Monkstown
A Victorian Village
By Séamus Cannon and Carole Cullen
 
Published by Blackrock Education Centre Nov. 2014
Available from:
Price €20 paperback; €35 case bound. (limited edition)
Please call 012365013 or go to becpublishing.com  for more information
 
'Monkstown - A Victorian Village' is an affectionate and evocative celebration of the social and architectural heritage of Monkstown, a Dublin suburb. Authors Séamus Cannon and Carole Cullen present the history of the Monkstown community and its built environment in an extensively illustrated and very readable 125pp. An interesting feature is a focus on notable residents of the nineteenth century, of which there were many. Publication is a community effort involving Blackrock Education Centre, Dún Laoghaire Borough Historical Society and the Blackrock Society. Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Heritage Office has grant-aided the publication. A very successful ‘crowd –funding’ campaign raised €6000 towards production costs.
 
Today’s Monkstown is a creation of the nineteenth century, when the development of a commuter railway and the harbour at Dún Laoghaire (then Kingstown) made it an attractive residential area. It became a suburb of substantial houses occupied by successful business people and wealthy professionals. Graceful terraces and avenues complement the large detached houses to create a pleasing unified built environment. The scale, intimacy and architectural detail of the village shops, clustered beside the churches, also contribute to the atmosphere of another age.
 
Behind this Victorian façade lies an older Monkstown, which took its name from the Cistercian monks of Monkstown Castle, built in the 13th century to protect the extensive monastic lands from attack by displaced native Irish. A local tradition suggests an even older monastic settlement in the late eighth century, in the grounds of Carrickbrennan graveyard. Monkstown has a rich and varied history.
 
Monkstown residents have made major contributions to society at home and abroad. Two major international missionary movements focusing on health care originated in Monkstown, The Leprosy Mission and the Medical Missionaries of Mary; distinguished humanitarians from Monkstown campaigned vigorously for improvements in the conditions of the poor and made a great contribution to famine relief; a fascinating group of scientists, several of them astronomers, lived in Monkstown.