A Ramble about Tallaght

The Dragon Inn, Tallaght, since 1740 (In the time it takes for a pint to settle!) According to the memoirs of a gardener who worked in the Archbishop’s Palace, “The Life of Nicholas Mooney, alias, Jackson”, set down in 1752, there has been a “Publick-Houfe” on the grounds of the “Archbishops Palace”, now the Dominican Priory in Tallaght Village, since at least the 1740s. In his “Neighbourhood of Dublin”, Weston St. John Joyce included a photograph of the hostelry on the current site of the Dragon Inn.  In 1900 a much older structure appears to have stood there, with a stout chimney on the Dublin end behind an outhouse, sheltering the door with a canopy supported by three thin columns.    “The Life of Nicholas Mooney, alias, Jackson”                     April, 23rd, 1752   O’Neill’...

The Hermit in the Woods Growing up in Tallaght in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a frequent if irregular sight and enigmatic figure, was that of the local hermit, recluse or “eccentric” as he was variously referred to, walking down the length of Seskin View Road. He was a familiar sight known throughout Tallaght and district, and had been living somewhere in the hills above Tallaght since the mid-1970s. “Frenchie” as he was called, was a tall, brisk, dark haired but unshaven and unkempt man in his early ‘50s. He wore a long black winter coat- all year round- which flowed behind him as he strode down the road. Frenchie kept himself to himself, and always looked like he was a man in a hurry to get where ever it was he was going. Occasionally he carried a long, trimmed branch, as one might hold a walking stick- walking briskly- and was often seen murmuring or talking to himself. Parents cautioned children to stay away from the unkempt Frenchie and children often ignored them. Some ...