Cabra, County Dublin
| Cabra Irish: An Chabrach | |
| County Dublin | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | O133369 |
| Location: | 53°21’57"N, 6°17’27"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 22,740 (2002) |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Dublin |
Cabra is an inner suburb on the northside of Dublin, a mile and a half north-west of the city centre. Largely located between the Royal Canal and the Phoenix Park, it is primarily a residential suburb, with a range of institutions and some light industry. Cabra is served by bus, tram and mainline rail; it lies across Navan Road, one of the main roads from central Dublin to the orbital motorway.
The place was commonly known as Cabragh until the early 20th century. The name is from the Irish An Chabrach meaning 'The poor land'.[1]
The Bradogue River, a tributary of the Liffey, rises underground at the southern edge of the district.
History
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From about 1480, the manor of Cabra was held by a branch of the Plunket family, another branch of which was later ennobled as Earls of Fingall. The branch which held Cabragh had their main residence at Dunsoghly Castle near Finglas.
There are three contiguous townlands called "Cabra", each in a different parish, the three meeting at the gate lodge of Cabragh House, today the location of the roundabout at the meeting of Ratoath Road and Fassaugh Avenue and the Canon Burke Senior Citizens Flats complex.
Completed in 1598, Cabragh House was first occupied by the Segrave family.[2] The mansion was then the home of the "hanging judge" Lord Norbury, until he died in 1831 and the Segrave family managed to reacquire it. Charles Segrave, whose son was the famous racing driver Henry Segrave lived there until 1912. The big house was bought by Dublin Corporation by way of a compulsory purchase order in 1939 for the construction of local authority housing, and the historic house was razed to the ground.
The Industrial Revolution brought the construction of the Royal Canal in 1790 and the laying of one railway line (a Great Southern and Western branch), both through the northern part of the area, while another railway line (the Great Western from Broadstone Terminus) ran through the heart of the area. The Great Southern and Western branch line even had a side line for the North City Mills on the border of Cabra and Phibsboro. Due to the proximity of Broadstone, there were no local railway stations, the nearest being beyond Phibsboro, Glasnevin Station northeast of Cross Guns (then Westmoreland) Bridge.
From about 1880 to 1930, Cabra was a prominent market garden centre and a giant lairage, where cattle being brought to market at Hanlon's Corner were kept in pens and grazing fields; there was a set of cattle sidings on the GW&W Railway line to the east of Carnlough Road. Until the 1920s, when large scale housing developments took place, the area mostly comprised fields and open countryside on the edge of the city. Many of the people who moved to the new suburb were from the city centre slums.
Quarry Road was originally called Quarry Lane, after a small quarry which was situated near where the current statue of Our Blessed Lady is located at the roundabout with Fassaugh Road (originally Fassaugh Lane.) This quarry was filled in the early part of the 1900s and the family who lived in the Homestead grew cabbages on the reclaimed land.
About the suburb
Mount Bernard Park is a municipal park in Cabra. It has footpaths for walkers and sports facilities including tennis courts, a basketball court, 5-a-side football pitch and a playground. Naomh Fionnbarra GAA Club is located in Cabra.
The Royal Canal runs through Cabra.
Broom Bridge, also known as Brougham Bridge, is a small bridge along Broombridge Road which crosses the Royal Canal in Cabra. The bridge is named after William Broom, one of the directors of the Royal Canal Company. Broom Bridge is the location where Sir William Rowan Hamilton, following a 'eureka experience', first wrote down the fundamental formula for quaternions on 16 October 1843, which is to this day commemorated by a stone plaque on the north-west corner of the underside of the bridge. The text on the plaque reads:
Here as he walked by on the 16th of October 1843 Sir William Rowan Hamilton in a flash of genius discovered the fundamental formula for quaternion multiplication i²=j²=k²=ijk=−1 and cut it on a stone of this bridge.
Dublin city's public libraries have one of their administrative centres in the area, attached to Cabra Library – this Bibliographic Centre processes all books received and dispatches them to all branch libraries.
Deaf Village Ireland, formerly the School and Home for the Deaf, is located in a parkland setting in southern Cabra West. This facility is home to a range of Deaf organisations, including Deaf Sports Ireland.
Along the canal towards Liffey Junction, and serving the railway, was once a coke-making site, of which only some of the Coke Oven Cottages, formerly lying north and south of the canal, remain. Near the Sixth Lock was a pin mill on the site now occupied by 25–36 Shandon Mill (closer to the Fifth Lock and Cross Guns Bridge was a corn mill, at another time Mallet's Ironworks).
Outside links
References
- ↑ https://www.amazon.com/Irish-Place-Names-Laurence-Flanagan/dp/0717133966] Irish Placenames- Deirdre Flanagan & Laurence Flanagan (2002) page 187]
- ↑ http://sources.nli.ie/Record/MS_UR_046928
