Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 1st June 2022

In 1774-75 when William Ashford was completing these two views at the outlet of the River Liffey into the sea, Dublin city and Dublin port were one and the same. Inbound ships came all the way up to Essex Bridge (Capel St) and the old Custom House then at Wellington Quay. Other ships remained down at the ‘pool’ where Ashford shows one at anchor. This ship is safely anchored inside the famous bar of Dublin. Lighters would remove the cargo down here and transfer it ashore. This would remain the position until 1791 with the erection of a new Custom House designed by architect James Gandon far downriver from Essex Bridge, behind the newly walled river. The first of our views shows Clontarf and Sutton with Howth Head far in the distance. There is no sign of the coastal road at Clontarf as it came some years later. The nearest bridge was at Ballybough, as Annesley Bridge was not yet built. In 1774- 75 when the works were painted the Tolka Estuary was a miasma of channels later canalised and, of course, the Drogheda Railway embankment was almost seventy years into the future. Clontarf was a tiny hamlet, comprising fishermen and shellfish gatherers having a shebeen and a few racks for drying fish on the shore. The uniqueness of this painting is its portrayal of Clontarf Island. Few images exist of the island. Here Ashford infers that the small boat is heading up towards the Tolka estuary, to what would become Fairview. In a gath- ering breeze, the boat skirts the island to the west. At the time Clontarf Island was still used for quarantine to keep plague from entering Dublin. It had been quite substantial, but removal of material for building over many years had nibbled away at its size and would eventually leave it at the mercy of tidal predation. Ashford gives some indication of activity, showing ordinary people at work, including stone masons on the juncture of the north shore wall just east of today’s Point Depot as well as sailors and fishermen. Ashford’s other view features the pools inside the Great South Wall. The lighthouse at the end was only finished six years before the painting. Shown prominently here is St Matthew’s Church at Irishtown. Still seen today, it is now quite a distance from the water. It was in the eighteenth century a major navigation mark for ships coming into Dublin. The entire Dodder Estuary was, twenty years later, canalised into a narrow channel creating over forty acres of extra land for Dublin. The ship at anchor also tells us that rope not chain has not been used to secure the anchor. Had it been chain it would have sunk below the surface immediately on coming out of the hawse pipe. To the right of St Matthew’s we see the enclosed harbour. It later housed a fort with its twenty-four pound cannon, some still in place off the Ringsend roundabout. Ashford presents his scene near high tide, judging by the level of water along the wall. Indeed the tide seems to be still f looding as shown by the anchor rope and its angle and the fact that the bow of the ship faces the bar at the entrance to the harbour, as does the ship near the Pigeon House. Ashford also shows us that the pools at the port have several vessels present as we would expect to see in a busy anchorage. Michael Branagan is the author of Dublin Moving East, 1708-1844, How the City Took over the Sea (2020) Dublin in 1774 ‘ Ashford presents his scene near high tide’