Kimmage

Kimmage (Irish: Camaigh) is a small suburb on the Southside of Dublin near Crumlin, Greenhills, Harold's Cross, Rathfarnham, Templeogue, and Terenure. The name "Kimmage" comes from the Irish cam uisce, which means "winding" river. The River Poddle flows through Kimmage, and flows on to join the River Liffey. The area lies in postal districts Dublin 12 & Dublin 6W.

Features and facilities

KCR

The most famous landmark of the area is the KCR or Kimmage Cross Roads, which has been a petrol station and a shop since at least the 1960s. It is located at the crossroads of Terenure Road West, Kimmage Road West, Fortfield Road and the Lower Kimmage Road.

KCR PUB

There is also a KCR PUB in Kimmage located just down the road from the KCR (originally known as the Cuman Inn?) it is very popular it also holds meetings for committees.

Shopping

There is one main shopping area for residents, on Lower Kimmage Road, with many shops and services such as barbers, takeaways, and a garage. The Superquinn shopping centre on Sundrive Road includes extensive parking and 12 shops.

Historical features

There once was a cinema in Kimmage, The Apollo (originally called the SUNDRIVE Cinema that was refurbished and renamed in the late 50's) which was on Sundrive Road. It has been demolished and there are now office blocks and apartment buildings in its place. The Stoneboat pub is one of the area's best known landmarks. It is named for the boat-shaped 19th century improvement to the mediaeval diversion of the River Poddle.

The pub was originally owned by Peter Summers and was called The Turks Head. He also had a shop next door called "Pennies From Heaven" with an array of gaming machines, especially One Armed Bandits that took the old pre-decimel one penny (1d) per play. Winners therefore received the "Pennies From Heaven".

The divided Poddle fed what was then said to be a mill at the end of the pond in the grounds of Mount Argus.(proof required). In the 50's/60's this two story building housed St Gabriels Boys Club, who were well supported by the local community when they staged Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas. There were several older style residences bordering the main building.

The residential area between Ferns Road and Kildare Road was said to have been laid out to resemble a Celtic Cross. This can be clearly seen on Google Earth and shows an almost perfect mirror image each side of Armagh road. The locals always said that this road divided Crumlin and Kimmage. The majority of roads were named after Irish Monasteries such as Clonmacnoise; Clonard; Kells; Monasterboice etc.

In the late 40's and early 50's the park facing the end of Stannaway Road was known locally as the 'Tip'. In the austere years after WWII it was usual to see residents of the area digging for cinders to use as heating fuel in their homes. Such was the level of unemployment and poverty at that time that coal and turf was beyond the means of some residents and cinders were the only form of heating fuel. The 'Tip' had a water filled quarry which froze over in the winter. Several (3?) children drowned when the thin ice they were walking on broke and they fell into the water. The quarry was dragged for several days.

Other well known shops on the road in the 40's/50's were the Cafolla owned chippie and the Soda Fountain. The chippie is still operating but is under different ownership and is situated next to the shop at the corner of Blarney Park (formally Greenes Drapers). The third shop to the left of the cinema was named M.A. HENRY, known by the locals as MA Henry. It was run by two ladies of the old school who were very strict about selling cigarettes and in the 50's when ciggies were in short supply it was as if a miracle had occurred if MA Henry sold you a packet of fags. BUT in order to get the cigarettes, one had to also buy a packet of razor blades. The PP in St. Agnes Church was a brother of MA Henry. Next to MA Henrys and was a small premises housing a cycle repair shop, now a barbers shop. The shop ajoining the cinema was a dry cleaners, called IMCO.(? confirmation required)

The first shop after the cinema heading towards the cross roads sold general merchandise and toys with the Soda Fountain being the second after the gap next to the river Poddle. The Soda Fountain had a Juke Box which at the time was regarded as state of the art technology. Older folk often referred to it as a Nickleodeon, which came from a hit song (Put another nickel in the Nicklodeon) by the very popular American girl singer at the time called Teresa Brewer.

Stannaway Road originally ran from Sundrive Road, up to and just beyond Cashel Road. A high wall ended at what was then the end of the Kimmage section of the building scheme. This was knocked down in the 40's/50's when an extension to the scheme was started.

In Blarney Park a wall similar to that at the top of Stannaway Road was built to separate the residents of the private houses from those in the council houses. Council house residents had a long walk around several streets to get to the shops, when the time taken without the wall would have been considerable less. Someone on the council side of the wall knocked a small hole through one day and this grew ever larger until it was wide enough to allow the residents to pass through. The hole became so big that the wall was deemed to be unsafe and the Corporation eventually pulled it down. Access through the private section then became 'the norm'.

Captains Road (then called Captains Lane)ran from the top of Windmill Road in Crumlin to Kimmage Road and didn't exist as a residential area until the 40's/50's when there were only a few houses between the schools (St Columcills CBS and the girls convert opposite) in Armagh Road and St Agnes Church and most of the area was regarded as being 'almost in the country' by the locals. Captains Lane was also a well known area for children to go 'blackberrying'.

History

The Plunkett family house in Kimmage was used as a clearing station for arms imported in 1914. It was from here that a car load of volunteers left Dublin to meet the shipment of arms from the Aud in County Kerry just before the 1916 Easter Rising. An Irish Republican Brotherhood secret camp, the "Kimmage Garrison," was established in the area by Joseph Mary Plunkett and his brother George Oliver Plunkett, with IRB members with skills in engineering from England, and men on the run living rough for three months in a mill on Count Plunkett's farm at Larkhill in Kimmage where they manufactured home-made bombs, bayonets and pikes. On Easter Monday, 1916, Captain George Plunkett waved down a tram at with his revolver at Harold's Cross, ordered on his ruffians armed with shotguns, pikes and homemade bombs, took out his wallet and said "Fifty-two tuppenny tickets to the city centre please". Arriving at Liberty Hall, they were organised into four companies, and with a hundred other Volunteers, marched with James Connolly and Patrick Pearse to seize the General Post Office, where they remained throughout the Rising. The mill was replaced by the SuperQuinn supermarket in modern times.

Sport

• Larkview Boys FC Club are a senior football team from the area who play in the Leinster Senior League. Former Republic of Ireland Brian Kerr (football manager) played at junior level for the club.

• Lorcan O'Toole Park is the main sports ground in the area located at the KCR.

• Reds United were a popular soccer club for which many Kimmage residents played in the 40's and 50's.

Popular culture

• Kimmage was famous as one of the two cheapest properties on the Irish version of Monopoly, but has now been removed in favour of Rathfarnham in the newer edition. Kimmage's working-class way of life is recorded in a popular Irish folk song of the same name, covered by the Dubliners, among many other bands.
• Whoredom in Kimmage is the name of a non-fiction 1994 book by Rosemary Mahoney about women in then-contemporary Ireland.

Notable people associated with Kimmage

• Trevor Garry, Republic of Ireland youth goalkeeper
• Gay Mitchell, Fine Gael MEP and 2011 Presidential candidate
• Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887–1916), One of the leaders of the Easter Rising, had a family property on Sundrive Cross Roads which was demolished and replaced by a Superquinn Supermarket in modern times. It was a training ground for the rebels before the Rising.
• John Charles McQuaid (1895–1973), studied as a noviciate at the headquarters of the Holy Ghost Fathers in Kimmage, he was the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland.
• Aengus Finucane (1932–2009), was a Roman Catholic missionary and a pioneer for Concern Worldwide, died in a Spiritan Fathers nursing home.
• Denis Fahey(1883–1954), served as a controversial Senior Scholasticate of the Irish Province of the Holy Ghost Fathers at Kimmage in 1912.
• Christy Brown (1932-1981), Author. Famous for his autobiography "My Left Foot"

External links

• http://www.xiles.biz/profile.html, 1916 Kimmage Garrison
• http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/pearse.html