Morton's of Firhouse- A History since 1865 (Part I)

Morton’s of Firhouse- A History since 1865 (Part I)

 (1865-1943)

Morton’s, Ennis, Farrelly’s, McKenna’s, Nolan’s, Conlon’s, Dowling’s, M’Garry’s, Clifton’s, Browne’s.

A word on the neighbourhood

In 1883, on a bright Sunday evening in May, a mass demonstration was held at Firhouse Strand on the banks of the Dodder, only a stone’s throw from the Fir House Inn (Morton’s), opposing the introduction of the ‘Sunday Closing Bill’.  Up to 700 people gathered to listen to the speakers, assembled on a drag (temporary platform) by the riverbank.  From the raised floor, several workmen addressed the meeting and in the course of their harangues said they would not be deprived of “necessary refreshments”, such as a pint of stout on a Sunday, after travelling three miles.  “If the licensed houses were closed”, they were of the opinion, then “shebeens would be largely and fraudulently established throughout the country”.  The Terenure Band attended the demonstration playing national airs, as did, perhaps not surprisingly but for different reasons, a large contingency of the Royal Irish Constabulary.  The meeting, unpredictably, disbanded peacefully at 7pm.

There is little evidence that many went without their refreshments on a Sunday in the following years, or of the widespread establishment of shebeens in the district.

For many labouring men, Sunday afternoons in Firhouse in the late 1800s, were routinely spent partaking in two of the favoured recreations of the time: field-wrestling  (Hillmen Vs Dalemen) and drinking, not always in that order.  Organised wrestling matches in the district regularly attracted up to 600 people, and not infrequently, resulted in all attendees also becoming participants.  The proposed “Sunday Closing Bill” was not unrelated to the frequent faction-fighting which arose from these wrestling matches, and nor were they confined to the district of Firhouse.

While not all 700 attendees at the “Sunday Closing” demonstration were locals, the sheer number of people in attendance tells us something about the strength of feeling on the matter in the locality.  It is reasonable to conclude that the men of Firhouse liked their Sunday pint and a bit of  argy-bargy.  And so it would remain for the following sixty years.

The 'Bona Fide' rule that existed to facilitate ‘travellers’ away from home, to be able to enjoy refreshments on their journey, once they were at least three miles from their home place, was regularly breached.  The development of the Dublin to Blessington Steam Tram in the late 1880s provided a welcome boon to suburban vintners along the tram route, and workers of Dublin took to the trams with gusto on Sunday afternoons to drink ‘Bona Fide’ pints of porter and stout. 

Wrestling & Faction Fighting in Firhouse, 1880

Thomas Browne’s of Firhouse- 1860

In 1865 Mr. Thomas Browne, shortly after his youngest daughter Mary, married Laurence Coffey, a well to do merchant in Dublin, put his licensed premises in Firhouse up for sale.   The premises was on land held on a 99 year lease dated the 29^th September 1857 for an annual rent of £10. The premises failed to sell and Browne let the premises to Henry Clifton before finally disposing of it in 1868.

Clifton’s – “The  Firhouse Tavern”         1866- 1908

By the late-1860s The Firhouse Tavern was run by Henry J Clifton and his wife Mary-Louise.  Together they lived there with Mary’s mother, Agnes Julie Geraghty (of Rockfield, Clondalkin), who had moved in with them on the death of her husband, John Geraghty, where she spent the last years of her life.  She would pass away in 1890.

Henry and Mary-Louise were assisted by Ms. Margret Black, an unmarried Wexford woman and servant, who by fifty four years of age had given forty years service to Henry Clifton.  The Cliftons together would have three sons and four daughters- Thomas, Michael, Henry and Belinda, Annie-Maria, Agnes and Elisabeth. Thomas, the eldest son would, as a young man emigrate to America.  Michael would marry at 21 and become a Journeyman Butcher, while Henry, who remained single and acquired no trade, still lived with his mother when he was 34 years old. Elisabeth Clifton would, in 1894, marry John Woodley of Kingstown, a Post Office official (Their son, Henry Woodley, would later join the Dublin Fusiliers and serve in Gallipoli, from were he would write home in September 1915, informing his father he had lost his entire company on arriving in Suvla Bay). Belinda Clifton married John Muldoon, a son of one of the largest landowners around Tallaght and Firhouse, and would reside in Harlem House in Old Bawn.


 The development and commencement of the Dublin to Blessington Steam Tram in 1888, with a ticket office and stop just a 5 minute walk away in Balrothery, would provide a boon to the establishment.

The Cliftons had by 1890, a good sized shop well fitted for the Liquor business, with a provision shop, parlour, drawing room, 4 bedrooms, suitable stores and out-offices and an adjoining field, on which Henry would rear a few heifers every year to supplement his income from the shop and bar.  In addition to the shop and bar, the premises contained 4 cottages and a forge which generated an annual rent roll of £27 17s 6d.  With an annual ground rent of £10, it left a yearly profit on rent of over £17 (less tax), before a days trading was conducted.

Over the duration of Clifton’s tenure in Firhouse the licence would pass several times between Henry and Mary-Louise.  In September 1897 a seven day licence was granted to Mary Clifton, of the Firhouse Tavern, but in May 1902 it was Henry Clifton who was brought before the court charged with serving outside of hours on a Sunday. Henry was fined £2.  In October of that year a renewal of his licence would be refused, and in 1904 an application was made for the transfer of the licence back to Mary-Louise Clifton.

In June 1905, 54 year old Margret Black, Henry Clifton’s good and faithful servant died.  She had worked for Henry since she was 14 years of age. It was to mark the beginning of a difficult period for the Cliftons.  In May 1907 Henry Jr. and his mother were involved in a serious horse-and-trap accident near the tram depot in Templeogue Village.  Henry’s horse, taking fright at a tram, bolted across the road crashing into another horse and trap belonging to Dr. Kays of Whitehall House S.C.R.  The occupants of both vehicles were thrown violently from the trap and Mary Clifton received a severe wound to her head.  Taken by ambulance to the Meath Hospital were her wound would be dressed, she was later transferred to St. Vincent’s Hospital where she recuperated in a private ward.

The following year (June 1908) Henry Clifton (Sr.) died and ‘The Firhouse Tavern’ would be auctioned off later that year.   Ordinarily one might have expected the eldest son to take over the shop however Henry and Mary's eldest son Thomas had by now emigrated to America were he would die in tragic circumstances in New Jersey on the 27^th May 1910. 

After the sale of “The Firhouse Tavern” in December 1908, Mary-Louise Clifton moved to 64.2 Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin, where she lived with her sons Michael and Henry and daughter Annie-Maria. (Her married daughter Elizabeth Woodley and her family lived in 64.1). Mary-Louise Clifton died in 1919 and was buried in Glasnevin. 

In the 1950s the Woodleys would go on to run ‘Clifton House’ a guesthouse, on Upper Sherrard St in Dublin, (named after the Clifton’s of Firhouse), from 1955 to 1960.

M'Garry’s  of Firhouse    1908- 1920

In December 1908 the licence for premises previously occupied by Mary-Louise Clifton, transferred to Mr. William M'Garry, and one month later he bought ‘Clifton’s of Firhouse’.  The M'Garry family had been in the licensed trade for 100 years and William had previously had a licensed premises at 9 Newport Street in Dublin, along with three cottages, all of which he put on the market when he bought Clifton’s.  William M'Garry was 36 years old when he and his 33 year old wife, Elisabeth, moved to Firhouse with their two infant children, Marcella, (1) and baby William. In the coming years they would employ Annie Judge, a 25 year old barmaid from Leitrim, and a servant, Ellen Carroll, already a widow at 31, with three children.  Ellen had already lost a child.

In 1910 M'Garry was fined £5,  having been found to have four men on the premises on a Sunday and serving out of hours.  Three of the punters were also fined- Cassidy, Toole and Meade, however the fourth man, Grimes, escaped with a warning, on the basis that he claimed he had only been on the premises  to buy a ferret!

Entertainment in M'Garry's - The Sweet Strains of the Firhouse Band- 1910

In August 1913, Joseph Lavelle of Redmond’s Hill, was fined 10s at Tallaght Petty Sessions, for drunkenness, and 5s for smashing a plate-glass window in M’Garrys’s public house.  William M’Garry had refused to serve Lavelle any more drink. Lavelle was ordered to pay 15s to M’Garry in compensation. 

When William M’Garry died young in December 1915, the licence would transfer to his wife Elisabeth at the following licensing session.  Elisabeth M’Garry would hold the establishment until October 1920.

The Sale of M’Garry’s in 1920.  

Dowling’s of Firhouse                 1920- 1943

Francis Dowling, the seventh son of William Dowling of Clondalkin, married Anne Callan from Rathasker in Naas on the 8^th November 1920.   In the week of his marriage, a temporary transfer of the 7 day licence attached to “M’Garry’s” was granted to him.  Dowling appears to have kept a relatively ‘tidy house’ and for over 20 years his licence remained a “clean sheet” with only one minor charge of serving a punter who wasn't 'Bona Fide' which went unrecorded on his licence.  In 1927 Dowling, seeking to change his Sunday opening hours from 1pm-8pm, to 2 pm- 9pm, to “facilitate Fishermen”,  was commended by the local Sgt. Nyhan for keeping a well conducted house.

Dowling was a prominent committee member of the Licensed Grocers’ and Vintners’ Protection Association. Dowling had been a prominent player and Captain for the Hibernian Knights from 1906-1910, and was President of Wolfe-Tones G.A.C.

Firhouse was, in the 1930s a notorious neighbourhood. A toxic political climate after the civil war remained, and a strong republican element was associated with the district.  The establishment of the Blueshirts, and a depressed economic environment all contributed to challenging dynamics for the local vintners.  In 1933 a series of “Bass Raids” were carried  out by republican activists (many from Firhouse!) on local pubs in South Dublin, and Dowling would be cautioned to discontinue stocking the tipple or face the consequences. The ‘consequences’ were not pretty.  One publican from Lucan was brought at gun point in a lorry up to the featherbeds, were he was stripped bare to his underpants. Other publicans in the district were also cautioned.

"The Firhouse Rowdies", a notorious local gang active in 1932. 

 Several of the "Firhouse Rowdies" with Republican leanings would go on

 to be involved in the "Bass Raids" in 1933, taking 'direct action' against local publicans.

When Francis Dowling died in August 1937 he left a wife, five sons and two daughters.  In September 1937 the licence was transferred to his wife and in May 1943 Dowling’s of Firhouse was sold at auction for £3, 110.

Over the next five years the Tavern would pass briskly through 5 different hands: Conlon to Nolan, McKenna, Farrelly and Ennis.

To be Continued… (See Part II, 2nd February 2019) Like, Share and Subscribe

Albert Perris