Reply To: Kincora

Many thanks to all who have commented and searched to help me in my quest. I include here the contents of an emial I received on the 15/11/99 from a very helpful man called Colm O’Riordan at the Irish Architectural Archive – it may jog someone’s memory?

Thank you for your query regarding Kincora/Dollymount House.

I am afraid that we have little direct information on either a Kincora house or a Dollymount House. According to Weston St. John Joyce’s The Neighbourhood of Dublin, (Dublin 1912, p. 252), ‘The name Dollymount would seem to have originated with a house bearing that title which stood on or adjoining the site of Sea Park in Mount Prospect Avenue, and which is shown in Duncan’s Map (William Duncan’s Map of the County of Dublin, 1821) of 1820 (sic). “Dollymount House” appears in the Dublin Directory up to 1836 after which it disappears, doubtless having been re-named, and in 1838 the name appears for the first time as that of a district…’

Dollymount House does appear under the heading Dollymount in the suburbs section of the street index in the Dublin Almanac of 1847, with Edward Carolin, also with an address in Thomas Street, listed as resident. However, it does not appear in the same section of the Post Office Directory of 1853.

Unfortunately, aside from these references and Duncan’s map, I can find neither Dollymount nor Sea View in any of the general sources to hand here in the Archive, nor does Kincora appear in any of them. However, the Director of the Archive, Mr David Griffin, informs me that he was in Kincora House many years ago. He describes it as a house of circa 1840, with a single story Doric portico and a particularly fine hall, and adds that the house itself was demolished in the late sixties of seventies. It was located on Kincora Road, Clontarf.

I am sorry that nothing further has come to light.

Colum O’Riordan,
Archive Administrator.