Dundrum’s odyssey

A century ago, Dundrum, in south Dublin, had a mere 500 inhabitants. Today, it has the largest shopping centre in Ireland.

Some of its old facilities have been remade, especially the former railway line from Harcourt Street station to Bray, which closed down nearly 56 years ago. Open for just over 10 years now, the Luas Green line tracks most of its route, as far as Brides Glen, and the old station at Dundrum has been turned into a busy commuter stop.

The old, small railway bridge at Dundrum has been transformed into the vast crossing of the new bridge, named after William Dargan, the railway pioneer.

Dundrum also once had an Odeon cinema, subsequently changed into the Apollo, closed down 47 years ago. Apart from films, it often presented live shows by local artistes; these days, the venue for live performances is the Mill Theatre in the Dundrum Town Centre.

When the brand new Odeon opened its doors in 1942, it had underground parking for 500 bicycles, then the favoured mode of transport for most people. The enthusiasm for bicycles has come full cycle, helped by Daly’ s long-established bicycle shop by the Luas bridge in Dundrum. The local cinema-going tradition is continued by movies@dundrum, in the Dundrum Town Centre.

The whole area was once characterised by big houses, set in spacious grounds, but most of them were replaced by housing developments from the 1960s onwards. Today, one of the few big old houses still surviving is Airfield at Dundrum. The wealthy Overend sisters, Letitia and Naomi, lived there for years and kept a working farm, renowned for its Jersey milk in green-topped bottles.

Today, their house has been meticulously restored and one of the delights there for visitors are old copies of The Irish Times going back over 60 years. The farm has the only local dairy left out of 30.

Letitia Overend had a 1927 Rolls-Royce and she had a habit of gaily parking it any which way in the Main Street when she went shopping. In those days, traffic wardens were unimagined. Now, her Rolls- Royce, together with the sisters’ other two cars, are immaculately preserved in the garage at Airfield.

She went shopping in the likes of Findlater’s and Leverett & Frye, but those old grocery shops, with counter service and much chat, have long since disappeared. Today, Main Street in Dundrum, which can be politely described as an architectural melange, has one remaining traditional shop. It’s Campbell’s Corner, run by the genial Paul Campbell; the family has been doing shoe repairs there since 1900. His son, also Paul, has his shoe business, in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. Mulvey’s Pharmacy, too, has long antecedents in the village.

Old factories vanished years ago. The Manor Mill Laundry closed down in 1942 and its premises were taken over by Pye, which for over 40 years was the biggest employer in Dundrum. One renowned employee was Albert Reynolds, who got a job there as a cabinet polisher, something he replicated in later life when he became taoiseach. But in those days, trade union membership was mandatory to work in Pye. Albert Reynolds’s tenure was brief, since it turned out he didn’t after all belong to a union.

After Pye came the renowned Dundrum Bowl, also short lived. Following lengthy tribunal inquiries, the land was eventually used for the Dundrum Town Centre. Its construction started in 2001; next March will see the 10th anniversary of its opening.

Dundrum has also had some memorable residents, including the late Seán Mac Réamoinn, of RTÉ and Cumann Merriman.

Once, in his later years, he declared that he was like the census: “broken down by age, sex and religion”.

A noted and highly controversial writer, Francis Stuart, lived for years at Windy Arbour, just down the road from Dundrum, and after he died, in Co Clare, in February 2000, The Irish Times published an extraordinary front-page photograph of him taken on his deathbed.

The present Dundrum may bear little resemblance to the once small country village to which well-off people from Dublin repaired for the fresh mountainy air and goat’s milk.

But you can still travel to and from Dublin city centre and Dundrum by Luas, rather than by steam train, in just under 15 minutes.