Come Here To Me!

Penney’s have recently expanded their store on Mary Street significantly, with much more of the building now being used as retail space. Architecturally, the building is very interesting, having originally been constructed for the department shop Todd Burns, described in newspaper reports as a “palatial Dublin warehouse” at the time of its opening in 1905. The building boasted a principal frontage over 120 feet in length facing onto Mary Street, with the building running 300 feet along Jervis Street. The project cost in excess of £70,000 at the time, and the architect was William Mitchell who was also responsible for the Hotel Metropole on O’Connell Street, destroyed in the 1916 insurrection.

1905 newspaper illustration of Todd Burns

This premises had been constructed following a fire which destroyed the original Todd Burns building in January 1902. Incredibly, within a month the business were trading on the site again! Out of a wooden ‘temporary structure’, described here in The Irish Times:

The site now occupied by Penney’s is marked by two historic plaques, connected to two hugely important characters in Dublin’s history. On the Jervis Street side of the building, a small plaque marks the birthplace and home of Dublin historian J.T Gilbert.

J.T Gilbert plaque

Gilbert wrote the classic A History of the City of Dublin in 1861, a detailed history of the city from its viking origins to the contemporary world Gilbert knew. This was a groundbreaking study in its day, and it is fitting that today the Dublin City Library and Archive on Pearse Street is known as the Gilbert Library in his honour. Gilbert was knighted by Queen Victoria for his work in the field of history, and remains one of Dublin’s most important local historians. You can read the work in full here.

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I picked up this great postcard recently, showing College Green in the snow with King Billy overlook proceedings.

The King William of Orange statue on College Green was eventually removed in 1929, following an explosion in the early hours of Armistice Day that year, but was one of the most vandalised monuments in Dublin prior to that. It sits right opposite the old Irish Parliament building. Inside the building, a tapestry showing the victorious King Billy at the Battle of the Boyne has outlived the monument, and you can still go and see it to this day by just walking into the bank. It was one of the stops on our recent walking tours of the city.

Come Here To Me at the King William of Orange tapestry, College Green.(Image:Branno)

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Pólo is a longstanding Come Here To Me! supporter, and contributor of many fine comments. We’ve met on a few occasions now, such as at the recent CHTM! booklaunch. Carrying a camera around in 1960s Dublin, Pól captured some real gems and moments in Dublin’s history. He’s allowed me to reproduce these brilliant photos on the blog, of a time he saw the head of Horatio Nelson on Killiney Beach! The words are his, as are the snaps.

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Image: Póló

One day in late March, 1966, I was walking along the station road in Killiney when my eye was caught by something unusual happening near the waterline in front of Homan’s.

The boat was still there but there were no balaclavas and no oars. There was an odd looking sack which clearly contained something very heavy. I thought of a body but figured it wouldn’t fit. It was heavy enough, though, to leave a deep trail in the sand.

Image: Póló

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