted to make a restaurant of the place. [Registry of Deeds Memo No; 1971-72-38].
1973: The land in Folio 1885, Co Kildare, transferred to Michael Ramsden, of Strawberry Beds, Co Dublin, merchant banker, on 14/2/1973.
1975: An Irish Times advertisement of 28/11/1975 gave notice of the sale by auction on 17/12/1975 of "The Bridge Toll House, Leixlip, Co. Kildare" by Lisney & Son. The house was said to be ‘requiring renovation. Architects plans available for inspection’. An accompanying photograph shows the premises rendered in plaster. Shortly afterwards the Kings gained possession and began a modernisation programme which lasted almost three years.
1975: Fr Michael Toher, pious curate at Leixlip (1924-41) and founder of the Legion of Mary, died. He is buried in Glasnevin cemetery? [John Swan, 11/8/2003, in conversation with John Colgan].
1977: Ned Malone was President of Leixlip GAA; Vice presidents were Jack Eiffe, Jack Lynch, Matt Farrell, Frank McGivern (Snr) and Treasurer, Paddy Reilly [Celbridge Charter, No.52, August 1977].
c.1978: Circus tent, plus camels, in Toll House/ Castle Park grounds: picture by Ron Turner; also picture of Toll House porch, showing roof of porch extended over pillars by gate.
1978: An Irish Times editorial of the 17/2/1978 gives notice of the sale by auction on 23/2/1978 of 4.5 acres of land attached to the Black Castle, Leixlip, with about 450 feet of river frontage and full planning permission for 16 houses designed by Henry J Lyons (who also did the p.p. on the Toll House for the Kings). A river-bank picture is included.
1979: On 31/7/1979, the title to 1.194 acres of the land in Folio 1885 was transferred to Folio 4260F, Co Kildare, leaving a small parcel north of the line of the mill-race with the Toll House.
1979: By indenture of sale made 6/6/1979, Michael Ramsden, Strawberry Beds, Chapelizod, sold the Bridge House aka Toll House to Liam King and his wife, Deborah, for the sum of £7,500, subject to the fee farm rent of £12.10 and the several covenants in the fee farm grant, together with the adjoining registered freehold land in Folio 1885, Co. Kildare. [Registry of Deeds Memo No: 1979, 75, 30]. Liam King was a barn builder from Mayo, working in the USA; his wife (nee Schuster) was an American who worked as a trade union official. They lived in the house some time -perhaps for three years (from 3/3/1976) – before they purchased it, with their two children. He carried out extensive refurbishment, mostly modernising and replacing much of the window timbers, wiring etc. which were very much in decay after the Williams’ time there.
1979: By indenture of sale dated 18/7/1979, Liam and Deborah King sold the Toll House property to McKone Estates Ltd for the sum of £52,000, after an auction held on 18/5/1979 [Registry of Deeds Memo No: 1979-72-160]. The McKones bought the property to provide a convenient access point to the public sewer which flowed under the garden, there being no public sewer in their extensive property, Cooldrinagh, across the river. They retained the Toll House property in a sporadically occupied state by community groups and a caretaking family (Chas. & Suzanne Pegley) until they sold it in September 1991 for £108,000 to John Colgan, who, with his wife, are the present owners. A newspaper editorial notice, including a picture of the house, in an edition of 16/5/1979 is available. The auctioneers were Lisneys, Dublin.
1980: The ownership of the (residual) lands in Folio 1885, Co Kildare was transferred to McKone Estates Ltd., Dublin city. A covenant retained the right of the previous owner to a 15 feet wide passage to his remaining lands across the site. This right-of-way was later extinguished upon the purchase of the freehold by John Colgan in 1991.
King Juan Carlos of Spain, and HE the President of Italy, Francesco Cossiga, visited Maynooth College. [Padraic O’Farrell, A History of County Kildare, Dublin, 2003, p88.]
1995: William Galland Stuart (1944-1995), noted conservationist, of Kildrought House, Celbridge, and formerly of 14 Highfield Park, Leixlip, died on 6/3/1995 after a long illness. An obituary drafted by C J Woods is in JKAS, Vol XVIII, Part II, 1994-95, p270-271, and in the Leinster Leader of the time by John Colgan.
2002: Noel Lambert, farmer, formerly of Easton House, Leixlip, died 15/6/2002 at Maynooth, leaving €8,567,349. He had earlier sold his farm at Easton House for residential housing, now Glen Easton estate. [Probate/ wills office data].
The last segment of John Colgan’s marvellous chronology of Leixlip. Our thanks as always to John for making this extraordinary piece of work available to EHistory and indeed the world.
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