Dillon Street, New Tipperary
[graphic]
| Main Creator: | |
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| Contributors: | |
| In collection: | The Lawrence Photograph Collection |
| Format: | Photo |
| Published / Created: |
Circa 1890.
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| Subjects: | |
| Notes: | Additional information about this photograph is available on the National Library of Ireland's Flickr Commons photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/8557077664/ Robert French was the chief photographer responsible for photographing three quarters of the Lawrence Collection. For more information, see the Dictionary of Irish Biography: http://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a3369 Physical description: 1 photographic negative glass 16.5 x 21.5 cm. Geographic Coverage: Tipperary, County Tipperary, Province of Munster, Ireland. Caption on glassplate reads: Dillon St. New Tipperary. 2573. W. L. more |
I know that there's a story behind this rather innocuous looking street - Dillon Street - so I hope it will pique your interest. While it was within Tipperary town, this was very definitely New Tipperary!
Date: Circa 1890
NLI Ref.: L_ROY_02573
Tags:
Dillon Street, New Tipperary, Tipperary, Ireland, Munster, Horses, Carts, Barrels, Casks, Building, Construction, Children, Sand Cement, Cement, Pipes, Corrugated Iron, Corrugated Metal, Rubble, Churches, Steeples, Sacks, Shops, P. Cleary, Material, Cloth, Picks, Shovels, Dog, 1880s, Robert French, William Lawrence, Lawrence Collection, Glass Negative, limerick by beachcomber, John Dillon, 19th Century
Comments
derangedlemur
Well, sure how about a spot of streetview to start us off? maps.google.ie/maps?q=Dillon+Street,+South+Tipperary,+Tip...
Posted: 14.03.2013
derangedlemur
The shops and pub are all just houses now.
Posted: 14.03.2013
derangedlemur
From Wikipedia:
In 1888-9, tenants of the local landlord, Arthur Smith Barry, withheld their rents in solidarity with his tenants in Co Cork. They were evicted and, under the direction of Fr. David Humphreys[8][9] and William O'Brien, decided to build a new town on land outside his control. The area now known Dillon Street and Emmet Street in Tipperary town was the centre of this development and was built by local labour but with funds raised in Australia and the United States. The high point was 12 April 1890, when a row of shops called the William O'Brien Arcade was opened, providing shops for some of the business people who had been evicted from the centre of the town. Eventually, compromise was reached and the tenants returned to the 'Old Tipperary'
Posted: 14.03.2013
derangedlemur
Presumably the William O'Brien Arcade is the row of shops at the end. I'd guess from the road-laying activities on that this would be about 1890.
Posted: 14.03.2013
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
I thank you @8468254@N02! Now on map, date changed, and a bit more information on New Tipperary...
Posted: 14.03.2013
Niall McAuley
A bit more work happening in 1900, according to the DIA::
Name: BRUNICARDI, DOMINICK NICHOLAS
Building: CO. TIPPERARY, CLONMEL, DILLON STREET, HOUSES (005)
Date: 1900
Nature: 5 artisans' dwellings to be built. Contractor: Cleary & Sons, Upper Gladstone St (£1075). (Also 5 more in Upper Gladstone Street?)
Refs: IB 42, 15 Feb 1900, 278; B 78, 24 Feb 1900, ?.
Posted: 14.03.2013
Niall McAuley
The OS 25" is from 1904, so it includes that work from 1900.
Posted: 14.03.2013
John Spooner
Freeman's of 14th April 1890 devoted more than a page to its report headlined; "The Opening of New Tipperary - Imposing Demonstration - All Ireland represented"
I haven't read it all, but this caught me eye (and we like a bit of poetry, don't we?)
NEW TIPPERARY We have many towns in Ireland that can boast a hoary age, That can trace their far beginnings to our history's earliest page; They saw the proud Milesian, and the Norman in his mail, They bore the brunt of Strongbow's spears and Cromwell's iron hail; They have ancient rolls and charters, they have memories sad and grand, But the newest town in Ireland is the glory of the land. It has nor ruined ramparts, no embattled gates or walls, No massive towers, no lofty spires no lordly homes or halls; But the spirit that upraised it is as noble and sublime As any shown in peace or war through all recorded time. God bless the patriot builders, and the work they wrought and planned. For the newest town in Ireland is the pride of all the land. May peace and plenty ever within within its homes be found, May every virtue there abide, and every grace abound; And all through Ireland's future still may its cherished name With Ireland's race retain its place of honour and of fame. We give the toast with joyful hearts, we pledge it hand in hand. Success to New Tipperary; 'tis the glory of our land!
Posted: 14.03.2013
derangedlemur
@nlireland Can you make out the shop name on your super high res? I couldn't make any of the 1901 census names fit.
Posted: 14.03.2013
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
@johnspooner Thank you, John! "Borrowed" the last line as a new title for this photo...
Bracing self for a Limerick from @beachcomberaustralia/ about New Tipperary! :)
Posted: 14.03.2013
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Given the official Opening on 14 April 1890, and the unfinished work on the road surface, could we go for March 1890?
Posted: 14.03.2013
derangedlemur
@gnmcauley The nearest six houses (or five and a pub) are a different style to the rest of the street. They could well be finishing the work on BRUNICARDI's extension.
Posted: 14.03.2013
Niall McAuley
@8468254@N02 From the people at the doors of the houses down the street, it looks as if those houses are occupied. The nearer houses in brick look unfinished to me.
So, two possible dates - the initial opening in 1890, and the later 1900 addition of 5? houses to give the entire street as seen today (and on the 1904 map).
Posted: 14.03.2013
DannyM8
Lovely photo and a boy with a dog!
Posted: 14.03.2013
Niall McAuley
Counting houses on the left hand side, there is a just single house still to be added on the left to make the row complete as on the 1904 map. So I think the date must be the 1900 one.
Posted: 14.03.2013
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
@8468254@N02 P. Cleary was the only name I could make out on the Super Duper Hi Res.
Tip: I always put any names, etc. that I can make out in as tags when I upload...
Posted: 14.03.2013
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
@79549245@N06 Which he is holding with great determination to make sure that his "best friend" stayed still for the photograph!
Posted: 14.03.2013
John Spooner
One year after the grand opening ...
From a letter from a Mr. R. St. J. Corbet quoted in the Birmingham Post on Aug 24, 1891.
"Dillon Street, however, is not particularly substantial, though it is well built and by no means ugly or characterless in appearance. The Arcade is now a perfect Sahara; scarcely any business is transacted; shops are being closed through the migration of the campaign victims, and I found few persons walking about, with the exception of members of the Royal Irish Constabulary."
He describes the arcade as "a good building, lofty and commodious, and possessed of a large blue clock, with gold figuring"
Also "Dillon and Emmett Streets contain some good and some half-empty shops, and there is a people's dining-hall, where possibly the people may (or may not) dine. These shops will in due course be closed, and the houses used as dwellings for mechanics and others."
Posted: 14.03.2013
derangedlemur
@nlireland That's what I thought. There was only one Cleary in the whole of the county in 1901, and he wasn't on Emmet St.
Edit: I must have done something odd with my search the first time - there's hundreds now.
Posted: 14.03.2013
derangedlemur
We have a draper and a tailor P. Cleary, neither of them on Emmet Street in 1901.
Posted: 14.03.2013
derangedlemur
@gnmcauley The brick houses were the one's I meant - four on the left and a pub or shop on the right (though it looks like two premises).
Posted: 14.03.2013
Niall McAuley
The House and Building Returns in 1901 report 36 buildings (private dwellings and public houses) numbered 1 to 40, with 32, 34, 36 and 38 missing. The 1904 map shows 16 on the North (left) side, and 20 on the South (right) side. So this photo is definitely before the 1901 census, as the last house on the left is finished and occupied by census time.
The question is: does that DIA reference describe actual work done in 1900, in which case this photo is earliest 1900 and before the 1901 census, or (as sometimes happens in the DIA) were those 5 houses just planned, and never built? Why would the census numbering leave out 32, 34, 36, and 38?
Posted: 14.03.2013
derangedlemur
@nlireland P. Cleary is on Emmet Street. The view is along Dillon Street onto Emmet Street.
Posted: 14.03.2013
John Spooner
Another postscript, from Freeman's Jan 9th 1892:
Some of the tenants who had moved to New Tipperary moved back to Old Tipperary in 1891, but refused to give up possession of them to the trustee of the property , Father Humphreys. This put Father Humphreys in an awkward position,.
"There are a number of evicted tenants in the district whose accommodation is not all that the energetic pastor of Tipperary could desire for the gallant soldiers who followed him so faithfully. The substantial and comfortable dwellings in New Tipperary would provide comparatively luxurious accommodation for these men and their families. A few, however, of thosse who foung grateful shelter in New Tipperary in a time of need refused to give up possesion of the houses they had left, and to give others less fortunate than themselves a chance of enjoying a comfortable home. In these circumstances, and being anxious to provide suitable shelter for the evicted during the inclement weather, Father Humphriys was obliged, how reluctantly need not be said, to have recourse to the law to recover possession of the empty houses in the new town"11 people were summoned. Those in Dillon Street were Jas Mulcahy, Mary A Colter and Richard Ronan (at no 15 Dillon St) Father Humphreys lost the case in March (on what sounds like a legal technicality).
Posted: 14.03.2013
ccferrie
There is a very unusual fluted plaster finish to the houses which still survives on one or two today like this one maps.google.ie/maps?q=Dillon+Street,+South+Tipperary,+Tip...
I would assume that the brick finish is not intended to be the final finish on the houses in the foreground.
Posted: 14.03.2013
ccferrie
Also unusual are the side-hung window casements - sash windows would have been the norm at this time.
Posted: 14.03.2013
RETRO STU
Is it unusual those workmen are breaking stones with pick-axes rather than using sledge-hammers?
Posted: 14.03.2013
John Spooner
Another resident's name:
On June 12th 1892, John Vincent Bourke of 31 John Dillon St wrote a letter to Freeman's which included the phrase "notorious house grabbers".
He's still there in 1901 (aged 48, army pensioner, living with his shoemaker brother James, and James' son & 2 daughters)
Posted: 14.03.2013
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
@8468254@N02 Apologies, I thought you were confused. Should have known better... :)
Posted: 14.03.2013
Swordscookie
@nlireland I hope you're not confused Carol:-) @77199267@N03 I was looking at the original shot and wondering if the fluted finish was just laths put up at intervals to hold a spread of plaster in place but the streetview shows that there are a couple at least of houses with the same finish. It is unusual and quite effective. Its interesting that the beneficiaries of such generosity by the community (a) should choose to move back to the place they were evicted from and (b) be so greedy as to hold on to the homes to the exclusion of others less fortunate. Greed comes in many forms!
Posted: 14.03.2013
Niall McAuley
More from the DIA:
Name: GILL, ROBERT PAUL
Building: CO. TIPPERARY, TIPPERARY, NEW TIPPERARY
Date: 1889-1890
Nature: Housing development for evicted tenants of Arthur Hugh Smith-Barry, proprietor of the town. 97 houses (including 2 new streets, Dillon Street and Parnell (later Emmet) Street) built and shopping arcade for evicted shopkeepers. Contractor: Alderman Meade, Dublin. Arcade opened 12 Apr 1890 but demolished by Smith-Barry, 1891.
Refs: Irish Times, 2 Nov 1896; Denis G. Marnane, 'Fr David Humphreys and New Tipperary', Tipperary: History and Society (1985), 367-378.
Posted: 14.03.2013
Niall McAuley
In the archive: L_NS_09199 Butter Market in the Arcade, New Tipperary, Co. Tipperary
Posted: 14.03.2013
blackpoolbeach
Those "fluted" houses could be made of prefabricated corrugated iron.
There is a "tin tabernacle" prefab church in Rearcross, Tipperary.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rearcross
This was transported from Northumbria in 1887.
Posted: 14.03.2013
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
@gnmcauley I don't have that one, Niall. The high numbers of New Series Lawrence photos (e.g. 9199) are not digitised yet. However, I do have two lovely ones of the arcade. Will upload one tomorrow...
Posted: 14.03.2013
Niall McAuley
So, if that's the Arcade we are looking at between us and the houses on Emmet Street, parallel to Emmet Street, then this is definitely 1890.
Posted: 14.03.2013
Niall McAuley
Hmm, I think it more likely that this stone wall in Streetview is what's left of one side of the arcade.
There is an account of the whole business in Ireland as it is by John Buckley from 1893:
The William O'Brien Arcade is scattered to the winds, save and except the sturdy stone walls, which (_a la_ Macaulay's New-Zealander) I surveyed with satisfaction, sketching the ruins of the structure from a broken bench in Dillon Street.
It must be said his version is not entirely even-handed:
(3) O'Brien, M.P., and Dillon, M.P., who had brought about the trouble, were with others convicted of conspiracy, and were sentenced to six months' imprisonment. But this was in their absence, for soon after the trial commenced, being released on bail, they ran away, putting the salt sea between themselves and their deservings. Heroes and martyrs of Ireland, of whom the brutal Briton hears so much, receive these patriots into your glorious company!
Posted: 14.03.2013
Swordscookie
@blackpoolbeach I was a bit sceptical at first but on closer examination those houses with the fluting have very distinctive vents and they would easily have been or still be made of prefab iron.
Posted: 14.03.2013
derangedlemur
@gnmcauley I had thought that what you can see on Emmet street is the fronts of the houses (just like the shops at the bottom of Dillon St.) rather than a separate arcade, but it extends past the end of the houses and has a sloped roof that comes higher than the upper windows, so I think it must be the arcade.
Posted: 14.03.2013
Niall McAuley
I took a sneak peek in the archive, and the Arcade is colossal, far too big to be between Emmet St. houses and the camera. I think it is out of shot, around the corner to the right.
Posted: 14.03.2013
Swordscookie
@gnmcauley I agree, it is quite impressive and not in the shot above by any means!
Posted: 14.03.2013
ccferrie
@swordscookie @blackpoolbeach/ I'm not convinced - if they are made of corrugated metal they have been plastered over and that would be no easy task - plaster doesn't stick to metal very easily. Also if you were going to plaster over it wouldn't you most likely do a smooth finish. It is very unusual though - more like something from the Art Deco period of thirty years later.
Posted: 14.03.2013
ccferrie
Another interesting fact from the DIA entry - the architect of the houses, Robert Paul Gill (1863-1928), was the father of Tomás MacGiolla (1924-2010), leader of the Workers' Party
Posted: 14.03.2013
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
The New Tipperary Limerick They say that back in the day When life was more black, white, and grey - Building this street Was almost complete - To Tipperary? It's a long, long, long way ...
Posted: 14.03.2013
O Mac
A good account of the buildings and the 'carry-ons' in New Tipperary here. pages 70-80
There's a mention of "2 story wooden houses" which explains the 'board and batten' finish to the houses on Dillon St.---- which is still evident on some of the original houses seen today Street View
Posted: 15.03.2013
John Spooner
Tipperary Old and New - an illustrated account of a trip to Tipperary published on April 3rd 1890 in The Pall Mall Gazette. Includes drawings (albeit crude ones) of Dillon St, O'Neill's drapery and P Cleary's old premises, and a description of the construction of the houses.
Part 1
Part 2
Posted: 16.03.2013
O Mac
@johnspooner very interesting....and a good case for the durability of timber frame construction.....120years!!!!....though they must have been freezing.
Posted: 16.03.2013
derangedlemur
It's a bit vague. If "double sheeting lined with felt" means an outside facade and an inside wall with six inches of felt between them it'd be pretty warm. If it means two sheets of half inch plywood sandwiching a sheet of felt it'd be perishing.
Posted: 17.03.2013
ccferrie
I have it on authority (Kieran Kuss aka @KKuss) that the houses are timber-fronted. Kieran also says "The arcade is on Church St. It became a butter market and is now a hardware storage unit."
Posted: 21.03.2013
ccferrie
I happened to be passing through Tipperary town last weekend and took the opportunity to get a closer look at these houses. I can confirm that they are indeed constructed in timber. There are now only two left with the original finish plus one of the shop units at the bottom of the street still has the timber on the upper floor. I'll post some photos when I get a chance.
Posted: 04.04.2013
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
@77199267@N03 Great, and thanks a million for checking. Will look forward to seeing the photos when you get a chance.
Posted: 04.04.2013
ccferrie
Here are some photos I took on the Easter weekend of one of the remaining two timber fronted houses on Dillon Street, as promised.
@77199267@N03/8628367109/in/photostream/
@77199267@N03/8628366771/in/photostream/
Posted: 07.04.2013
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
@77199267@N03 Lovely to see these "in the flesh", Ciaran! Thanks for taking the trouble.
Posted: 08.04.2013
