The Foxes Covert of Tallaght since 1828

Fox's of Tallaght 

In December 1828 Sergeants Hanagan and Nugent, set out from their barracks in Ballinascorney in pursuit of two armed suspects seen acting suspiciously in the district. Shots were heard in the distance and Hanagan and Nugent pursued their quarry across the fields, over the mill races and through the trees.  On arriving at Fox’s Public House in Tallaght, a young female servant declined the sergeants entry, until she was politely persuaded to do otherwise.  One of the suspects was apprehended while the other managed to slip out the door.  He was vigorously pursued by Hanagan.  The detained prisoner said his name was Kelly.  After further interrogation he said his name was Farrell, before finally declaring himself a Murphy.  A small purse of crimson silk, ornamented with gilt clasp, gilt beads and a gold tassel was found on his person.  He was committed for further examination.

Which is of course, all beside the point.  The point being, there has been a "Fox's" Public House, of one sort or another, in Tallaght for a considerable period of time- almost 200 years.  While it might not have been  on the current site of The Foxes Covert, it was likely indeed to have been related to that establishment, known only 50 years later, as William Fox’s of Tallaght.  Mr. Thomas Fox, a Publican at Tallaght was declared insolvent in 1836.

Fox’s of Tallaght- William Fox D.C., and “The Covert”- 1886-1932

William Fox, D.C., was a busy and industrious man.  While an active member of the Licensed Grocers and Vintners’ Protection Association, the Rural District Council (R.D.C), the Board of Guardians and the United Irish Party, he was, as a District Councillor, co-opted as a director to the board of the Dublin to Blessington Tram Company.

In 1876 William Fox held the licence for the Knocklyon House (now Delany’s), in Firhouse. In 1880 Fox, then described as ‘a grocer in Rathfarnham’, married Catherine Redmond.  In August 1883, William and Catherine Fox, still resident in Knocklyon House buried a son, who “only survived his birth a few hours”. It would be the first of three tragedies in close succession.

Shortly after they would move to Tallaght village with their two remaining children, William and Daisy. In March 1886, further tragedy was visited upon the family, when their three year old son William Jr., was struck down with croup and died.  Having already buried his two sons, seven weeks later in May 1886 William Fox would bury his wife, 36 year old Catherine.  The now widowed William Fox faced the prospect of raising his only remaining child, Daisy, alone.

Two years later Fox would remarry- Mary Joseph Collins.  They would have two daughters together.  By the late 1880s  Mr. William Fox, publican, grocer and substantial farmer held public houses in both Tallaght and Jobstown, both situated on what would become the Dublin to Blessington tramline.

The tramline would bring at least as much tragedy as prosperity to the village of Tallaght.  In 1890 a niece of William Fox, Mary Fox would be one of the very many fatal casualties of the line.   Fox’s public house in Tallaght was regularly used for conducting inquests, following such accidents.  

It is fair to say William Fox's affairs prospered.  In March 1889,  he put the building of an extension on his pub and shop in Tallaght out to tender. The pub sold principally O' Connell's Dublin Ale and his grocery was an agent for the Wicklow News.

A shield made of wood depicting two foxes holding a 'loving cup' between them, was on the wall over the door.  As the years went by William's wife and daughters took on increasingly active roles in the family business, freeing William to devote more time to the public affairs of the district.  His daughter Teresa worked in The Covert in the village, along with her mother, while Angela worked in the Jobstown House, her fathers other Pub, along with her Aunt, Ms. Collins.

In May 1904, Fox bought, at the fancy price of £10 a pedigree Irish Fox terrier, which became known to all in Tallaght as  "Joe Chamberlain".  Joe Chamberlain was one of the best known dogs in the district, on account of him loitering about the Tram Office in the village.  Fox called him after Joseph Chamberlain, the English Statesman and father of the future British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. (Ten years later Fox would keep an Irish Terrier bitch that answered to the name "Sheila". It is not known who she was called after!)

One of the first telephones in Tallaght was installed in The Covert by the Tram Company, and another in the Jobstown Inn.  As a large grocery, bar, Tram Office, and telephone station, Fox's of Tallaght became a central focal point in the town, for people to gather and to get the news of the day.

For almost 30 years, little happened in Tallaght village without William Fox knowing about it.  In 1907, when the Dominican’s Laundry (now ‘St. Josephs Retreat Centre’, previously ‘Tallaght House’) went up in flames, it was William Fox who raised the alarm and dispatched an errand boy to Dublin City to summon the Fire Brigade.

While Fox's position in the business, political and social life of the town may have brought to him and his family certain privileges and status, it also brought him enemies.  He was not universally admired. 

On a dark and wet October morning in 1909, William Fox came downstairs to open up his shop for the day.  A quantity of pitch had been poured under the door and the entire front of the shop had been plastered and smeared with tar. His name above the door “William Fox”, was obliterated completely and the windows and framework around the door smeared over.  Fox sent for the Acting Sergeant, Corrigan, and he and several of the local constabulary arrived.  It was hoped that the perpetrators of the “dastardly outrage” would be discovered, but despite vigilant efforts the perpetrator does not appear to have been apprehended.

Two and a half years later, in March 1912, Fox, again arising from his bed and going to his door to open up for the day, found himself in pitch.  The premises, Fox’s family residence, was much disfigured and “Some lettering was put on the shop with a brush”.  We do not now know what that ‘lettering’ said because it was not recorded or published but we might assume for that reason, it was not polite, at least by the standards of the time. For reasons now unknown, Mr. William Fox was not universally held in high regard. 

Indeed, simply working for Mr Fox, could be enough to make one a target, for some of his disgruntled customers.

A new pair of trousers

In February 1914 an employee of Mr Fox was assaulted on the road near Tallaght village.  James Kenny from Lugmore gave John Dillon of Jobstown “a slap and a box, knocking him to the ground and ruining his trousers”.  The only motive for the attack was that Dillon worked for William Fox in his public house.  Fox, in court the following month, stated that the defendant and his brother used to cause trouble in his shop, so he would not let them in:

                                              "He had no way to revenge himself on me, so he kicked my man”.  

                                             “Will you give this man a new pair of trousers”, 

                                               the Justice asked the defendant, pointing to Dillon, 

                                               to which Mr. Fox interjected “I Hope so.  

                                               It would not be wholesome to have him

                                               standing at the shop door without them”. 

The defendant was fined 3s and 7s costs.

Mrs Fox's Public House

After the death of William Fox in 1914, The Covert was run by his wife Mary, assisted from 1924 by her daughter Angela. It was a challenging role, during challenging times, particularly during the  Civil War and the War of Independence.

Wires-cut!

In 1920, at 8 o' clock on a Saturday night, a number of a telephone wires in the village were cut. A group of 24 men, some walking and some on bicycles, arrived and assembled outside the recently vacated police barracks in the village.  One of the men entered Fox's public house, armed with a revolver.  He prevented Mrs Fox from attempting to go near or use the telephone, which was installed in the pub for the use of the tramway company. The men left Tallaght without doing further damage.

In 1922 the sum of £22 was taken in an armed raid on the public house.  Just as Mrs Fox  was about to leave to take the money to the bank, a number of men entered the premises. Mrs Fox ran upstairs to hide the money she had left on the counting table.  She was followed by one of the men and obliged to hand the money over. Afterwards the men walked away from the shop quietly.

Mrs Mary Fox died in 1927.  The Covert was left in trust, for the benefit of her daughters, Teresa and Angela.

Vixens!

William Fox had three daughters, Daisy from his first marriage, and Teresa and Angela (Angelina) with his second wife Mary.

Teresa Fox & Dr P.J. Lydon

Dr P.J. Lydon, the son of a Galway businessman, was a young medical officer in Tallaght, when he went to serve in the Great War, in France, India and the near east with the rank of Captain. The young officer was with the advanced party of British troops who entered Bagdad (Baghdad).

In 1917, Dr Patrick Lydon, by then, Lieutenant Lydon, was serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Mesopotamia (Turkey) when he hunkered down in a trench, wounded, smoking a cigarette.  Blowing across the plains of no man’s land was the loose pages of an American magazine.  The color prints and English text caught Lydon’s attention.  On grabbing a page in the wind, to his amazement he found himself reading a story by Nora Tynan O’ Mahony, the established Tallaght writer.  To add to his melancholy, Tynan O’Mahony’s story was describing the scenery around Tallaght. It might have been this that contributed to Lydon’s growing disenchantment- seeing many young men from Bohernabreena and district facing almost certain death on the eastern front.

Lydon was, by a generation of men in the hills above Tallaght, fondly remembered after the Great War, as the man who encouraged and certified many men to come home safely- reportedly ‘certifying’ in advance, conditions which would almost certainly have been acquired by these young recruits.  Ethics, medical or otherwise, was not something that greatly troubled him. On returning to Tallaght, where he had previously served on the district council with William Fox, Dr P.J. Lydon married William's daughter, Teresa Fox.

But Lydon would also be remembered for less noble reasons.  In 1925, when a young boy was involved in a serious accident in a sandpit, he was brought seriously injured to the Tallaght dispensary.  On arrival, the boy’s father James Langan, was told that Dr Lydon was in Kennedy’s public House (now Old Mill Pub).  The injured boy was brought by horse and trap to Kennedy’s, to be seen by the dispensary doctor.   Lydon refused to see the boy on account of his father ‘not having a ticket’ (ordinarily given by the Board of Guardians to cover the costs).  The boy was very seriously injured and in need of immediate and critical medical attention.  Lydon said he would "not touch that boy with a 40 foot pole”, as he did not have a ticket and was ‘therefore a private patient’.  Lydon said as he was a private patient, for private and personal reasons he would not see the boy.  He departed Kennedy’s Pub, walking straight past the injured boy lying on the trap, and advised his father to ‘take him to a hospital’.  The incident would give rise to a commission of inquiry.  In response to the inquiry Lydon claimed to have been in Kennedy's Pub seeing Jack Kennedy, who he claimed was a private patient and he was simply tending to his patient.

It was not the only occasion, when Dr Lydon was found to be in a public house when duty called. 

Angela (Angelina) Fox & Thomas McGlashon- The Battle of Brookfield

Angela Fox married Thomas McGlashon of Brookfield, the son of a Scottish immigrant, and an accomplished ploughman.

Thomas Mc Glashon was heir to his aunt’s estate and the farm he worked- a one hundred and fifty acre demesne attached to the prestigious Brookfield House.  On the death of his aunt, Thomas and Angela McGlashon were one of the most "well-to-do" young couples in the district.  Angela, daughter of the respectable William Fox, had married well, consolidating the fortunes of two of Tallaght’s most comfortable families.  McGlashon, a convert to Catholicism, acted as a republican justice during the War of Independence, and Brookfield House was reportedly raided on a number of occasions.

Sadly, the fortunes of both families would dwindle.  Thomas McGlashon would embark on defending, to the nth degree, a costly legal case taken by a neighbour, Jimmy Jolley of Jobstown, over a contested right to renew a lease on McGlashons land at Brookfield. Jolley sought £700 in damages against McGlashon, for losses arising from McGlashons refusal to renew the lease on land that had been worked by Jolloy for several years.  McGlashon, in turn, counter sued for damages, alleging Jolley had failed to maintain the land, and in particular the gates and fences on the land  "in the ordinary course of good husbandry".  

While McGlashon would ultimately win the case, and was awarded £10 damages, the costs of the case were awarded against him.  As his legal costs had mounted McGlashon had gambled on the costs of the case being awarded against Jolley. 

In the immediate years after the case, McGlashon  took out several mortgages with his own Solicitor, Gerald Tench, to pay him, using his Brookfield estate as collateral.  Repayment terms included 8% per annum interest on the pound.   Unable to meet the repayments to Tench,  by 1923 Tench was forced to take an action against his own client for outstanding payments amounting to £119 7s. 3d. McGlashon sought to counter-sue his own Solicitor, accusing him of being an 'unlicensed moneylender'.  McGlashon was playing double or quits!  It was a high risk game, against one who held a better hand, a game McGlashon would ultimately lose.  After several hearings and numerous appeals, the High Court ruled against McGlashon, and directed that Brookfield be sold. Unable or unwilling to concede defeat, when Brookfield was put on the market, at the direction of the High Court, a campaign of intimidation and threats was waged against prospective buyers.  One such buyer was Josie Jellet, who was prompted to take a case against McGlashon, for frustrating the purchase of the estate.  She was represented by none other than Gerald Tench, the Solicitor who had for many years represented McGlashon, before he was left out of pocket and accused of being a moneylender. One could be forgiven for thinking that old scores were being settled. After seven years of legal wrangling, and commensurate legal costs, McGlashon was a beaten docket. The costs and stress had likely taken its toll not just on McGlashon, but also on his marriage. With no fight left in him, McGlashon elected to flee. In 1924 he would abscond, leaving the country, his wife and children, never to be seen again.  From the G.P.O. in Dublin, Thomas McGlashon’s last act before departing the country was to send a parcel of toys and sweets to his two young sons, William (6) and James (8) in Brookfield. Rumour circulated that he had gone to Canada.

His now abandoned wife, a mother of two young children, resident on a greatly encumbered estate, faced ignominy, penury and scandal.

In 1924 over 150 men, armed with pitchforks and other implements gathered on the Brookfield estate to protest against the eviction of Angela McGlashon and her two young sons from Brookfield House.  She would present a medical certificate to the bailiff, stating she was too weak and poorly to be evicted.  The certificate was signed by none other than Dr P.J. Lydon, her own brother in law.  Lydon knew that if Angela and the boys were evicted from Brookfield, his penniless and indebted sister-in-law, would have nowhere else to go, but to The Fox's Covert.  Prospective purchasers of the distressed estate were left on no uncertain terms by the rustic locals, that they were not welcome in Brookfield or Jobstown.  Several potential buyers pulled out of bidding amid allegations of intimidation and threats.  Angela McGlashon, persisting in her breach of a High Court order to vacate the estate, ended up in prison serving a two month sentence.  It was the first, but would not be the last time she found herself confined to such quarters. After serving her two month sentence, on vacating Brookfield she moved down to "The Covert" with her two boys, and assisted her mother in running the public house, until her mother died in 1927.

In May 1927, Mary Joseph Fox, widow of William, died at her residence “The Covert” in Tallaght.  On her passing, Mary J Fox  bequeathed a ‘life interest’ in The Covert to Teresa Lydon, and it was to pass, on her death, to Angela McGlashon.  Both sisters, before their marriages, had experience of managing pubs, Angela in Fox's of Jobstown, and Teresa in The Covert.  In June 1927 Theresa Lydon sought a transfer of the license for the Fox’s Covert in Tallaght. The application was opposed by Angela McGlashon, who was by then resident in the establishment and had been running the shop with her mother.  She was entitled to the pub on the death of her sister.  Teresa, Angela claimed, was of “Intemperate Habits”, and as the wife of the local dispensary doctor could not live on the premises. Teresa Lydon responded to the claim, furnishing her sister with a writ for slander.  “The parties in the case appear to be on rather bad terms", the Justice noted, "and each gave her opinion of the other pretty freely”.  Lydon was granted a three month “ad interim transfer” and the court would refuse the transfer if it was thought the applicant was not suitable.  The pub was not regularly conducted!

An arrangement was agreed whereby Angela McGlashon would live in and run the establishment, and pay her sister an annuity for life. 

However, when the Munster and Leinster Bank learnt of Angela's interest in the establishment they  moved against her, owing to the significant outstanding debts related to Brookfield.

In 1929 Angela McGlashon applied for the license for “The Fox’s Covert” but in December of that year  "Angela Elizabeth McGlashon, Publican and Shopkeeper, of Tallaght", was declared bankrupt. 

With both parents dead, her husband long departed, and her sister no longer on speaking terms with her, Angela McGlashon was in dire straits. A complex series of legal actions and appeals followed, prolonging her stay in The Covert, but ultimately, to no avail.  Angela McGlashon would, by hook or by crook, do anything, to ensure her boys were provided for. As pressure mounted on her to relinquish occupancy and vacate The Covert, and with nowhere else to go, the abandoned and bankrupt mother, facing certain destitution, resorted to extraordinary and desperate measures.

Heir to a fortune & the Jewellery Thief 

On the 15th March 1932 Angela McGlashon got the tram from Tallaght village into Dublin.  She was accompanied by her youngest son.  Visiting Jameson and Jameson jewellers on Henry Street, she entered the jewellery shop and requested to view a pad of expensive rings on display in the shop window.  While admiring one pad of rings, she asked the shop assistant if she could also see another pad of rings  from the window display.  Leaving the first pad on the counter with her, the assistant went to the window to retrieve the second pad.  She admired both pads, each containing about 30 rings, but left in haste without buying anything.  The shop assistant, casually inspecting both the pads and noting they were full, placed them back in the shop window.   Three days later, the shop assistant had reason to inspect the pads once more, and was surprised to find that an imitation ring worth no more than 3 shillings sat in the place holder of a diamond ring worth £10.

On the same day Angela McGlashon called to Hopkins & Hopkins and offered two rings for sale.  The manager, Robert Murphy knew Angela McGlashon.  He declined one of the rings, but invited Angela to return at a later time with the other ring, to have it valued.

Later still that afternoon Angela presented to Kelly’s Pawnshop, Westmoreland Street where she pawned 3 rings for £8, under the assumed name of Mrs. O’Neill of Blessington.  McGlashon had stolen at least three rings from city jewellers, quickly converting them to cash, in a number of pawnshops under the assumed name. With some of the money, she bought her young son a wristlet watch.

The following October, Angela McGlashon appeared in court and pleaded guilty to the theft.  The offense was one of great gravity.  The justice took into considerations the defendants guilty plea and also the fact that the value of the rings, £44, had been repaid.  But the defended had defrauded two jewellers ‘in a most considered manner and had not given way to the crime on the spur of the moment’.  She was sentenced to six months imprisonment. An abandoned wife, a bankrupt, and now a common criminal, the fall from respectability of Angela McGlashon, publican and grocer, was absolute, final and spectacular.

A new licence for The Foxes Covert was granted to Edward Archibold, the auctioneer and receiver appointed by Mr. Justice Meredith, in the High Court of Justice, to facilitate the sale of The Fox’s Covert.  The receiver would move to sell off “The Fox’s Covert” in June 1933. It had been in the Fox family for almost fifty years.

Sale of The Fox's Covert, June 1933, at the direction of the High Court of Justice

This might have marked the end of an eventful, but tragic story for Angela McGlashon.  But there was to be one curious, indeed extraordinary development.  By 1934, Thomas McGlashon had not been seen or heard of in ten years.  After the release of Angela McGlashon from prison, and the receiver's sale of The Fox’s Covert, an incredible story appeared, or perhaps, was placed in the national press.

The Irish Press. December 20th 1934 

The absent and elusive Thomas McGlashon was heir to a Canadian fortune- if only he would make contact with a firm of Dublin solicitors.  McGlashon’s father, James, who had died in 1899 had moved to Ireland from Pithlockory, Pertshire in Scotland with his brother Peter.  A sister who remained in Scotland married a Mr. Gillespie, and they moved to Canada where Mr. Gillespie sought and made his fortune. Mr. and Mrs Gillespie had since died ‘without issue’, and relatives were now being invited, to make claim to their sizable estate.   A firm of Dublin Solicitors was now publicly calling for Mr. Thomas McGlashon to get in touch regarding the matter.  McGlashon  could surmise that having abandoned his wife and two children ten years earlier, and having absconded leaving at least £300 in unpaid debts, whatever inheritance  may or may not await him, would be small beer compared to his certain and many obligations.  He appears to have neither claimed his inheritance nor discharged his obligations.  It is possible that the entire affair was a  ruse to entice McGlashon back to the city, to join his more immediate relatives and their financial fate. 

Teresa Lydon (nee Fox) died in 1939.  With her husband, Dr Lydon,  her sister, Angela McGlashon and her two sons, were the principal mourners at the service. There was, by request, no flowers.

On leaving Tallaght, Angela McGlashon lived in Dundrum and Rathmines. A resident of Belgrave Road, Rathmines she died in 1974 at the age of 84.  Her son, William, with whom she lived on Belgrave Road died in 1988.

Daisy (Mary Teresa) Fox & James Cosgrave

Daisy, the only surviving child of William Fox and his first wife Catherine, married James Cosgrave of Churchtown, Co. Dublin.  In 1934, after her sister Angela was released from prison, having served a 6 month sentence for theft, Daisy's husband James was successfully sued for £500 arising from the accidental death of a man, due to cattle straying from Cosgrave's land, resulting in a fatal collision.  It was without doubt, an Annus Horribilis for the daughters of William Fox.

Daisy died at Mountain View House, Churchtown, Dundrum in  April 1940.  Her husband James died in 1958.

Molloy's of Tallaght – 1933

When Martin Molloy bought “The Fox's Covert”, while not as fervently Republican a district as Firhouse, Tallaght and its people were well disposed to those of a republican persuasion.  Martin Molloy connected with the people of Tallaght initially through sport.  A competent Gaelic footballer, Molloy had previously established “Seán McDermotts”, of which he would become club president.   His politics were republican and his pastime was football, making him easy company for the drinking men of Tallaght.  And he had form in both.  As a young man Martin Molloy was arrested during the War of Independence and imprisoned for 7 weeks, during which time he had gone on hunger strike.

On the 21st of February 1920, Martin Molloy, a native of Portrushen, near Hacketstown, Co. Carlow was arrested. He was held in the RIC barracks in Hacketstown and brought before a Saturday sitting of the court in Carlow. His removal from the barracks under armed escort to the courthouse, was the first time the British military had been seen in the district “with fixed bayonets and tin hats”.  He was found and charged to be in possession of  a printed advertisement for a Dáil Éireann Loan, a volunteer belt, a programme of the Sinn Féin Council and  a piece of white cloth ‘capable of being used as a mask’. One would have thought that “a piece of white cloth”, could be used for a variety of purposes, but altogether it was enough, when Molloy refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the court, refused to post bail and refused to plead,  to secure him two calendar months in Mountjoy Jail with hard labour, to where he was promptly brought.

On the 13th of April 1920 Martin Molloy was released from Mountjoy Jail and brought to the Mater hospital, were he was visited by a cousin.  The twenty-three year old footballer, who had been in the prime of his health only seven weeks earlier, was found to be dazed and delirious, murmuring in low tones.  His temperature was sub-normal.  Over seven weeks he had become a shadow of the man he had been.  Dr. Flaherty, examining Molloy, thought his condition to be serious but not life-threatening. Not taking any chances, when Rev. Fr. Young, the hospital chaplain arrived, he was advised by Dr. Flaherty to administer the Last Sacraments.  Molloy had just completed a two month sentence under D.O.R.A. (Defence of the Realm Act,).  On release, Molloy returned to a hero’s welcome- borne on the shoulders of men and paraded through his native Hacketstown.

Martin Molloy, the Manager of the “Scotch House” in Dublin left the Scotch House in Dublin in 1933 and paid £1, 650 for The Fox’s Covert.  A reserve had been set at £200, before spirited bidding drove it higher.  It was the best of times and the worst of times- to buy the property. He was buying the property as ‘a distressed asset’ due to the declining fortunes of the Fox family.  But it was also the worst of times- the public house stood on the tramline which had run for thirty years.  The last tram had left in 1932, and it's closure would no doubt impact on the pubs bottom line. The establishment had not been run as well as it might, over the previous decade and had a reputation for disorderly conduct and a rough enough clientele, coming 'out from town'.  Molloy, having served in the Scotch House, knew the game well and had a reputation for keeping both order and peace.  He would quickly restore both to what now became known as Molloy's bar and Grocery, and its environs.

Mr. Martin Molloy

  

While the tramline may have closed, four different buses passed the door, a number of which ‘went through the slums” on their way into Dublin City.   “Slum Dwellers” could reach Tallaght in 30 minutes on the bus. When Molloy first came to Tallaght, Sgt Nyhan regularly had to quell disorderly conduct after hours on the road outside the establishment-  “It is hard to tell the difference between a Blackguard and a Gentleman nowadays as they all dress the same", the local Sergeant noted during one particular court appearance.  You could hear the Choir in the Dominican Priory from the door of the pub, and the justice asked “Are you afraid the customers will form an opposition choir?”. “That would not be so harmonious”, the Justice quipped.  Both order and harmony appears to have been restored by Molloy early in his tenure.

In 1944 Martin Molloy, by then well established in Tallaght, ran in the Senate elections as one of two candidates for the Licensed Grocers and Vintners' Association.  The other candidate was John Maguire, of Bolloch Castle, who at that time held the licence for The Tap (what is now  Aherne’s of Old Bawn).  In October 1948 Martin Molloy was only 100 votes off topping the poll when he was elected as an independent candidate in the Dublin County Council elections.

In 1949 Molloy was fined £2, for having six men, who were not bona fide travellers on the premises.  Tellingly, it was his first offence, a record acknowledged by Justice Reddin at the hearing.  Molloy had not been on the premises on the night, as he was attending a committee meeting as a member, for a local dance and had instructed staff to ensure there were no locals on site. 

After 25 years in Tallaght, Martin Molloy died in 1958 after a long illness. He was remembered by locals as a kind and generous man. Many years ago, a patron of Molloy's in the 1940s, Bill Finnegan, related the following tale:

     "I was on my first weeks holidays from CIE in 1948 when auld Bartel Cunningham in the village died.  Bartel and Mick Cunningham were the best carpenters and wheelwrights ever known.  They were great tradesman and lived facing Higgins' garage on the corner (in the village).  I was on my holidays from CIE and having a pint in Molloys with Jimmy Doyle and Anthony Heron, when we got the news that auld Bartel was dead.  Now, Bartel was stooped over all his life from the work; he could never stand up straight.  So he was sitting in bed and nobody knew how long he had been dead for.  The neighbours used to call around to the Cunninghams to see if they were all right, because they were all very old and Margaret was doting a bit. And it was one of the neighbours that noticed Bartel was dead.  Martin Molloy send Jack O'Neill, the barman, into town in the van to get a coffin.  When Jack returned with the coffin, Martin Molloy asked Anthony Heron, Garda Tuite, Jimmy Doyle and myself if we would go over and coffin him!  We said 'Yes' but before we went over Martin Molloy gave us all free drink.  We went over and had an awful job trying to coffin him, because he was so stooped over, we couldn't straighten him into the coffin.  Martin Molloy buried auld Bartel and a few like him" 

Inside Molloy's "Provisions and Groceries"

In September 1959 the licence for the establishment was transferred to Elizabeth (Lily) Molloy, Martin's wife.  His 14 year old son Kevin left school to go to work. Young Kevin Molloy, would stand on the street corner, keeping watch, to warn late night drinkers in his mother’s pub of the arrival of patrolling Gardai.

The Molloy Group

Kevin Molloy left the Christian Brothers School on Synge Street, at 14 years of age and went to work as an apprentice in the grocery trade, taking a position with H Williams, the supermarket chain to which he would later sell a site in Tallaght village.  At 21 years of age he returned to night classes, passing the leaving certificate at the age of 24.  He went on to Trinity College to study Law for three years and went on to finish a full time law course at Kings Inns, qualifying as a Barrister before attending a number of brief business courses in Harvard University in the U.S.

Kevin's brother, Norbert Molloy, 'crossed the street' to join the Dominican Friars in the early 1960s, taking religious vows in 1963 alongside Fr. Len Perrem, one of Tallaght's most notable Dominicans.  When one of Martin Molloy's daughters, Kathleen, married a Solicitor from Galway in 1967, it was Kevin Molloy who walked her up the aisle of the Dominican Priory, to be met by Fr. Norbert O.P., who officiated at the ceremony. 

In August 1964 a safe was stolen from Molloy’s containing £400, spirits and cigarettes. The following year, 1965, Kevin Molloy returned to the family concern and took the business in hand. He quickly set about rebuilding and extending Molloy's of Tallaght, reinstating the old name of "The Foxes Covert" (not being Fox's Covert) and establishing the Molloy Tavern group.  Few native Tallaght businesses have enjoyed such success.

In 1969, Molloy was arguably one of the first publicans in the country to launch a novel drinks promotion- discounting the price of beer and spirits for the over 70s. He may have anticipated that by the next census, Tallaght would have one of the youngest population demographics in Ireland!  With the successful expansion and development of the Foxes Covert young Kevin Molloy was emboldened and well placed, to replicate the success in other suburbs with similar demographics. The size of the growing urban drinks market in Dublin was proportionate only to Kevin Molloy’s own ambition and over the following decade the Molloy Tavern Group’s expansion would mirror the growth of Dublin’s suburbs.

In May 1970- The Penthouse in the Seven Towers in Ballymun was opened.  Kevin needed a new name for the pub and held a local competition to name it.   The competition reportedly received 10,000 entries.  Four people had suggested “The Penthouse” and each were awarded £20.   The premises could accommodate over nine hundred people, 550 downstairs and 400 seated upstairs, and would dispense 15,000 pint of beer and stout a week.  The pub was launched by Maxi, Dick and Twink.   Kevin Molloy was 26 years old. Only three weeks earlier he had bought The Royal Oak in Finglas and that would reopen the following month.

The Swiss Cottage- Bought by Kevin Molloy in 1971 for £140,000.  Note the Fox logo adopted by the Molloy Group

In 1971, “Eugene O’ Reilly’s” a pub in Santry was acquired by Molloy for £140,000- one of the highest prices ever paid for a licensed premises in the country at the time. He would rename it The Swiss Cottage.

Meanwhile, the prospects for the Foxes Covert in Tallaght village had never been brighter.  The population of Tallaght in 1970, at 6,500 was forecast to grow seven-fold, to 45,000 within 10 years.

In 1973, among the substantial parcels of land around Tallaght village owned by Kevin Molloy was a six acre field beside the Protestant Church (roughly- Abberley Court Hotel).  Molloy was a member of Thomas Davis G.A.A club, and had the land leased to the club for pitches.  In 1971 Dublin Corporation (of which Martin Molloy had once been chair thirty years earlier), had put a compulsory purchase order on 1,400 acres of land around Tallaght- including Molloys 6 acre field, and erstwhile Thomas Davis' Pitches.  Dublin Corporation proposed to put part of a giant supermarket complex (The Square!) – the largest to ever be built in the country, and offices on the site.  Molloy- unusually for a business man in 1973, sought to prevent the local authority from having playing pitches turned into one of the largest commercial development sites in the history of the state.  Molloy had a long standing association and affiliation with the club.

Kevin had an interest of one kind or another with many of the developments in the village- The Village Green, the old H Williams site and the old Bank of Ireland.

The Bank of Ireland & Old Molloy Homestead- Kilronan

In August 1973 Molloy sought planning permission to convert the old Molloy family homestead “Kilronan”, a 1932 two-storey home on the main street in the village, into a bank.  The application was refused by the Local Authority under the Housing Act, on the grounds that it would reduce the supply of habitable housing in the council’s functional area. On appeal, the decision was later upheld by the Minster for Local Government, Minister Tully.  Interestingly in July 1975, on receipt of a fresh application, the same Minister Tully changed his mind and gave permission for the change of use for the ground floor of “Kilronan” to a use “Otherwise than for human habitation”.  The downstairs, would ultimately become, to the growing population of Tallaght, The Bank of Ireland- beside H Williams, Kevin Molloy’s old employer, also built on a site, sold to them by Molloy.

By 1975 Molloy also had an interest in The Fox and Hounds, in Ballyvolane, Co. Cork, and closer to home, The Brittas Inn and The Blue Gardenia Lounge.  Molloy was a director with others of The Brittas Inns Limited.  In the ensuing years his rapidly growing empire expanded to include The Greyhound Inn in Blanchardstown and the Belcamp Inn near Coolock – a newly built pub.  By 1979 he was in the process of developing another in Kilbarrack, The Foxhound.

By 1978 Molloy was considered one of the best known figures in the world of Dublin Pubs and by the following year the then 34 year old bachelor was overseeing a business empire, with seven licensed premises worth over £800K and with an annual turnover of £3 million.  He was living in a 200 year old Georgian mansion set on 30 acres in Clonsilla, driving a BMW to hunts with the Ward Union, and taking skiing holidays in Switzerland.  He liked to spread his wings with international trips to the U.S., Manila, Taiwan and Europe.   Not bad for a boy from Tallaght who had left school at 14!

Molloy remained active in, indeed committed, to the community of Tallaght.  The Molloy name is now as synonymous with Tallaght Village, as any other family name in its history, and for good reason.  For Molloy’s have done as much for the development of Tallaght village, as Tallaght did for them.

Kevin Molloy and his Mother, Lily, 1981

In more recent decades, the group focused on the off-license trade, though retained their flag-ship public house The Foxes Covert. It, along with the extensive Molloy chain of off-licenses is now in the hands of a third generation, with Martin Molloy's Grandson, and Kevin's son, Richard Molloy at the helm.  To mark the 85th anniversary of Molloys in Tallaght, they recently launched a new craft beer, 'Covert Operation'. The label features the three generations of Molloys- Martin, Kevin and Richard.  It also nods to the history and legacy of the Fox's of Tallaght. 

Albert Perris

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