Dublin Dossier

Pat Keenan on happenings in and around the capital

Life and death on Baggot Street

The best part of my working life was spent in and around Baggot Street, They were mostly good times, good memories. It is only recently I discovered a darker side. In all those good years I danced at Zhivagos to the sounds of Abba, it was where many of my love stories began, some ended there too. They were the days of hopeful business meetings, of ‘happy-hour’ drinking with good and bad company, of extended lunch hours in snug basement cafés, sometimes business related, sometimes romantic.

This was the Baggot Street I knew.

But before it was named Baggot Street in 1773 it was known as Gallows Road, a very different place. You might say it was where lives ended. The street was named after Sir Robert Bagod, then the presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas, one of the Dublin Four Courts. He built Baggotrath Castle on a site that today would be the junction of Waterloo Road and Baggot Street, about where ‘The Waterloo’ and Searsons pubs now stand. The castle, said to have been the best fortified in Ireland, became embroiled in many battles during the years of English Civil War and was finally left in ruins following the Battle of Rathmines in 1649. And that’s how it remained until it was demolished and removed in the early 19th century by Dublin Corporation to facilitate the extension that today is Baggot Street Upper.

Interestingly, the name Baggotrath still exists.The laneway from Baggot Street Lower down along the side of Tescos Supermarket leading to Fitzwilliam Lane is Baggotrath Place. In my heydays, the entrance to Zhivago was down here.

Gallows Hill stood ominously on a mound of ground on what today would be the corner of Fitzwilliam and Baggot Street Lower - roughly opposite where Larry Murphys pub now stands. In medieval Dublin it was a place of execution.

In 1705 Joshua Dawson, the man that gave his name to Dawson Street, hired a well known ‘priest hunter,’ Edward Tyrell, to catch priests on the run for not signing up to an act renouncing James III’s claim to the English throne. In a twist of fate Tyrell himself was hanged here for

Baggotsrath Castle was previously on a site that today would be the junction of Waterloo Road and Baggot Street, about where The Waterloo and Searsons pubs now stand.

the crime of bigamy and was later strung up on Misery Hill. This was a common practice, corpses of the executed were usually carted over to Misery Hill and left there to rot and decay as a warning to other would-be lawbreakers. Misery Hill is still there - more on this later. Two of Robert Emmet’s followers were also hanged on Gallows Hill in 1803. Emmet himself was executed in front of St.Catherine’s Church on Thomas Street.

But perhaps the strangest and most notorious execution here was that of Dorcas ‘Darkey’ Kelly in 1761. She ran the Maiden Tower brothel in Copper Alley, off Fishamble Street. The notorious Sheriff of Dublin, Simon Luttrell, 1st Earl of Carhampton, and probably a client, accused her of witchcraft. She had accused him of fathering her baby and demanded his financial support. She further accused him of killing her baby in a Satanic ritual at the Hellfire Club up on Montpelier Hill in the Dublin mountains. Luttrell countered with the accusation that she killed their baby. The body of the baby was never found.

The remains of the building which is said to have housed The Hellfire Club

Simon Luttrell. Drawing by Pat Keenan

Simon Luttrell who lived in great style in the family home at Luttrellstown Castle in Clonsilla, was also founding member of The Hellfire Club - a place of many legends and urban myths, of debauchery, occult activities and even the odd appearance of the Devil himself. A portrait of the Hellfire Club founders hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland. It was painted by James Worsdale, also a member, and shows Simon Luttrell on the extreme right.

Later Dorcas was convicted of killing one of her clients, the shoemaker John Dowling and it later emerged that she may have murdered at least five other men whose bodies were found in the vault under the brothel. This may even have led to her other claim to infamy as Ireland’s first serial killer.

Founder members of The Hellfire Club - a place of many legends and urban myths, of debauchery, occult activities and even the odd appearance of the Devil himself. This group portrait hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland. It was painted by James Worsdale, also a member, and shows Simon Luttrell on the extreme right.

In 1761 she was partially hanged and then publicly burned alive on Gallows Hill. The Maiden Tower brothel closed and after her execution she was mourned and waked by prostitutes in Copper Alley which led to some disorder. Thirteen of the ladies were arrested and sent to Newgate Prison, now demolished, it was located at ‘Little Green,’ St. Michan’s Park.

Darkey Kelly’s today

Today the wonderfully atmospheric Darkey Kelly pub in Fishamble Street is more or less on the same place. The owner Nathy Towey, a huge whiskey enthusiast himself, has an Irish whiskey bar with a staggering 144 Irish whiskeys. The place is recommended for lovers of Irish music and culture, with live performances every day of the week. Generally all the musicians are from the local area representing a line probably doing back the oldest times in this, the oldest part of Dublin. Great craft beers, stouts and all served strictly to current pandemic restrictions.

Misery Hill is still there

Misery Hill survives to the present day. The Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and Facebook European Headquarters give their addresses as Grand Canal Square but they could have used Misery Hill, the street address they both share. For some reason they chose not to. In the 13th century the tidal waters of the River Liffey came up to College Green and Townsend Street, in Irish that translates to Cnoc na Lobhair, hill of the lepers. There are tales of ships berthing here beside a Leper’s Hospital. Lepers and other incurably diseased would wait for ships to take them to the coast of Galicia and the trek to places like Santiago De Compostela, desperate for a miraculous cure.

Zhivagos..’where loves stories began..’

In the 1970s Zhivagos night club took up the two floors above floors above H. Williams supermarket (now Tesco) at 15 Baggot St Lower. The entrance, under the watchful eye of retired Garda Sargent ‘Lugs’ Brannigan, was down Baggotrath Place the laneway which leads down to Fitzwilliam Lane and another club of the time, Barbarellas, which from memory regularly featured bikinied go-go girls splashing about in a pool. It is now McGrattans bar and restaurant.

Remembering Zhivago Night Club brings back many happy memories for me. Not only did I get to dance the nights away but I earned good working at creating their rather risqué newspaper and magazine ads. Throughout the 70s and early 80s I enjoyed a wonderful working relationship with the owner Pat Gibbons. They were happy days that sadly ended on November 13, 1984 when the chartered Gulfstream Rockwell Turbo Commander light aircraft on its way to France to collect the first bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau wine that year crashed into the hills of the South Downs near Eastbourne, England. All nine people on board tragically died. Sadly my good friend Pat Gibbon was on board along with Niall Hanley, editor of the Evening Herald; John Feeney, an Evening Herald columnist; Kevin Marron; editor the Sunday World; Tony Hennigan, diary editor of the Irish Independent; Cormac Cassidy, Cassidy Wines; Francois Schelbaum, manager of the SandsHotel, Portmarnock, Pat was also a part owner here too; restaurateur Arrigo Chichi and the pilot, Jack Walsh of Flightline Ltd.

Other weird Dublin street names

Hangman’s Lane, now Hammond Lane at the back of Arran Quay was another place to die at the end of a rope in medieval Dublin.

Dirty Lane which was renamed Bridgefoot Street and Murdering Lane which became Cromwell Quarters and was changed again to Old Kilmainham. Another f amous Dublin district called Monto was short for Montgomery Street is now Foley Street.

Sir Arthur Brabazon, Earl of Meath had a Dublin street named after him - Cuckhold Row.

It wasn’t the most flattering of titles, in medieval times a cuckhold would refer to the husband of an adulterous A complimentary ticket for where love stories began wife, the origins lie with the cuckoo, a bird famous for laying its eggs in another birds nest. They later unsportingly ruined it by actually renaming it Brabazon Street.

Darkey Kelly pub entrance Fishamble Street. (Photo supplied by the current owner Nathy Towey)