LaTouche Bridge, Dublin, Ireland
LaTouche Bridge, Rathgar/Rathmines, Dublin, Ireland
LaTouche Bridge
* Bridge R114 * Lower Rathmines Road/ Richmond Street South / Grand Canal, Portabello, Dublin, Ireland *
This bridge was the first intriguing crossing to catch my attention during my life in Dublin. It is a small cross-over bridge (and lock) with Rathmines street above and the Grand Canal below (offshoot from the Libbey). As I was walking over it one evening, I spied a “Troll Below” graffitti stenciled on the sidewalk just above the bridge. My next crossing i peered under, and there was a police boat docked beneath the bridge. Off to the right was a red graffitti painted of Cernunnos or an Antler-God with Ogham script that I have still yet to decipher. But nonetheless, these elements struck a cord in my curiousity enough to photograph and investigate the bridge further. The Bridge was built in 1791 and named after William Digges La Touche (1747-1803), a popular Director of the Grand Canal Company as well as prominent Irish businessman in his time. Steel parts of the bridge was replaced in 2004. It is also nicknamed the Portobello Bridge for it is right under the Portobello school in the Portobello district. The Portobello district of Dublin, just like its counterpart in London, was named after the capture of Porobelo, Colón on Panama’s Caribbean Coast by Admiral Vernon in 1739. This district encompasses the stretch of the Grand Canal from the Robert Emmet Bridge (Clanbrassil Street) to South Richmond Street to Rathmines. In 1861 this bridge experienced a horrible tragedy when Patrick Hardy was driving a horse-drawn bus up the steep incline and one of the horses reared, became uncontrollable, backing the bus through the wooden rails of the bridge, causing the bus, 6 passengers, and the horses to be plunged to their deaths in the deep (20 feet) dark cold waters of the canal lock. The conductor was saved by a passing policeman, but the rest were drowned. One of the passengers was the father of the Gunne brothers who opened the Gaiety Theater, there were two mothers each with a little girl, one of which was the niece of Daniel O’Connell. On the night of the accident’s anniversary, it is reported that a brilliant light is seen to rise from the canal water and turn into a human shape which is known as the ghost of a lock-keeper who drowned himself after being sacked for drunkenness was to blame for the tragedy. Some say this same ghost arose when the horse drawn bus was crossing the bridge, thereby spooking the horses. During the 1916 Easter Rising, the Irish Citizen Army had a group of men seizing a delaying position at this bridge to allow fortifications to be constructed in the city center. The group was led by the non-author James Joyce and made into a military outpost. But once his unit burst in where he worked at Davy’s bar near the bridge, he was sacked. This was also the location for the murder of Sheehy-Skeffington the same year. As members of the British 11th East Surrey Regiment arrest Francis Sheehy-Skeffington here on April 25th with no reason while he was returning to his home in Rathmines. He was taken to the Portobello barracks and held as an enemy sympathizer. Later that evening, he was taken out as a hostage with a raiding party led by Captain J.C. Bowen-Colthurst of the Royal Irish Rifles to the home and shop of Alderman James Kelly at the corner of Camden Street and Harcourt Road, where they bombed the shop with grenades. On their way back to Rathmines, Skeffington was witnessed to two murders committed by Bowen-Colthurst and his party on two unarmed civilians including a 17 year old boy returning from church. Both the former Kelly’s tobcacconist and Sheehy-Skeffington was taken and the following morning shot by a firing party along with two pro-British journalists - Thomas Dixon and Patrick McIntyre who were unlucky enough to have been in Kelly’s shop when it was grenaded. The three were shot in the back and the British authorities kept the killing a secret.
Celtic Ogham graffitti below the laTouche Bridge, Dublin, Ireland
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- Bibliography and References:
- Chapters of Dublin. Website referenced March 2012. http://www.chaptersofdublin.com/books/DublinSt/bridges.htm.
- Paul Arnold Architects. Revitalization of LaTouche Bridge. Website referenced March 2012. http://www.paularnoldarchitects.com/projects/allprojects/LaToucheBridge/index.html
- Running with Bulls Gallery @ Flickr. Website referenced March 2012. http://www.flickr.com/photos/runningwithbulls/3857836913/.
- Wikipedia.org: The Free Encyclopedia. A List of Dublin Bridges and Tunnels. Website referenced March 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dublin_bridges_and_tunnels.
- Wikipedia.org: The Free Encyclopedia. Portobello, Dublin, Ireland. Website referenced March 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portobello,_Dublin
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