A Ramble about Tallaght

  On the afternoon of Christmas Eve 1932, John Finnegan set out from his mother’s house in Roundtown on a tram to Tallaght, intending to stretch his legs and to take the country air before the festivities of Christmas got underway.  Arriving in Tallaght village at two o’clock, he intended to walk up to Brittas, a five and a half mile stretch, or a two hour walk, and would be in plenty of time to get the five o’ clock tram from Brittas back to Roundtown.  The tram was to be discontinued later that week, after over forty-five years’ service and it would be John Finnegan’s last chance to journey on the Dublin to Blessington tramline.  The afternoon was fresh but dry.  Stepping off the car Finnegan inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with the fresh country air rolling off the Dublin Mountains. Tightening the laces of his sturdy walking boots and fastening his galoshes over his ankles he set out west, through the old village past Dr Lydon’s Dispensary and Ms Martin’s p...

  Graf Zeppelin, 1929 On the August bank holiday weekend in 1929, much of the world’s attention was drawn to the skies between Germany and America. The  Graf Zeppelin arrived in Lakehurst, New Jersey, completing only its third transatlantic flight. That same weekend the first Challenge International de Tourism, a tourist plane contest, the first of four major aviation events in pre-war Europe, began in Paris. And in Tallaght, Co. Dublin, curious residents looking to the sky that Sunday evening, hoping to catch a glimpse of a great aerial spectacle would get more than they had expected. Irish Aero Club Members, Baldonnel, 1929 At 4.55pm on a beautifully clear summers evening in Tallaght, the sight of Major Samuel W. Dunckley  appeared on the horizon flying an Avro-Avian light plane belonging to the recently incorporated, and ultimately doomed “Irish Aero Club”.   Farmers and labourers were enjoying a restful Sunday evening.  Mothers and wives were preparin...