Rewind – Corkagh House

Rewind – Corkagh House

By Sean Heffernan 

For this weeks Rewind we are hopping on a 68 bus on Harrington Street and making our way to the bus stop on the Old Nangor Road.

From here we will walk the 14 minutes to the 120 hectare stretch of land known as Corkagh Park.

It is here that the central point of this week's piece was located, the historic Corkagh House.

corkagh house1

The house was first opened and inhabited in 1714, after being constructed over a lengthy period of 12 years, and try as they might, no one has been able to ascertain who actually built it.

In 1716 one Thomas Finlay rented the house, and he purchased it outright 34 years later. Records state that he was a banker who had a premises along the River Liffey where the Ormond Hotel now stands.

A scandal had erupted in Dublin around that time around the production of inferior coins.

The Duchess of Kendall, who was King George I’s favourite mistress, was granted the right to essentially own the production of coins in Ireland.

A set of letters appeared in local publications by a writer with the pseudonym “Drapier” (later revealed to be Gulliver’s Travels author Jonathan Swift) where he brought scandalous events out into the open.

In his third letter it was alleged the coins sold to banks and other institutions in this country were of a far poorer quality than those minted in England, and it led to an inquiry into the matter.

The Ormond Quay banker was one of those called to testify before the inquiry, and he was found to have knowingly been in effect a go-between salesman, selling what he knew to be inferior coins for much higher than their actual worth.

At one stage there was a bell located beside the chimney of Corkagh House, which rang at 12 noon, 1pm and 6pm.

In 1818, the sizable lands around the house were enclosed off, and it could then be properly called a rich man’s estate.

As was common in those days a crucial factor in the decision to locate the big house where they did was the fact that a plentiful water source was located on their doorstep, in this case the Camac River.

The tributary begins near Mount Seskin. And weaves it’s way through Saggart, Clondalkin, Inchicore and other areas before entering the River Liffey up near Heuston Station.

It’s banks played host to at one stage seven mills, and those employed formed the backbone of the village life of Clondalkin and (along with the Railway engineering works I wrote about in a previous issue) the community of Inchicore too.

Another of the Finlay dynasty, was John Finlay, who in the 1770’s served as an M.P. for Dublin, and was also the leader of the Uppercross Fusiliers, which was a volunteer regiment that pledged to help the King when absolutely necessary.

His Grandson William John began planting a lot of the trees you now see in Corkagh Park, and lived a very happy life, unlike his predecessor Henry.

While he lived until 1936 when he died at the age of 90 (very rare in those days), he lived for most of his life with the sorrow of losing all three of his sons to war; His son Francis in the Boer War, and the other two sons George and Robert in World War 1 – One in France, the other in Belgium.

The last of the family to take over the estate was Edith, she married George Pomeroy, an Irishman born in Kildare who saw active service and acclaim in the Boer War.

He later was stationed in Dublin Castle as part of the British army organisational team spearheading operations to bring an end to hostilities.

25 staff working between the house itself and the farm located on the lands were employed at that time, and it must have been a worrying period for them, as many stately houses whose inhabitants served with the British Army or Royal Irish Constabulary were attacked by bands of IRA men across the country during the Civil War.

When Edith’s husband passed away in 1933, her son Dudley quit his studies in Trinity College and took over the running of the estate.

When he suddenly died at 48, none of the family were there to take over the running of the estate, and thus their dynasty was to come to and end.

Foot and Mouth disease in the 1940’s and rising taxes devastated the earning power of the family and they simply ran out of money to maintain the upkeep of the big house and it’s lands.

In 1986 after many years of landscaping and other works, the lands were opened by Dublin County Council as a public park, and it would soon become a popular spot for families to go for a weekend ramble.

The park now contains a pet farm, playground, cycle track and a place for tourists to park their camper vans as they take in the many sights of our capital city, amongst many other things.

There are two excellent audio tours of the park and you can listen to them by going to https://www.sdcc.ie/en/services/sport-and-recreation/parks/corkagh-park.html

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