Relic Of Times Past In Kilmainham Is Remembered In Art – In this article, Aidan Crowley discusses the history of the Orchard Shop in Kilmainham
By: Aidan Crowley:
The Orchard was a small sweet shop which was located at Kilmainham Cross and stood at the junction of the South Circular Road and Emmet Road for more than a hundred years.
It was a vibrant focal point for the local community and was also earmarked by people from all across the city, as a gathering point for cyclists who would set out in large groups on Sundays in the forties, fifties and sixties. These cyclists would often undertake a long distance trek, for example to Tullamore and back in the one day.
People travelling to the Phoenix Park on Sunday afternoons in summertime would often stop at The Orchard to purchase a refreshing lemonade or ice-cream, to break their journey. The shop also stocked a wide range of sweets, chocolates and other confectionery products, all stored in gleaming glass jars on wooden shelves, behind the old wooden counter.
Sometime in the early seventies, the owner, Mr. Harrington, died and his wife found it increasingly difficult to maintain the shop as a going concern. This was mainly as a result of constant break-ins and robberies and the shop eventually ceased trading.
The Orchard shop and site rapidly deteriorated and eventually became derelict, with briars and weeds growing out of it from every angle. Tourists who were visiting nearby Kilmainham Gaol were forced to negotiate their way through a swathe of briars and nettles, as they passed it on their way to the local bus stop.
Poet, painter, activist and local historian, Michael O’ Flanagan, recalls in his autobiographical book, “The Importance of Fruit”, that he petitioned the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to have a compulsory purchase order (CPO) made on the derelict site, as one individual was attempting to gain adverse possession or “squatters’ rights” on the premises.
The local community focus group, the Inchicore and Kilmainham Development Project (IKDP) suggested that the site should be developed into a tourist office or a heritage centre. Eventually, Dublin City Council (DCC), succeeded in having a CPO made on the derelict premises. However, there was another twist in the tale, as the council then sold the site to a private developer for Euros 1.7 million.
O’ Flanagan had made a proposal, at the time, that the briars, weeds and nettles should be cut back and that the site should be completely cleaned-up and refurbished. He suggested that the newly re-vamped premises should have seating, monuments and flags installed and have flower displays planted. This newly installed arrangement would have made a fitting memorial site in the foreground of the historic structure of Kilmainham Gaol.
The Orchard shop site was designated within Zone Z5 on the City Development Plan for recreation and amenity. According to DCC, land-use zoning under Objective Z5’s main purpose is “To consolidate and facilitate the development of the central area and to identify, reinforce, strengthen and protect its civic design, character and dignity”.
However, much to the dismay of the IKDP and local residents, DCC decided to offer the site for redevelopment into a block of apartments of up to four stories in height. O’ Flanagan recalls in his book that he contacted local Independent Councillor, Vincent Jackson, who proposed a motion to DCC which opposed the sale of the site.
At the time, there were sufficient votes on the council to prevent the sale of the premises. However, the then Dublin City Manager, Frank Feely, decided to offer a compromise to the IKDP, stating that any new structure built on the site would be sympathetic to the adjacent National Monuments, Kilmainham Gaol and The Royal Hospital Kilmainham.
Unfortunately, this compromise did not translate into anything tangible, as following two failed appeals to An Bord Pleanala, a building which has been dubbed “the ugliest building in Dublin” was erected on a site that was once identified on the City Development Plan as “The Gateway To Inchicore”.
Now, the only reminder of this quaint little sweet shop that once stood at Kilmainham Cross is a painting by O’ Flanagan, which was taped to a derelict building at the corner of Old Kilmainham, one day in late July.
It depicts an old-world shop, part of a byegone era, made of red bricks with a red roof, called The Orchard, underneath a starry night sky and crescent moon. The little shop’s two front windows glow, with shelves of sweets, inviting enraptured customers inside.
