While I was comparing an old map of Dublin, published about the middle of the eighteenth century, with one of modern date, the first thing that struck me was the remarkable change in the coastline of Dublin Bay. Two hundred years ago the North Strand and Amiens street were on the edge of the sea, while a short distance from the point where the East Wall terminates stood Clontarf Island, which has now disappeared.
When the tide is out there are still indications of the outline of this island, which was gradually disintegrated by storms, the removal of sand, and changes caused by the reclamation of the north bank of the Liffey.
During an epidemic of plague in 1750, Clontarf Island was used as a quarantine station, and in more recent times it became popular as a summer resort. About a hundred years ago a man named Cromwell took a fancy to this spot, and built a summer residence on it. While he and his son were in residence on the island in 1844, a terrific south-easterly gale rose one evening, and watchers from the shore saw the light in Cromwell's house go out. Nothing could be done to save the unfortunate men, and next morning the two bodies were found near the railway embankment.
The boats, in which they might have escaped, had been blown away and smashed by the storm.
The Irish Times, March 10th, 1931.