Clanbrassil Street (; ) is a street in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

south of the city centre. It runs from Robert Emmet Bridge on the Grand Canal to New Street. It is served by several bus routes. It is divided into Clanbrassil Street Upper (south end) and Clanbrassil Street Lower (north end). It is named after The 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil, an

Ulster-Scots Ulster Scots, may refer to: * Ulster Scots people * Ulster Scots dialect {{disambig Language and nationality disambiguation pages ...

nobleman. Clanbrassil () was the name of a

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

territory in what is now northern

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

History

From earliest times the street formed part of the

Slíghe Chualann ; modern spelling ) was a road in Early Christian Ireland running south across ("the Ford of Hurdles"; now Dublin city) entering the territory of Cualu or Cuala before going west of the Wicklow Mountains. The ancient name for Dublin was ' Bail ...

, which ran south from the settlement at

Áth Cliath Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, part of the Wicklow Mountains range. Dublin i ...

via the New Street gate. It took its name from '' Cualu'', the district in which Dublin was situated and which lay between the mouths of the Liffey and the Avoca (in

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...

). The street is noted as an extension of New Street on John Rocque's map of Dublin of 1756. By around 1790-96, a new bridge had been built across the Grand Canal at the site of current day Robert Emmet Bridge as part of the circle line of the canal that was then under construction. It was later replaced in 1935-36 with the current bridge. By around 1820 the modern street form had begun to develop as a middle class residential area out of the city proper with more modern later Georgian houses. In 1868, a new street was opened to connect

Harold's Cross Harold's Cross () is an affluent urban village and inner suburb on the south side of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland in the postal district List of Dublin postal districts, D6W. The River Poddle runs through it, though largely in an underg ...

with Lower Clanbrassil Street. The Lord Mayor, the Aldermen and Frederick Stokes, who had purchased the land and led the project, attended the opening. The street was to be called Kingsland Street, but that name was never used and it became Upper Clanbrassil Street. Between 1886 and 1892, 128 houses were built off Clanbrassil Street (on Daniel Street and Harty Place) by the Dublin Artisans Dwelling Company for the industrial and working classes.

Jewish community

Lower Clanbrassil Street was known as part of Little Jerusalem because in the first half of the 20th century it was at the heart of the Jewish community in Ireland. The first Jews fleeing conditions in Lithuania (then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

) arrived in the early 1870s and eventually settled off Lower Clanbrassil Street In the following decades many of them settled along the South Circular Road, both sides of Leonard's Corner, and in the side-streets off it. Notable Jewish retailers which operated on the street included Rubinstein's Kosher Victuallers and Poulterers at 82 Clanbrassil Street Lower and J Goldwater poultry shop at 76 Clanbrassil Street. The last Jewish shop to close was Ehrlich's butchers in 2001.

Development of the new road

In 1953 all residents of Clanbrassil St. received a notice from

Dublin Corporation Dublin Corporation (), known by generations of Dubliners simply as ''The Corpo'', is the former name of the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin since the 1100s. Significantly re-structured in 1660–1661, even more si ...

that residences on the west side of the street would have to have removed from the frontage of the properties to make way for a new road. This proposal was constantly changed or deferred, so that in the 1960s and 1970s the street fell into ruin. One by one businesses, public houses and retail outlets closed up or were demolished, and that side of the road became a wasteland. By 1980 the road engineers had increased the amount of space needed to , in order to run a 6-lane dual carriageway through the street, past St. Patrick's Cathedral on to Christ Church Cathedral.Clanbrassil Street, Past and Present history, Sean Lynch, Part 1
/ref> After protests and demonstrations by locals and sympathisers against the road, and intervention by the

Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...

Charles Haughey Charles James Haughey (; 16 September 1925 – 13 June 2006) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who led four governments as Taoiseach: December 1979 to June 1981, March to December 1982, March 1987 to June 1989, and June 1989 to February 1992 ...

, work on the road eventually began in 1989. A 4-lane dual carriageway was constructed, flanked by new houses and apartments. The cost of the road was estimated to be £2 million. Among the features destroyed by the road construction was the crossing known locally as the "Four Corners of Hell" (the junction of Patrick St., Dean St., New St. and Kevin St.), because there was a public house on each corner; and the well-known hostelry The Bunch of Grapes (formerly Fitzpatrick's, constructed in 1739).

Literary allusion

Leopold Bloom Leopold Paula Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's 1922 novel '' Ulysses''. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/Odysseus in Homer's ...

, the fictional Jewish character at the heart of the

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

novel ''

Ulysses Ulysses is the Latin name for Odysseus, a legendary Greek hero recognized for his intelligence and cunning. He is famous for his long, adventurous journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, as narrated in Homer's Odyssey. Ulysses may also refer ...

'', lived at "52 Clanbrassil Street"; a plaque commemorating this can be found on the wall of 52 Upper Clanbrassil Street.

References

External links