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Irish Times
2 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
Census 1911: Dublin housing was in crisis a century ago with one-room tenements comprising 60% of homes
It will not provide much consolation to those caught up in Dublin's housing crisis , but the situation was even worse more than a century ago. Data from the 1911 Census, which has been released online by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), shows that 60 per cent of all homes in the capital then were one-room tenements. The city, which consisted of the area between the Royal and Grand canals, along with parts of Cabra, Crumlin and Ballyfermot, had a population of 304,802 at the time. There were 35,477 homes, 21,133 of which were one-room tenements. Nearly 70,000 people, almost a quarter of the population, lived in tenement buildings. In Dublin , 132 families lived in a one-room tenement with 10 people or more. Five families lived in a one-room tenement with 12 people in them. READ MORE Before independence, Dublin had a reputation of having some of the worst slums in the United Kingdom . The housing situation was one of the principal motivations behind the Dublin lockout of 1913, with two tenements collapsing in Church Street causing the deaths of seven people that year. A government inquiry, published in February 1914, showed that many elected councillors on Dublin Corporation were complicit in the abject state of housing in the city. It found three members of the corporation alone owned 46 tenement houses between them, while 10 other members of the corporation owned or partially owned one to three tenement houses. They were able to avail of tax rebates in relation to the housing they owned despite the substandard nature of much of the accommodation. The government report revealed the 'want of a firm administration has created a number of owners with but little sense of their responsibilities as landlords, and that it has helped much in the demoralisation of a number of the working classes, and increased the number of inefficient workers in the city'. [ Housing target should be revised up to 60,000 homes per year, Dublin Chamber says Opens in new window ] Slum clearance did not really begin until after Irish independence, but it took until the 1960s for all the tenements to be vacated. No other city in Ireland came close to the number of tenements. In Belfast , then the biggest city on the island, only 1 per cent of homes were one-room tenements. One-room tenements were also found in rural districts, mostly situated close to the Atlantic coast. Belmullet in Co Mayo, for example, had 14 one-room tenements per 100 houses inhabited.
RTÉ News
24-05-2025
- General
- RTÉ News
'Long time coming' - plaque unveiled to honour Irish revolutionary
A plaque commemorating Irish revolutionary, social activist and co-founder of Dublin's first children's hospital, Madeleine ffrench-Mullen has been unveiled in the capital. Conducted by Lord Mayor of Dublin Councillor Emma Blain, the plaque to Ms ffrench-Mullen was erected at her childhood home of 63 Moyne Road, Ranelagh, at 11am. Born in Malta in 1880 and the eldest child of St Laurence ffrench-Mullen, a fleet surgeon in the Royal Navy, Ms ffrench-Mullen began her life of activism in the labour movement, taking part in the Dublin Lockout in 1913. She was also an early member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann, a nationalist women's group founded by Maud Gonne in 1900, and wrote in their newspaper, Bean na hÉireann. During this time, she met her lifelong partner Dr Kathleen Lynn. They both went on to serve in the Irish Citizen Army during the 1916 rising. During the rising, Ms ffrench Mullen was stationed at the garrison of Stephen's Green/College of Surgeons, while Dr Lynn served as the Chief Medical Officer at the City Hall outpost. Both were arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol after the surrender. Released later that year, the pair co-founded St Ultan's Infant hospital in 1919 to tackle high infant mortality rates in Dublin. The first of its kind in Ireland, St Ultan's operated until 1984. Ms ffrench-Mullen served as the hospital's secretary and lived with Dr Lynn until her death in 1944. The Lord Mayor said the commemoration was "a long time coming". "It's a very special place to unveil this plaque in the heart of Ranelagh and so many people have come out to acknowledge that," she said. "There aren't enough plaques for women in the city and Madeleine was certainly a woman that deserves one and more." Also participating in the unveiling ceremony were historian Sinéad McCoole, actor Olwen Fouéré who shared a reading from Ms ffrench-Mullen's diary and Natalie Ní Chasaide, who performed a piece of music.
RTÉ News
24-05-2025
- Health
- RTÉ News
Plaque to honour Irish revolutionary Madeleine ffrench-Mullen
A plaque commemorating Irish revolutionary, social activist and co-founder of Dublin's first children's hospital, Madeleine ffrench-Mullen has been unveiled in the capital. Conducted by the Lord Mayor of Dublin Councillor Emma Blain, the plaque to Ms ffrench-Mullen was erected at her childhood home of 63 Moyne Road, Ranelagh at 11am. Born in Malta in 1880 and the eldest child of St Laurence ffrench-Mullen, a fleet surgeon in the Royal Navy, Ms ffrench-Mullen began her life of activism in the labour movement, taking part in the Dublin Lockout in 1913. She was also an early member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann, a nationalist women's group founded by Maud Gonne in 1900, and wrote in their newspaper, Bean na hÉireann. During this time, she met her lifelong partner Dr Kathleen Lynn. They both went on to serve in the Irish Citizen Army during the 1916 rising. During the rising, Ms ffrench Mullen was stationed at the garrison of Stephen's Green/College of Surgeons, while Dr Lynn served as the Chief Medical Officer at the City Hall outpost. Both were arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol after the surrender. Released later that year, the pair co-founded St Ultan's Infant hospital in 1919 to tackle high infant mortality rates in Dublin. The first of its kind in Dublin, St Ultan's operated until 1984. Ms ffrench-Mullen served as the hospital's secretary and lived with Dr Lynn until her death in 1944.
