From the Evening Herald (Dublin), 5 August 1921: “Dublin city was the first place in Ireland selected for the founding of a Dominican Priory.  This was the Convent of St Saviour, which stood on the site of the present Four… Continue reading

Did you know that there was a pillory opposite St Michan’s Church, Church Street, Dublin, in the late 18th century? But if you were put there for sedition, there was no rotten fruit-throwing, residents of the area being themselves of… Continue reading

This photograph of the birthplace of philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke at 12 Arran Quay, Dublin, published in the Sphere of 22 November 1902, shows the attractive shopfronts of buildings near the Four Courts a century or so ago. Burke’s… Continue reading

Though excluded from the courts in the absence of a dustpan or broom, save on Call Days, when they were permitted to flit like pretty butterflies through the otherwise forbidden realms of the Law Library, the vicinity of the Four… Continue reading

The new Lounge Bar at the legendary Four Courts Hotel, Inns Quay, as it appeared in the Irish Independent of 19 October 1940. The accompanying write-up describes the hotel as ‘the favoured rendezvous of many whose name and fame have… Continue reading

A youthful romance which ended in the worst of circumstances on a gallows opposite the Four Courts in 1803. The young and ‘extremely handsome’ Denis Lambert Redmond, a 23-year-old successful businessman living opposite the Four Courts at 14 Coal Quay… Continue reading

An 1835 image from the Dublin Penny Journal depicting the ruins of the east side of the old Four Courts at Christchurch. The building – no more than a very large, oddly-shaped hall, with the four courts separated from one… Continue reading

This 1790 image of the north side of St Michan’s Church, sketched by an unknown artist, allows us to recapture the loveliness of this building as it once was. Rocque’s map below tells us that, at this time, there was… Continue reading

In June 1897, as security precautions in Dublin escalated in anticipation of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, the caretaker of St Michan’s Church, beside the Four Courts, ungraciously refused entry to a tall, handsome woman carrying a bundle of wreaths. The woman… Continue reading

Photographs of air-raid shelters in the course of construction on Merchant’s Quay, opposite the Four Courts, from the Irish Independent of 27 August 1940. Under the regulations adopted by the Four Courts during the Emergency, tipstaffs had charge of the… Continue reading

From the Morning Post, 2 October 1823: “One piece of calico was discovered in his hat, which being full merely stood balanced on his head; the other pieces were skilfully swathed around his body, hanging round behind his knees, they… Continue reading

The above image from ‘The Industries of Dublin’ (1887) depicts that famous pub, the Irish House, situated opposite the Four Courts on the corner of Wood Quay and Winetavern Street. According to the writer of the accompanying text, the pub… Continue reading

From the Dublin Morning Register, 4 September 1838: “CITY SESSIONS Catherine Johnstone and Mary Whittaker were arraigned for stealing several items of wearing apparel, the property of Esther Lennon. Esther Lennon being sworn, deposed that she was in the Fruit-market,… Continue reading

From the Westmeath Independent, 8 May 1852: “MAY DAY IN THE OLDEN TIME The preparations for the May Day sports and ceremonial in Dublin commenced about the middle of April, and even earlier, and a rivalry, which often led to… Continue reading

From Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 12 February 1753, this account of an extremely long-lived resident of Dublin 7: “IRELANDDUBLIN, Jan 30. On Sunday fe’nnight died at the Widow’s House of St. Michan’s Parish, Mrs Devoureux, aged 119; she was born in… Continue reading

From the Staffordshire Advertiser, 28 July 1838, and the Morning Post, 21 July 1838: “The Dublin people and papers are in great excitement about the death of a young man named Goddard Sterne, whose father (called General Sterne) has been… Continue reading

From the Dublin Weekly Register, 11 December 1819, this very old story of a crime committed at St Michan’s, Church Street, by one of its oldest and most respected parishioners: “COMMISSION – TRIAL OF WM SMYTH. Saturday last, the Commission of… Continue reading

From the Leinster Leader, 3 October 1936: “ROMANCE OF THE LUTTRELLS OF LUTTRELLSTOWN (by Doreen Mills) The historic and beautiful castle of Luttrellstown in County Dublin for well over 500 years was in the ancient family of Luttrell, from which… Continue reading

The ‘Slums of Dublin’ series in the Freeman’s Journal, 26 and 27 September 1884, carried the following account of the once great thoroughfares of Church Street and Bow Street. Written in the usual moralistic tone adopted by the Freeman for… Continue reading

From the Drogheda Argus and Leinster Journal, 10 November 1877: “The Prime Minister Mr Gladstone spent Tuesday in visiting various places of interest in Dublin.  Having inspected the graving dock at Dublin Port, the party returned towards the city, Mr… Continue reading

From the Dublin Daily Express, 6 January 1893: “PERSONATING A DETECTIVE Yesterday, in the Northern Police Court, before Mr Keyes, a man named Joseph Rogers was charged in custody of Police Constable 164D with having been drunk and disorderly on… Continue reading

From the Dublin Evening Post, 29 January 1839: “FUNERAL OF THE LATE LORD CLEMENTS The remains of this lamented young nobleman, whose death we announced on Saturday, were interred yesterday in the family vault of St Michan’s church. The funeral… Continue reading

From the Weekly Irish Times, 4 November 1876 (abridged), this account, heavily indebted to Dickens, of the near environs of the Four Courts in the second half of the 19th century. “DUBLIN HAUNTS BULL LANE BY NIGHT This now classical locality… Continue reading

The new Dublin Police Courts behind the Four Courts opened for business in October 1868.  A report in the Freeman’s Journal of 28 August 1868 stated that they had been erected by Mr Michael Meade, from designs furnished by the… Continue reading

The Four Courts Hotel opened beside the Four Courts on Inns Quay in 1902, in place of its predecessor the Angel, which, as previously documented, had suffered a number of mysterious deaths during its period of operation. If the cuisine at… Continue reading

From the Clonmel Herald, 24 October 1829: “On Wednesday morning, at an early hour, a vast concourse of persons had assembled in Pill Lane, to witness the battle royal which was expected to take place between the Lord Mayor and… Continue reading

From the Dublin Weekly Nation, 17 July 1869: “SUDDEN DEATH On Monday Mr. John McNally, solicitor, had an awfully sudden death in the coffee room of the Angel Hotel, Inns Quay, Dublin. He went in to have some refreshment, and… Continue reading

  From the Newcastle Courant, 21 February 1747: “Last Sunday was interred in a Vault in St George’s Church, the Remains of William Flemming, Esq, commonly called Lord Slane, who had an annual Pension of £300 from his Majesty.  The… Continue reading

A street once there, now gone, can provoke more curiosity than one still paved and passable, and it is impossible for those who know about the vanished route of Pill Lane not to wonder, when traversing the portions of the… Continue reading

In 1878, Charlotte Lodge, a woman working in what was then Dublin’s most notorious red light district, Bull Lane, just behind the Four Courts, died in the Richmond Hospital following a vicious attack and gang-rape by local pimps. Charlotte’s attackers… Continue reading

From the Freeman’s Journal, 14 July 1876: “Three young men, one named William Donahoe, who stood in the Dock, and two others, Thomas Kinsella, and William Hurley, were indicted for an assault on three constables. Constable William Hatton, 59A, stated… Continue reading

From Saunders’s News-Letter, 1 November 1844: “HARD SWEARING A young lad, named Michael Geraghty, was charged by Sergeant Fry, 1D, with stealing a gown, the property of Mrs Hawkins, of Henrietta Street. The Complainant stated that he saw the prisoner… Continue reading

From Saunder’s News-Letter, 22 December 1810: “A few days back, a young woman, rather well dressed, with a green coat hanging loosely on the shoulders, walked into a respectable shop in the neighbourhood of Werburgh street, and contrived to carry… Continue reading

From Saunders’s News-Letter, 11 October 1814: “A few days since a Welshman of the name of Owen Thomas, came to lodge at the White Cross Inn, Pill Lane, where a Mr Donald McKay, from Aughnacloy, likewise took up his abode.… Continue reading

From the Oxford Journal, 28 July 1764: “IRELAND Dublin, July 17. Last Friday Night some Revenue Officers made a Seizure at Howth of 160 Casks of Tea; but they were soon after attacked by a Number of Smugglers, when a… Continue reading

From the Leeds Times, 4 January 1879: “A disgraceful scene was witnessed the other day in Greek-street, Dublin, near the police courts, where two women engaged in a fierce contest, surrounded by a ring of male and female backers.  They… Continue reading

From the Freeman’s Journal, via the Western Mail, 11 September 1871: “During Tuesday last the locality of Pill Lane was considerably excited by a collision which occurred between a party of military and a number of the females gathered in… Continue reading

From the Freeman’s Journal, 30 June 1838: “A man named John Cowan was brought before the magistrates on a charge of having stolen a fawn in the Phoenix Park, on the preceding day. Police Constable 97D stated that he met… Continue reading

A blue transfer-printed Staffordshire china platter, with a central scene depicting the Four Courts, c.1820. Perhaps originally part of some barrister’s dining set? Now in New England. Some details below (zoom in closer here). (1) A very early view of… Continue reading

This fantastic map from the Dublin City Council Digital Archive (minutely zoomable version available to download here) shows the junction of Inns Quay and Arran Quay in 1790, not long before the opening of the Four Courts on the old… Continue reading

This beautifully coloured image below, from Dublin City Digital Archive, shows the rear portion of the Law Library Distillery Building, 145-151 Church Street, when it really was a distillery, owned by John Jameson & Co. You can zoom in on… Continue reading

Some photos showing a 1960s/70s Inns Quay, from the Dublin City Digital Archive. This one from Dublin City Digital Archive shows the Four Courts Hotel in place of today’s Áras Uí Dhálaigh. William Mooney’s close-up of the hotel in the… Continue reading

From the Weekly Freeman’s Journal, 25 December 1858: “MELANCHOLY DEATH BY DROWNING On Sunday night last one of the most distressing melancholy accidents that could well occur took place by which a respectable young man of the name of Michael… Continue reading

From the Irishman, 13 April 1878: “EXTRAORDINARY SCENE The remains of the late Earl of Leitrim arrived at St Michan’s Cemetery, Church Street, Dublin, about half-past two o’clock.  When the remains came into Church-Street the hearse was surrounded by two… Continue reading

From the Belfast News-Letter, 1 December 1851: “In the Court of Exchequer, on Saturday week, the clergymen and choristers from Christ Church Cathedral appeared and performed their accustomed homage, by singing an anthem and saying prayers. At the entrance of… Continue reading

Chancery Place, on the eastern side of the Four Courts, was originally a much narrower street known as Mass Lane.  The buildings on its western side sat close against the eastern wing of the Four Courts until they were demolished… Continue reading

From the Irish Times, 24 May 1888: “CHASE AFTER A WILD BIRD IN THE LIFFEY Yesterday, for nearly three hours, the inhabitants, and those who could spare the time, were entertained by a most interesting and exciting chase after a… Continue reading

From the Freeman’s Journal, 15 April 1844: “In consequence of a communication by the secretary for the prevention of cruelty, instructions were given to the police to look sharply after a cockfighting match about to come off in Hammond-Lane. The… Continue reading

From the Freeman’s Journal, 30 January 1882: “A curious reminiscence of… old Dublin life turned up at one of the central [police] stations on Friday… [A]n old gentleman entered the station… and produced a small silver-mounted flint pistol, evidently of… Continue reading

From Saunders’ Newsletter, October 1835: “SIR – I beg, through the medium of your valuable Paper, to again call the attention of the Commissioners of the Paving Board to the intolerable nuisance, which has been so long suffered to continue… Continue reading

From the Freeman’s Journal, 29 April 1878: “On Saturday afternoon Dublin was startled and horrified by one of the most appalling accidents which has ever taken place in this metropolis – an accident by which no less than fourteen fellow… Continue reading

From the Dublin Observer, 4 January 1834: “Some workmen, employed in the course of the past week in sinking a sewer from the Four Courts to the river, in the course of their excavations discovered, at the depth of about… Continue reading

For the Good Friday that’s in it, this story from Saunders’s News-Letter, 7 June 1830:- “DESPERATE OUTRAGE – For some months past, a person of genteel appearance has appeared in the streets, in various parts of this city, preaching to… Continue reading

The Dublin Correspondent of the Belfast Newsletter, 13 January 1862, writes: “I should chronicle the departure to his rest of a worthy and venerable citizen of Dublin, who saw in his time many an opening day of Term, and whose… Continue reading

Saunders’s News-Letter of 31 December 1802 reported that “[t]here is… a talk of casting a very broad bridge over the river in front of the Four Courts, which shall form an open area equal to the extent of the building;… Continue reading

From Saunders’ News-Letter, 21 April 1821: “EASTER HOLIDAYS The Public are respectfully informed that Polito’s Grand Menagerie, is removed from Abbey Street, to Ormond-Quay, near the Four Courts, where they will be exhibited for a short time previous to their… Continue reading