Modern Dublin Oxford Historical Monographs
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MODERN DUBLIN OXFORD HISTORICAL MONOGRAPHS Editors p. clavin l. goldman j. innes r. service p. a. slack b. ward-perkins j. l. watts Modern Dublin Urban Change and the Irish Past, 1957–1973 ERIKA HANNA 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Erika Hanna 2013 Th e moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2013 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. 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Acknowledgements Th e Dublin I fi rst got to know as a child was a small place, bounded by the route of the 14A bus, a small sliver of the city stretching from the south Dublin suburbs to Grafton Street. However, returning to the city as an adult, and equipped with a bicycle, I travelled more widely, and became aware of a city which had been both very near and almost completely unknown to me—Mountjoy Square, Henrietta Street, Blessington Basin. Th is book was inspired by my love of Dublin and its architecture, and my desire to know more about the city, and understand its relationship both to the national story and to my own sense of identity. During its long gestation from Dublin, to Bristol, Oxford, and most recently at Leicester, I have accumulated a lot of debts. My very deepest thanks go to Roy Fos- ter. I am very grateful to him for sharing his knowledge of Ireland and architecture, and for his tremendous intellectual generosity, kindness, and rigour in supervising the thesis and advising on the subsequent book. I was also very lucky to have two excellent examiners in Senia Pasêta and Simon Gunn; they provided invaluable insights and suggestions, and have been very supportive since. A number of people who know and understand more about the city than I ever will, and whose fi rst-hand experiences have shaped the narra- tive of this book, have been incredibly generous to me during the course of my research. Th ey include Mairin de Burca, Sheila Carden, Harold Clarke, Francis Devine, Margaret Downes, Terry Fagan, Desmond Guinness, John McBratney, Niall McCullough, John McDonnell, Ruadhán MacEoin, Edward McParland, Valerie Mulvin, David Norris, the late Kevin Nowlan and Knight of Glin, Duncan Stewart, Ronnie Tallon, Johnnie Walker, Simon Walker, and the late Knight of Glin. Th e staff of the Irish Georgian Society—including Donough Cahill and Emmeline Henderson—have pointed me in the right direction on numerous occasions, and the staff at the Irish Architectural Archive have also been incredibly helpful, in par- ticular with sourcing images. It has been wonderful to meet so many peo- ple who care so much about Dublin, think so carefully about urbanism, and give up so much of their time to improve and protect the environment of the city. Th is book would never have been possible had they not shared their memories and opened up their private archives. Th is project has benefi ted immeasurably from colleagues and friends who have been very giving with their time and knowledge. At Bristol and since, Josie McLellan has been unendingly generous with her time, advice, vi Acknowledgements and knowledge of history. Th e Irish history community at Oxford pro- vided a wonderful environment in which to conduct research: Richard Ansell, Gemma Clark, Frances Flanagan, Ultán Gillen, James Golden, Marc Mulholland, Simon Prince, Colin Reid, Mark Williams, and Tim Wilson all off ered suggestions, criticism, and came to the pub. My ideas have also benefi ted from comments and criticism from John Davis, Matt Kelly, and Ian McBride. John Gold and William Whyte read the manu- script for Oxford University Press, and provided many perceptive sugges- tions and practical advice. Th is book was fi nished at the Centre for Urban History at the University of Leicester, my colleagues there, Colin Hyde, Prashant Kidambi, Katy Layton-Jones, Toby Lincoln, Rebecca Madgin, and Rosemary Sweet, have been wonderfully encouraging during the project’s fi nal phase, and have helped me to push my understanding of cities much further. Conducting this research has only been possible thanks to funding by Arts and Humanities Research Council Masters’ and Doctoral Awards. Hertford College and the British Association of Irish Studies also supplied additional funding for travel and research in Ireland. I have also been very lucky to have a wonderful group of friends who have kept me going throughout the long process from thesis to book. Eleanor Austin, Tom Browning, and Seán Quinn were there when this all started, and have believed in me ever since. Th anks to Lu Hiam for two decades of friendship across many locations. At Oxford, Ludivine Broch, Mike Finch, Charlotte Greenhalgh, Chloe Jeff ries, Daniel Lee, Eloise Moss, Tamson Pietsch, and Ryan Th oreson all made Oxford a very enjoy- able place to study and live. Th anks to Dora Osborne for cake and theory. Almost since the day I arrived at Oxford, Rob Priest has been the best friend anyone could hope for—thanks for the long lunch breaks, mid- afternoon pints, and for assiduous criticism of my work. Big thanks to Matt Houlbrook for being so generous, kind, and patient, sharing so many happy days with me, and showing me what the world looks like from over the handlebars of a bicycle. Finally, my biggest thanks of all are to my family, who have provided an enormous amount of support over the course of the project: David, Rosalind, Rebekah, Josh, Adam, Logan, and Ivy. Contents List of Figures viii List of Maps ix List of Abbreviations x Introduction: Modern Dublin and the Irish Past 1 1. Planning and the Eighteenth-Century City, 1955–75 22 2. Georgian Dublin and Modern Architecture, 1950–65 48 3. Kildare Place and the Irish Georgian Society, 1957–8 67 4. Modernization and Preservation, 1958–65 83 5. Housing, Community, and Preservation, 1963–70 111 6. Material Culture and Social Politics, 1964–73 144 7 . O ffi ce Politics, 1965–70 172 Conclusion: Th e Invention of Georgian Dublin 201 Bibliography 208 Index 225 List of Figures 0.1. Dublin’s quays, showing the newly completed Liberty Hall, 1967 2 1.1. Design for new central area including plaza, transport hub, and cathedral, 1922 33 2.1. Busáras 50 3.1. Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 1979 68 3.2. Nos. 2 & 3 Kildare Place, 1957 71 3.3. Interior of 2 Kildare Place 71 4.1. Fitzwilliam Street, early 1960s 84 4.2. ESB headquarters, Fitzwilliam Street 107 4.3. Entrance hall of ESB headquarters 108 5.1. Family resisting eviction, York Street, July 1964, by Elinor Wiltshire 121 6.1. Mountjoy Square, 1981 148 7.1. Hume Street, 1970 178 List of Maps 1.1. Map of Dublin 23 4.1. Map of the Fitzwilliam Street area 85 6.1. Map of the Gardiner estate 146 7.1. Map of the Hume Street area 174 List of Abbreviations CPI Communist Party of Ireland DCG Dublin Civic Group DHAC Dublin Housing Action Committee DT Department of the Taoiseach ESB Electricity Supply Board GPO General Post Offi ce IAA Irish Architectural Archive ICO Irish Communist Organisation IGS Irish Georgian Society IRA Irish Republican Army NAI National Archives of Ireland NLI National Library of Ireland PDDÉ Printed Debates Dáil Éireann RAGE Radical Action for a Good Environment TCD Trinity College Dublin UCD University College Dublin Introduction Modern Dublin and the Irish Past And so it was that I stood on the Cruagh with Seán Ó’Faoláin and looked down over the grey, silent desolation of the city and spoke of what I, as an architect, had liked amongst that pile of bricks and stone. ‘Perhaps’, said Seán Ó’Faoláin, ‘there will rise out of that great waste a city such as we have only dreamed of !’ I wondered. I thought of prophets all over the old and new worlds—Aalto, Oud, Gropius, Corbusier, Wright. I thought of townplanners burning their midnight oil on the top fl oors of Baggot Street. I thought of architectural schools bursting with students and ideas. Yes, like a phoenix, Dublin would reappear, new and perfect and beautiful, planned with vision, rebuilt with knowledge. Not quite the same thing of course as Dublin, 1941, in all its magnifi cent and shoddy detail. 1 Standing on the Cruagh, a peak in the Dublin Mountains, Raymond McGrath surveyed the city spreading into the distance beneath him. From his vantage point Dublin had taken on the form of a map, allowing McGrath to visualize the future overlaid on ‘that pile of bricks and stone’.