The Memoirs of Matty Dunbar of Bohernabreena

The Memoirs of Matty Dunbar of Bohernabreena

Matty Dunbar, 1999 (Photo: Mr. Louis Fagan)

Matty Dunbar was born in North Mayo in 1915 and came to Tallaght as a young man.  He married Doreen Murray from Balrothery before settling in Bohernabreena.  After serving his time as a boiler maker with Hubert’s Engineering firm on Cork Street in Dublin, he worked in Woodtown and DeSelby quarries for a shilling an hour.

"When I first came to Tallaght there was still the remains of many little houses on the top of Tallaght Hill. They were the ruins of the weaver’s cottages.  A hundred years before my time a community of weavers  had come down from the north and set up there.  They would work away there for months, then go off around the country selling their wares.  The Night of the Big Wind (6th January 1839) smashed all their looms, knocked down their houses.  The next day they all packed up and left, never to be seen again.  There was an awful hurricane that night, from what I heard.  That was around the time of the famine (1847), many years before I was born.

Before I got a house in Bohernabreena I lived in Tin Town.  Tin Town was all little wooden huts on the banks of the Dodder along the right hand side of the Bohernabreena Road; about a mile from Kennedy’s Corner, not far from the strand where the Kearney brothers were hung.   Bobby Douglas built Tin Town when the steam tram finished in 1932.  He got all the carriages and sheds from the tram depot in Templeogue and set them up beside the river for the tourists to stay in during the summer.  Then, when the tourists got browned off with them he let them out to local families for five or six bob a week, because houses were scarce at the time.  Bobby Douglas made a grand job of them huts, great quality.  There was no electricity in them as rural electrification hadn't come in at the time and a well would have to be dug if you wanted water as it wasn't piped.  Of course the war was on by then. I remember the German planes coming over Ballinascorney Hill, on their way up to bomb Belfast.  We could hear the roar of the engines at night! 

Tin Town

Luftwaffe Ordinance Survey of Tallaght

My people were all Republicans.  My mother’s father, Grandfather Cuffe had been locked up for seven years for being a Fenian.  It was his own fault really, he never agreed with anyone!  Out to Van Diemen's Land, New South Wales, he was sent.  I joined The Fianna as a young lad in Pearse St. Library, when we first came to Dublin.  Out here Willie Gordon was the `Head Buck-Cat' of The Fianna.  His father was a Protestant down from the north.  There was a big company of volunteers up around Killakee- "F" Company, South Dublin Brigade. Frank Welsh was the OC and Mick and Goss Carroll were the two principals.  Jim Kerwin and Peter Kerwin were great IRA men, red-hot republicans. Peter lived up in the mountains.  Firhouse was all IRA men but Tallaght only had one or two in it.  Firhouse was a very rough area then.  All along there you had the Blueshirts so there would always be trouble.  The Blueshirts were everywhere at the time.  I remember Jim Bagnall and Dan Dunne tearing the shirts of each other, up on Kennedy’s Corner.  They set fire to Bagnall’s shirt for not being a Republican.  He was on the other side.

Another time there was a pitchfork battle between the IRA and Blueshirts down on Bloomfield Avenue. There were no guns used but every other weapon they could lay their hands on was used. It wasn't the official IRA, as orders were never given; just a group of lads who happened to belong to the IRA and sympathisers.  Then of course other lads would have just joined in for the row!  There were a lot of black eyes and broken noses that day.  Some of the fellas were arrested and put up in the barracks in Mountjoy, but a lot of them got away with it. The court case for those arrested went on for ages. I remember going down to Howth for the case and it was adjourned to Rathfarnham. Then, it was adjourned to Lucan.  It was a racket with the solicitors!  They were making money for nothing every time the case was adjourned.  The local people collected hundreds of pounds to defend the fellas involved.  Mr. Herman Goode, the main solicitor, he did very well out of it all.

June 1934

The Gilmore brothers were the head Republicans around here in the early days-  George, Harry and Charlie. They were Presbyterians down from the north. The Special Branch was always after them because they had a big arms dump up in Massy's Wood in Killakee.  They use to live up there in a bungalow for part of the year.  One night the 'G' men, Cosgrave’s men, came for George, Harry and Charlie.  They had the whole place surrounded, but they (Gilmores) still got away.  Just as well, because the `G' Men would he very rough if they got a hold to you.

The Gilmores had King Billy's head up in that dump for years. Someone cut the head off King Billy's statue in College Green and it ended up in their dump.  That was well known.  The dump was down under the river and could sleep five or six men in it, if need be. There was an auld Thomson Machine Gun, a few revolvers and a rifle or two in it. That was all I ever saw in it.  There was a big section of the IRA around at that time, fifty or sixty strong.  The used to drill all around there in Massy’s Wood.

Lord Massy and his wife had a grand place up there at one time. He had gardens and class houses; a fine place it was.  I don't remember it in full bloom, it was on its way down as far back as I can remember. Massy wasn't an industrious man, too fond of the drink. He drank that place into the ground and gambled it away.  When all the Lords were invited to the Coronation, Massy made a statement in the paper, that he couldn't go because he had no money.  A lot of those Lords had no money, they were only given the title to keep them quiet. Massy was an old man by the time I knew him.   Himself and the wife ended up living in the gate lodge. I often saw him in his last days, going around the grounds gathering bits of sticks for to light a fire. The whole estate had fallen down around them. It was said that Massy killed a man up there in the early days.  A man by the name of Welsh was taking a short cut through his estate, from Rockbrook to Glenasmole, so Massy shot him dead for trespassing. Massy could do what he liked at that time, because we were still under the British.

Massy's Estate Gardens

Some people thought the place was haunted after that. That's baloney!  When I was a young fella, before I was married, I was often up in that estate at all hours of the morning.  Myself and a few other lads would light a fire up there and have a bit of a sing-song.  There was nothing haunted about that place at all. That story only really caught on when the Restaurant opened!  I remember when Massy died, I was working below in Butterfield Avenue.  His body was being brought to Limerick to be buried, and we watched it pass. I never heard tell of the wife after. 

I knew two fellas who lived up that direction, Ken and Derek Coard. Ken was a famous long distance runner and lived up there- one of the finest runners this country had at the time. Ken and his twin brother, Derek, were big shots up there.  It is said that Ken was the first man to beat the great J.J.Ryan on his home ground in Tipperary.  He ended up a broken man in the end.  He had bought a new van with some of his winnings and ended up nearly killing a dozen people with the old one.  He was bringing milk down to Hughes' Dairy one Sunday morning and the new van wouldn't start.  So he loaded it all into the old van and set off down to Rathfarnham.  Because it was Sunday morning, there was a mission on in the chapel in Rathfarnham.  Ken was heading straight toward the chapel when his brakes went. The old van ploughed straight through the people. To make it worse he hadn't  the old van insured,  so he ended up broke, paying out compensation to people.

20th May 1933

He brought all his trophies and cups he had for running, down to the Pawn (Shop) in Portobello, but he just couldn't do it! He turned around and brought them straight back home again. He never really recovered from it in the end. 

Porter

Money was scarce for everyone at that time, but there was always plenty of entertainment. There was no shortage of pubs or dance halls around here then. Mary-Martha and Gerty O'Neill had The Dragon in the village and Martin Molloy was at the other end. I think he had worked in Beggars Bush before coming to Tallaght. The O' Neills were terrible gits for watering down the porter. They used to pour out the drink from a big enamel Jug.  We called that place “The pub with the net and wire head”, because the drink was so watered down.

People by the name of Porters had the pub in Old Bawn, where Ahernes is now. That, like O'Neill's in the village, only had a six day licence so if you wanted a pint on a Sunday, and if you had the price of it, you would have to sneak into the back of Porter's Pub.  He had sheds out the back, so lads could get a pint on Sunday morning without being seen.  You could only get bottles of Watkins' beers there, because they didn't sell Guinness or anything else.  Watkins had a big brewery at the end of Cork Street in town at that time.

Mick Delaney's pub was in Firhouse, between  (W.D.) Handcock's House and Dr Swan's.  Mr. Handcock had been a great historian.  He employed a lot of lads on his estate there. Dr Swan lived further down past Delaney’s. One night, before Christmas, all his fowl was taken, his ducks and geese.  Someone wrote a letter after, and stuck it on his door. It read:

“Dr Swan your hens are gone

Your cocks will crow no more.

You went to bed you sleepy head

And forgot to lock the door”.

Opposite Delaney's, near the banks of the Dodder, down O'Reilly's lane on the left hand side was 'Moscow' dancehall.  It was called that because there was always a row in it!  There were always great nights in Moscow. It was burnt down in the end because of the politics in Firhouse. Between the Blueshirts and the IRA, one crowd used it as a training hall and the other crowd wanted it. Someone wrote a poem about Moscow Hall. 

Moscow

They started a scheme in Firhouse , the neighbours one and all

They all gave a little subscription, in aid of a worker's hall

The hall it was bought in Dollymount, the one that was on the strand

Lawlor's lorry brought it home and Hanlons gave a hand.

The first night that it opened, there was a terrible row

And who comes running down the lane but little Joe and Scow

Beneath mossy banks and metal planks and the Dodder flowing near

And Bottler's but on the other side they filled the place with cheer

'The Plank'- Lattice Bridge in Firhouse (Photo: Patrick Healy)

Joe and Scow were good friends- Joe Carey and Scow Norton.  Bottler's hut was on the other side of the Dodder.  Bottler 0' Beirne was a great fisherman on the Dodder. He used to bottle stout for the pub (Morton's- then McGarry's )facing his hut while he was fishing.  He was a great man to have at a wake! He could tell yarns `til the cows came home.  At a wake, the fellas would play a game called "If you don't buy the fish don't maul it"-  They would have an old wet cloth, pass it around and then slap a fella across the face with it! I can't remember the exact rules.

A lot of lads from Firhouse would go to a dance hall in Rathfarnham called The Bluebird. It was up Butterfield Avenue, on the right hand side near the village.  Others would just go for a pint in Kennedy's on the corner (Old Mill).  That became Bridget Burkes after.   Jack Kennedy had that pub for years, but even before him, I think a man by the name of The Boss Lennon had it. He had been in America, and was said to have been involved in Tammany Hall and all that craic. His daughter married into the McKeons, cattle dealers on the Crumlin road.

Jack Kennedy bought that pub (Old Mill) when he sold his dairy on Townsend Street. He was a Tipperary man, with a lame leg, and his brother Andy owned The Embankment, near Crooksling. Now, Jack had two sons and two daughters but one of his sons, Sean, never lived with them, he lived with the uncle up in The Embankment.  The other son Seamus was a wild man, a drinker and a gambler. Seamus was packed off to America, because he was drinking all the profits, and when he came back he was married. Now, when his mother heard he was coming home, she decided to get shut of the place before the son drank it into the ground altogether, so she sold it to Tom Burke who worked there at the time.  When Seamus came back he bought a pub in Stepaside.  He sold that then and bought another pub in Lucan, “The Ball Alley" and sold that too.  The two daughters were Rita and Sid. Rita married a coal merchant from Terenure and Sid married a publican.  The mother and father, Jack and the wife bought a hotel in Waterford after they sold up to Tom Burke.  Tom married Bridget shortly after, but like his brother he died young, so the pub came to be known as Bridget Burkes.

The Stone Crusher

Facing Kennedy's pub on the corner, for years stood the stone crusher. There was a hundred small quarries around the hills of Bohernabreena and fellas would quarry the stone themselves and bring it down to the stone crusher on Kennedy's corner in a horse and cart.  The two main types of stone were "Green Whinstone" and "Strand Green". "Green Whinstone" was the hardest stone so you would get paid more for that, about three and six pence.  You could gather "Strand Green" all along the banks of the Dodder, so you wouldn't get as much quarrying that.  Though it was a tough job a big crowd of men from Tallaght and Firhouse worked in the quarries. Woodtown, DeSelby and Ballinascorney were the three main quarries then.  I worked under a Protestant, Dudley Dolan, in Woodtown quarry. He was the Head Buck-Cat in that quarry.  It was all Protestants up there at the time.  That was a rough auld job!  DeSelby was more modern and better organised so you wouldn't be pushed as hard.  A man by the name of Kenny used to run De Selby.  The same crowd who had the stone crusher on the corner, McCreath & Taylor owned Ballinascorney Quarry.  They always had the contract for the corporation.  But the crusher had to go in the end because it wasn't paying its way. McCreath & Taylor used a solid wheeled Albion lorry to draw the stone down to the crusher from Ballinascorney.  Now that could only do two or three loads a day if even that, and it wouldn't carry more than seven tons at a time, so even with the crusher going morning and night it didn't pay to keep it there.

On the opposite side of Kennedy's corner, on the Bohernabreena road, was the winning post for the Point to Point horse race which came through Tallaght every year.  One year, a chap from Knocklyon called James McGrane was retiring from the horses.  McGrane went to Punchestown and Baldoyle religiously every year and kept an auld jumper by the name of  "Rennie Small".  Now because he (McGrane) was retiring, all the lads in the Point to Point decided to let him win the race!  Of course no sooner had they decided to let him win, (when) the word got out, so everyone backed him!  When the race got under way, McGrane was fields ahead of the pack and there was not one even trying to catch him.  And by Christ, coming into the last, by the auld bend coming up to the winning post, off  McGrane went off into a ditch by the side of the road!   Oh there was cursing out of everyone because they all had him backed.  Poor auld Jim.  They had the race fixed for him and he still lost it!"

Albert Perris

(Memoirs (Edited) as set down in recorded audio interviews over several days, with Albert Perris in Glenview Lodge Day Care Centre, Glenview, Tallaght, Co. Dublin in 1998.  First published by Tallaght Welfare Society in “Since Adam was a Boy- An Oral Folk History of Tallaght (Perris, A., TWS, 1999).

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