That familiar landmark at Ringsend, the Pigeonhouse, takes its name from a man called Pidgeon, who established a sort of restaurant there in the eighteenth century, long before the fortress was built for the defence of the Port of Dublin. At the beginning of the nineteenth century it was the landing stage for sailing vessels from Holyhead. An Englishman who disembarked there in 1806 stated that the crossing took twenty-three hours. After a long spell of sea-sickness he had to undergo a troublesome Customs examination and to pay about a dozen different officers of Customs. A two-mile drive in a vehicle known as "the long coach," carrying sixteen passengers inside and as many outside, brought him to Dublin. This coach, he was informed, was frequently held up by banditti, who relieved the passengers of whatever the Customs officers had left them. In those days the Liffey bridges were in such a bad state of repair that it was considered unsafe for the coach to cross them, and passengers going to the north side had to get out and walk. The English traveller complained bitterly of the exactions at the Pigeonhouse - a process that became so notorious at the time that it was commonly known as "plucking the pigeons."
The Irish Times, November 6th, 1930.