Is this the oldest photo of Enniskerry? Iron bridge at Bog Meadow, little sign of St Patrick’s Church on the hill, and no dome on the Town clock (which was added in 1860). For comparison, a later view is below it. Thanks to Nivrum as always.
Tenants on the Powerscourt Estate, 1816
A map exists of the Powerscourt Estate from 1816. The names of the tenants accompanies the map. These are listed below. This is a first run of the analysis – it doesn’t distinguish very large tenancies from single plot holdings, but may be of use to those wishing to search family names. They are listed…
Irish History Books for Christmas 2013
If there’s a history lover in your family, some fantastic books have been published over the last year on various topics in Irish history. Some of my favourites are below. Santa, if you are looking… Just published is Garret Fitzgerald’s “Irish primary education in the early nineteenth century“, which is in fact more than this…
50th Anniversary and 3rd Birthday
December 2013 marks the 3rd anniversary of this website and to celebrate, I have a treat. 2013 is the 50th anniversary of Canon Stokes’ wonderful lecture “The Parish of Powerscourt“. I have transcribed this lecture to make it available to a new audience. In addition, I have included further reading and notes on the material…
Talk: Tales from a Country Churchyard
A must-see talk is coming up at Kilmacanogue History Society on Tuesday December 3rd. Judy Cameron has done an enormous amount of work documenting the lives of those buried at St Patrick’s Church, Enniskerry. She has previously created a graveyard tour, and if that is anything to go by, this talk is not to be…
Enniskerry Historical Society Talk 10th October
Enniskerry Historical Society Talk by Brian White Communications, Wicklow links to the 8th Wonder of the World and also Enniskerry Past, that will include the timeline of the building of the R.C. Church in Enniskerry and Lord Powerscourt horse riding feats between Paris and Fontainbleau in France. Enniskerry links with aviation history. Powerscourt Arms Hotel:…
Discovering Greystones and its Environs
From Rosemary Raughter, Greystones Archaeological & Historical Society The seventh volume of the Greystones Archaeological & Historical Society Journal, just available, takes the form of an anthology of the area, in words and images, from the late 18th to the mid-20th century. The pieces included are drawn from sources such as memoir, travel-writing, newspaper reports…
Enniskerry Petty Sessions, Dec 1912
James Scannell writes about some law and order records from 1912. In 1913 the enforcement of law and order was very different to that of today. Society expected the police to enforce the law, no matter how trivial the offence, nobility and gentry excepted as this was still a class divided society where everyone was…
Luggala, Fancy!
Soon after his coming of age in 1857, Mervyn, 7th Viscount Powerscourt began to add to his estate, and an acquisition of considerable size was a large parcel of land to the south of Powerscourt Waterfall consisting of Ballinastoe and Luggala. Powerscourt was interested in grazing lands and forestry, and these lands offered the opportunity to…
Did you ever hear of Mooneystown in Glencree?
Chris Corlett writes about changing land ownership around Curtlestown. This article was originally posted on his website, where you can read more of his writing on a variety of topics relating to history and antiquities. A FEW YEARS AGO I came across an interesting story recorded in the Schools Manuscripts held in the National Folklore…
Searching for Seven and Finding More
Thanks to Úna Wogan for finding this gem. A Boston College project has made available advertisements taken out by Irish immigrants looking for Irish people in America. The advertisements were placed in the Boston Pilot. Seven names from the Parish of Powerscourt appear. They are listed in the table below. You can broaden the search,…
Enniskerry Victorian News
Enniskerry Victorian Festival runs again this year on Sept 15th, and details of the event are at the Festival homepage. A couple of years ago I made a newspaper highlighting some news that might have been reported during Victorian times. You can read it all about it, below. Enniskerry & Powerscourt Gazette | Sept 1861…
Holy Wells in the Parish of Powerscourt
Holy wells were used to celebrate saints, seek cures and give thanks. There were some 3,000 wells across the country. The Irish Folklore Commission (IFC) collected oral information from people about holy wells in the 1930s, and completed a survey of holy wells in 1934. Geraldine Lynch has summarised the results of this survey for…
Visitors to our Village
The History of Irish Travel and Tourism project is looking for support from the Arthur Guinness Projects funds, and you can vote every day until close of polls this Friday. Below are some interesting nuggets from travel documentation that I have found, and the aim of the people behind this website is to make a…
Ina Boyle
Dr Ita Beausang writes about Ina Boyle, formerly of Bushy Park, whose work features in the forthcoming Wicklow In Song event, 23rd August in support of Bray Cancer Support Centre and the Wicklow Hospice Foundation. Ina Boyle (1889-1967) was a prolific composer of vocal, choral, chamber and orchestral music, but her works are rarely performed…
A search for my Enniskerry pedigree
Úna Wogan writes about her impressive work on researching her family history: The first rule of genealogy is to start with the living, gather the knowledge of the family from those that are still here. So this is what we knew; Michael Wogan, who we knew to be a boot maker, was featured as an…
William Norman Rae: Asparagus at Onagh
At Curtlestown, there is a headstone that caught my eye: In Loving Memory of | WILLIAM JOHN NORMAN RAE | M.A. (Cantab) S.c.D (Dub) | Professor of Chemistry and Physics | Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland | Onagh, Enniskerry | died 18th Nov. 1964 Being a chemist myself, a Professor of Chemistry in our…
Tinnehinch Labourers 1828
The following names of workers on the Tinnehinch estate of James Grattan, were taken from the Workmen’s accounts book, 1828 (NLI MS 5516). As with the Powerscourt workmen’s accounts, daily activities are listed, and a sample daily activity is shown here. Interesting that it is a different set of names to those found around the…
A visit to Killruddery House
The website grandtour.ie gives plans for various types of driving tours in Wicklow and Kildare. The Great Houses tour includes the houses Killruddery, Powerscourt, Russborough, Castletown, and Carton. I have now visited four of the five, Carton so far elusive. They are an interesting combination as they represent different eras, different styles, and different ownership…
Curtlestown Graveyard (St Patrick’s Church)
I have compiled all of the headstones that are currently in Curtlestown Graveyard (July 2013). Photos of each headstone are on the Flickr page, named by the surname on the headstone to allow for some primitive searching. Click here to access. Names are pasted below for text search. Update These headstones have been transcribed by…