Rathmines was mentioned in a paragraph the other day as having been at one time a resort greatly favoured by invalids on account of its wholesome air. Another suburb of Dublin, perhaps still more unlikely, had at one time the same reputation. Harold's Cross, about the middle of the eighteenth century, was often selected by parents as a place to send delicate children to, on account of the invigorating breezes blowing down from the mountains. A picture from the Dublin Penny Journal of 1852 shows the rural village of Harold's Cross, with a common in the middle on which pigs are feeding and some of the villagers indulging in a game of see-saw. After the establishment of Mount Jerome Cemetery this locality quickly fell out of favour as a health resort, and, unfortunately, has never recovered from the blight thus laid on the district.
The Irish Times,
February 2nd, 1929.