Boland's Bakery was the largest bakery in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

in the late 19th century. It was founded by the Boland family. The company sold a number of products such as bread, biscuits, cakes, confectionery and flour, although over the years biscuits became the company's main product. The original bakery was located close to

Capel Street Capel Street is a street in Dublin, Ireland. On 20 May 2022, it was made traffic-free, following a campaign by people who wanted to improve the quality of life on the street. It is now the longest traffic-free street in Dublin. History Capel ...

between Mary (

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The con ...

) Street and Little Mary Street. The Boland family lived on Capel Street. Following the death of Patrick Boland (father of future MP and Olympic champion

John Pius Boland John Mary Pius Boland (16 September 1870 – 17 March 1958) was an Irish Nationalist politician, and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and as member of the Irish Parliam ...

), in 1888 the company was floated by the executor of his will Bishop Nicholas Donnelly, his brother in law. A number of members of the Boland family remained shareholders in the company. The company had a number of production facilities around the city such as the buildings around Grand Canal Dock including

Boland's Mill Boland's Mill is located on the Grand Canal Dock in Dublin, Ireland on Ringsend Road between the inner basin of Grand Canal Dock and Barrow Street. As of 2019, it was undergoing a €150 million reconstruction to become Bolands Quay, a dev ...

as well as a distribution network. Vans with the company name on it were a familiar sight up until the last quarter of the twentieth century. The main Boland's Bakery building on the corner of Grand Canal Street and Macken Street (then Great Clarence Street), now the

Treasury Building A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in ...

, played an integral part in the 1916 Rising and was occupied by

Éamon de Valera Éamon de Valera (, ; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was a prominent Irish statesman and political leader. He served several terms as head of govern ...

. Also during a dispute when unemployed demonstrators, led by the writer Liam O’Flaherty, occupied the

Rotunda Hospital The Rotunda Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal an Rotunda; legally the Hospital for the Relief of Poor Lying-in Women, Dublin) is a maternity hospital on Parnell Street in Dublin, Ireland, now managed by RCSI Hospitals. The eponymous Rotunda in Parnell S ...

, Boland's Bakery in Capel St. donated 500 loaves to the demonstrators. In the late 1970s Boland's merged with Jacobs Biscuits Limited, to form Irish Biscuits Limited, with much of the production moved to premises in Belgard,

Tallaght ) , image_skyline = TallaghtDublinD24.jpg , image_caption = Tallaght, Dublin , image_flag = , flag_size = , pushpin_map = Dublin#Ireland , pushpin_label_position = left , ...

. Although many products were now being produced in Britain and labeled as the Irish Brands. In 2004 production at the Tallaght facility stopped. Irish Biscuits were taken over by a number of foreign companies eventually ending up being owned the French Groupe Danone. In 2004 it was sold to the Irish Fruitfield Food Group. The name survives today in a number of brands produced by

Jacob Fruitfield Food Group The Jacob Fruitfield Food Group is a company that once produced food products in Ireland, but is now mainly a brand for imported foods targeted at the Irish market. It was formed by Fruitfield Foods' acquisition of the Republic of Ireland portion ...

, such as custard creams,

cream cracker Cream cracker is a flat, usually square, savoury biscuit. The name "cream crackers" refers to the method in which the mixture is creamed during manufacture. The cream cracker is traditionally prepared using fermented dough. They are made from w ...

s and Bourbon creams. The name '

' on the Grand Canal Dock basin is still clearly visible.

References

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External links

Jacob Fruitfield Food Group official web site
United Biscuits brands Food manufacturers of the Republic of Ireland