a travelogue by simon leyland (best feel good books .TXT) 📕

This is a short history of Dublin, not the normal history that you find in history books or guide books, but a real history.

How many times have you walked down a street and barely given a second glance to a building. I am not talking about the grand buildings but the nondescript, the anonymous, the buildings you take for granted.

Join me in a leisurely stroll if you will, away from the normal tourist walks around the hustle and bustle of the Liffey and St Stephens Green. This is a walk that not only takes in buildings of local historical interest but also a flavour of daily life in the neighbourhood.


O`Reillys Grocery Store, Preston Road , Dublin 4

This unassuming one storey house stands on the banks of the River Dodder. Just after the end of the Great War, the building was converted into a vegetable store, and has remained so to this day.

The shop provides a wide variety of traditional market produce, mostly grown in and around Wexford, although some non-seasonal items are imported from the UK and certain fashionable fruits are shipped in from the West Indies. At Christmas, O`Reillys extends its range to include nuts, dried fruit, floral wreaths and table centrepieces.

The shop is used mainly by housewives in the immediate streets to the north and west of Merrion Road. A typical visitor to O`Reillys would have been Mrs Kathleen Dempsey. Every week for nearly thirty years, she purchased the family’s` fruit and vegetables here. The strong willed Mrs Dempsey was always careful to balance her family’s dietary and nutritional needs with the availability of fresh farm produce. She continued to patronise the shop even after growing infirmities started to affect her mobility, and constantly refuses all offers of help from the staff, preferring to select produce personally.


A God fearing woman, she found it difficult to express emotion of any sort, and much preferred to take action, however inappropriate. Alas, since the opening of the new Tesco in the vicinity, custom has declined at O`Reillys. The little shop could not compete with the low prices brought about by the bulk purchasing power of the superstores, and is now closing its shutters for the last time.


Ballsbridge Baths, Merrion Road , Dublin 4

This elegant Edwardian building with art nouveau flourishes started life as the St Vincent Baths and Wash houses. The good fathers provided one hundred and eighty slipper baths and a public laundry which is still in use today. Om the first floor of the baths is a very shiny, state of the art gymnasium which now caters for the areas young professionals, and its varied apparatus provides much needed physical stimulation for local men and women of all ages.

In charge of the exercise class was a Ms Deidre Keogh. Thirty six year old Deidre hailed from Sligo, and moved to Dublin with her young son Conor, on whom she doted, to escape unhappy memories of a difficult divorce. Popular with the classes she took, Deidre took aerobics and step classes every day except Sunday, enjoyed swimming and liked to keep herself in shape.

In February 2002 she gave up her classes following a painful personal tragedy, and moved back to Sligo in the summer of that year. Like many young women, Ms Keogh grew lonely on cold wintry nights and sought solace in the arms of married men.


442 Merrion Road , Dublin 4

Formerly the headquarters of PJ Kavanagh and Sons, tailors and gentleman’s outfitters who incidentally once sold a pair of black leather gloves (unwrapped) to a young Eamon De Valera

The building is now occupied by Erin Electronics, which sells televisions, music systems and all manner of electrical household goods, available on easy terms of payment. It is odd to think that in1928, an overcoat (Herringbone and fully lined) cost just nine shillings and eleven pence, which in today’s currency is just under 70 cents which would not even buy a light bulb in Erin Electronics

The former manager of the establishment, a Mr Gerry Dempsey worked here and at two other branches in Dundrum and Rathmines until 2001 when he was forced into retirement on the grounds of ill health.

Mr Dempsey would describe himself as a good but essentially weak man.


The Bus shelter Stillorgan Road Dublin 4

This small, unprepossessing concrete and glass shelter was originally built in 1949 when the new bus routes to Bray came into use, and has twice been featured on RTE news.

In April 1967 a coach of nuns on the way to visit the Marist Brothers school in Upper Leeson Street mounted the kerb and ploughed into a party of agnostics waiting at the bus stop, killing three and severely injuring seven. Father O`Hanlon, the driver of the bus, was found to be drunk and was jailed for five years.

Then in September 2001 the shelter was photographed and described when a young school boy, Conor Keogh, was last seen alive. Witnesses recall spotting him on one of the green plastic seats, dangling his legs and studying a comic in the late afternoon drizzle while he waited for a bus to tale him to Baggot Street.

Conor Keogh was a shy, quiet pupil at St Andrews who had learning difficulties, and was usually supervised on outings because of his willingness to be led by strangers. He particularly enjoyed swimming and football. He was a Liverpool supporter and an avid
fan of Harry Potter and the associated computer games.Despite an extensive police search lasting for several months, little Conor`s whereabouts were never ascertained, and his disappearance remains one of the areas most enduring mysteries.

Shortly after the disappearance his distraught mother made an emotional appeal on national television, but all resulting leads proved to be dead ends.


No 2 Elm Avenue Dublin 4

This an Edwardian terraced house of a type typically found to the north of Ballsbridges` main thoroughfare. The high ceilinged, well proportioned rooms of these houses were created for well-off middle class families at a time when this area was still considered to
be a leafy suburb of Dublin. The house, within walking distance of Herbert Park, was for many years the home of Mr and Mrs Gerry Dempsey.

The airy rooms of the house were intended for families who could afford several children, but shortly after the couples marriage Mrs Dempsey discovered that she would be never able to bear a child, and the upstairs rooms she had planned to turn into a nursery and live-in Nannies’ quarters remained empty for years.

In early September 2000 Mrs Dempsey suffered a severe anxiety attack and disappeared overnight, returning next morning only to lock herself inside her back bedroom. She refused to come down for nearly three days, and then only agreed to do so after her husband had left the home. She subsequently converted from Church of Ireland to Catholicism, and redecorated the upper floor of the house for her own habitation, leaving it only to cook for her husbands meals and to care for him after his retirement.

Mr Dempsey died in the winter of 2002 after a tragically prolonged illness, at which time the house was sold to Cramptons the builders who divided the house into one bedroom deluxe apartments for discerning young professionals


No 29 Collins Street

This modest home, an unimaginative two up, two down was rented by Deidre Keogh, who lived there with her young son for a number of years. Today the original cobbled street remains much as it would have appeared in the 19th century. Donovans public house, which stood on the corner of the street once acted as a secret rendezvous between Brendan Behan and his married lover.

Ms Keoghs house was rented from Dublin Corporation. It suffered from condensation and occasional flooding being situated so close to the Dodder, but like other dwellings in this overlooked area, offered a small oasis of calm in a typical city neighbourhood.

Ms Keogh eventually vacated her home, owing over six weeks rent incidentally, following the sad lost of her son


Waxy Moores Public Bar Merrion Road

This popular bar, whilst not so famous as its nearby neighbour Molly Macs began life as the Merrion tavern. Many fine brewery products are available on tap including Guinness and Stella Artois lager. Its Saturday night discos with their Seventies theme are extremely popular and attract a mixed local crowd of all ages. typical customer would have been Deidre Keogh, who often popped in after she finished conducting exercise classes at Ballsbridge baths. Ms Keogh started attending the Saturday night discos in August 1998 and continued to enjoy drinking and dancing there for the next two years.

Just before Christmas of that year, Mr Gerry Dempsey also began frequenting Waxy Moores on Saturday nights while Mrs Dempsey visited relatives in Bray.

Mr Dempsey subsequently took up weight training at the gym in Ballsbridge Baths in order to shed the stomach he had gained through drinking.


The Shelbourne Road Garda Station

If you stand outside this late Victorian building, built in 1886. You will see the old arch of the stables to your right, and a sympathetically constructed modern construction to your left. Many Victorian police stations still retain their original architectural features and compete in the maintenance of their annual summer beds and Shelbourne Road was no exception.

In the basement of the building are five overnight holding cells still with original Victorian fittings, and at the back of the ground floor is the interview room where Deidre Keogh was first questioned about the disappearance of her only child Conor in October 2000

After a series of highly emotional interviews Ms Keogh was released pending her availability for further questioning. She was particularly upset that a three month sentence for shoplifting ten years earlier appeared to be prejudicing the course of the nvestigation and later sued them, winning her case.

During the course of her penultimate interview, she admitted that she had been involved with a married man for well over a year. Although she refused to name him, it is believed that Ms Keogh later revealed her lovers identity to the officer in charge and the gentleman was bought in for questioning,
The un-named man explained that he had been drinking in Waxy Moores on the evening of Conor Keoghs disappearance and his alibi was confirmed by the bar staff and several customers.

Shortly after this Mr Dempsey’s health began to deteriorate and he was forced to retire from his position on the grounds of ill health


The Post Office Shelbourne Road

This attractive red brick Post Office is situated on the corner of Merrion Road. A letter could be collected from this building if, for some reason it proved impossible for the postman to deliver it. Taken at random, a typical letter might have been the one posted to Mr Dempsey in early September 2000. The heavy rainfall had rusted the spring of the letterbox of Erin Electronics, a popular high street shop, and the postman was unable to deliver the post that morning.

Responding to a card she found in the breast pocket of her husbands second best work shirt (the one with the double cuffs for cufflinks) she took it to the drycleaners. Mrs. Dempsey was able to go to the