Come Here To Me!

Page 235, The antiquities and history of Ireland (1705).

Dublin has the disreputable honour of given the world the first known Black Monday.

On Easter Monday 1209, the native Irish, primarly the O’Tooles and others from Wicklow, massacred over three hundred Dublin citizens (many who had recently moved over from Bristol) in Cullenswood, close to modern Ranelagh.

The Irish Fireside (Vol. 1, No. 10, Sep 3, 1883) recalls that the native Irish:

… suddenly sprang from their lurking place on the unsuspecting (citizens), of whom they slew three hundred, besides a multitude of women and children who had accompanied their friends to partake in their harmless recreations.

The affair, which was dubbed The Cullenswood Massacre, was commemorated by Dubliners at its very spot every year for up to four centuries after.

It is generally assumed that the actual massacre took place in the area between modern Ranelagh and Rathmines which was afterwards christened Bloody Fields.

The Bloody Fields name was well-earned as in 1649 during the Battle of Rathmines it was the scene of another brutal slaughter, this time over 3,000 of the Marquis of Ormonde’s men.

This area, which now encompasses modern Oakley Road and Palmerston Road, is still known to some older locals as Bloody Fields.

Ranelagh and Cullenswood. c.1842