House - 16th/17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

Grangegorman manor was one of three manors belonging to the Augustinian Priory at the Church of the Holy Trinity until the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th Century and it has given it's name to present-day Manor Street. The manor was confirmed to Francis Asgard in 1559 by Royal Mandate (D'Alton 1976, 184 2nd ed. ) and remained in his possession until his death in 1577. It remained in possession of members of this family until the mid-17th century (Simington 1945, 179). At the time of the Restoration it was in the possession of Sir John Stanley and, in 1674, was occupied by his son. In the early 18th century it passed to Charles Monck. The building is shown on John Rocque’s map of 1756. In 1814 a Mrs. John O’Brien, founder of a refuge for ‘Unprotected Girls of Good Character’ in Ashe Street, purchased Grangegorman House. Mother Mary Aikenhead, founder of the Sisters of Charity in Ireland, was invited by Dr Murry, Coadjutor Archbishop, to take charge of the new refuge (Moylan 1944-5) and a ‘House of Refuge’ was opened there in 1819. Numerous additions and buildings were added to the site over the following century. Grangegorman House was demolished in the 20th century (O'Connor 2015).

Monitoring of ground works undertaken in 2014 (License number 14E0051) revealed evidence of various masonry walls some of which probably belong to the original house. The only archaeological finds uncovered were modern pottery sherds, oyster shell from disturbed 19th/20th century contexts, brick fragments and broken sewer pipes (O’Connor 2015).

A summary account of the monitoring undertaken in 2014 will be found at the following website: http://www.excavations.ie/report/2014/Dublin/0023653/

Compiled by: Geraldine Stout

Updated by: Paul Walsh

Revised date of upload: 15 January 2015

References

O'Connor, D. 2015 Archaeological Monitoring of a development at Stanhope Green, Stanhope Street, Dublin 7. Licence No. 14E0051. Unpublished report, Magnus Archaeology. National Monuments Service.

D'Alton, J. 1838 (Reprint 1976) The history of the county of Dublin. Cork. Tower Books.

Moylan, T.K. 1944-5 The district of Grangegorman. Dublin Historical Record 7, 103-11.

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1945 The Civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol. VII: county of Dublin. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.