Property Tax in Ireland ...

I don't know how to begin this post because I am confused, baffled, startled at the stupidity of the government - I am sure this could have been thought out and implemented better in any country in Africa.

So let me start at the beginning - After the previous government squandered all the money the country had, and the banks had to be bailed out by the tax payer along with a host of other organizations, and this was done by putting up our taxes first personal tax, then sales tax then the introduction of a "Universal Social Charge", then more tax hikes, reducing any kind of benefit they could, they introduced a household charge in 2012.

Not knowing how to implement this, they let the public do it for them, in addition they also want to start charging us for water which is a would you call it a natural resource that there is no shortage of in Ireland, but they have no way of knowing how much water people use as we don't have water meters.  So they sent every household a letter for the household charge which I think was €100, and you had to go on-line and pay this, but you also had to answer a whole lot of questions pertaining to your water, drainage etc, so in actual fact what ever person in Ireland was doing was building a database for the government so that they would try and come up with a way in which to implement it, which they still haven't.

So instead they decide to implement property tax, based on the value of your property - but you guessed it how do they know what your property is worth.  So once again they consult with the Leprechauns and come up with this idea, YOU the owner of your property have to decide what your property is worth!!!  So if you go onto their website and click on the LPT (Local Property Tax - Valuation Guidance)

 - You put in your location from the drop down list and property type and state whether it was built before Y2K or after and click on view map.   A pop up "Self Assessment Disclaimer" box pops up, which you have to accept or cancel, if you cancel you can't go any further.

So then this awful map with various shades of Orange pops up, Orange???? I ask you could they not have used different colors for each area.

So then you zoom into your area and you can actually virtually click on your house when you have zoomed in  close enough, it will then come up with an estimate and what I can only think is they give you the Minimum amount that your house could be valued at and you decide what it is actually worth, however they have our Estate in the wrong Area - did no-one check this, do they not have QA people looking at their software before they release it??? I guess being in QA I constantly look for mistakes these days!!!

I just want to know how this is going to work, What is my neighbor values his house at 100k more than mine, yet mine is in better condition ... they honestly never thought this through, what a bunch of monkeys ... I ask you!

Once you have the estimate you can then go to the Calculator and calculate your property tax for 2013, to see how much more the Tax man is going to try and take from you!

And don't worry he will be sending you a self assessment form in the post in the next couple of days so you can fill it in (once again doing their job for them) and they will then ask for payment.  And what if you can't afford to pay it ???  Where are they going to go next to get money once they have squandered this lot and lined their already fat pockets???

The New Property Tax for 2013

Your House 

As seen by yourself:

As seen by your buyer:

As seen by your lender:

As seen by the bank's 

valuer

As seen by Irish Revenue Commissioners:

A new Blogging Venture ...

I recently started blogging again, so if you like what you are reading on my blog please leave a comment here and vote for me!

Thanks and keep reading!  

It's in the Past ...

It's hard to accept, but I can't change the past. I can't go back and manipulate things to the way I wanted them to happen. Because life'd be meaningless and boring and just not worth living. But I can change the future and that's a beautiful thing about life. Yes, I will make mistakes. And yes, I will have bad days - but as long as I let the past go, I'll have such a gorgeous and bright future ahead of me. Knowing that things were meant to happen. Knowing that each day I will learn something so that I keep growing to be a better person. Life is like a rope, twined in all its complexities and yet weaved into one marvelous stream that I have the chance to use something amazing from.

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http://www.expatsblog.com/

Time lapse Dublin 2013

The Big Egg Hunt

They are doing a Big Egg Hunt in Dublin to raise money for charity, and we happened to come across 3 of the eggs in Dundrum Shopping Center on Saturday.    You can read all about it here

The Big Egg Hunt 2013 will be Ireland’s biggest and most interactive public art display where 100 exquisite and uniquely crafted eggs designed by leading artists and celebrities will take over the streets of Dublin. The Eggs will be placed in key locations in Dublin from the 12th February (Pancake Tuesday) to the 15th March after which they will be brought to one central location and displayed for one week.

Bon Jovi - Because We Can

My Favorite song at the moment!!!

In 13 days time ....

I'll be swapping this:


For this: - (At least the clouds in the picture below, don't mean "All Day".

Mine Dance ...

What's a "Mine Dance"?  I hear you ask ... (also referred to as the Gumboot Dance).

I have been reminiscing about my youth in South Africa, and a vision of "mine dancers" popped into my head, you see my mothers ancestors would have come to Johannesburg in the late 19th Century early 20th just after Gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand.   My grandfather was a miner and all my mothers brothers (7 of them) were miners.

My father was in construction and built many houses, power stations and buildings, he was the foreman when they built "His Majesty's", and oversaw the completion of the Kelvin power station and a few cooling towers in and around Johannesburg.  Anyway to get back to the mine dancers, we lived in the Southern Suburbs of Jo'burg and my mom's family were all on the West Rand on the mines.

Once a month we would have to do the journey to the West Rand to visit them, it was a journey that seemed to take for ever, in those days there were no motorways, so we would drive past Uncle Charlies, along this long road that seemed to go through a forest, until we got to "Main Reef Road", once on "Main Reef Road" we would drive for miles and miles to first get to my Grans house, which seemed to be the only house in an open stretch of about 10 miles.  I just remember she had an old coal stove, and NO inside toilet!

Going along Main Reef Road you would eventually go past the miners compound, I forget what they were called now, and often you would see the miners standing on the side of the road, big burly muscly miners wearing their mine helmets and big rubber boots with "jingles" attached to them and some of them brandishing spears, doing a mine dance.

I remember one of the songs they used to sing was sho shaloza which was adopted as a rugby song when we participated in our first Rugby world cup in 1995 held in South Africa.   It's a vision that will always be implanted in my memory banks, I think I was lucky to live in South Africa!  I found this video on Youtube of a "Mine Dance".


I found a bit of history on "The Cape Town Magazine" website written by By John Scharges which I will transpose here:

...Gumboot Dancing?

Stomp, spin and step got you confused?

A Humble beginningGumboot (also known as Wellington boot) dancing originates in the gold mines of South Africa, at the height of the oppressive apartheid pass laws. Due to the extremely poor conditions, mine managers saw the easiest solution to be the outfitting of workers with a uniform consisting of no shirt; a bandana to keep the sweat off the brow, and in order to combat the damp – Gumboots.

Workers were often not allowed to communicate with one another, which led to them developing their own sort of Morse code through slapping their gumboot covered feet with their hands. With little or no other freedoms allowed to them, it was not long before the workers developed this into the full fledged expressive art of Gumboot Dancing.

The Humble DanceLike many African dances, the Gumboot dancer articulates his whole body in performing the moves, often in syncopation with the other members of one’s group. A rhythmical, percussive, almost... ‘stomp’ is the end result – nowadays bells are often attached to the boots for added impact. The whole effect creates something akin to a whole body drum, and one cannot but admire the skill required, the visual and aural picture painted.

The songs that accompanied the flurried frenetic adaption’s of traditional dances (traditional dances, as with traditional dress, were outlawed) were sung in the workers’ native languages and spoke of the trials present in their work life. Some of the moves were even developed in mock imitation of the way the mine operators themselves moved. Contemporary gumboot dancing has more varied themes, but follow similar paths, if only due to origin.

Into Modern TimesThis dance became a representation of the everyman; and its popularity has continued into modern South Africa – with local musicians like the ‘White Zulu’ Johnny Clegg utilising it extensively in his shows, and international musician Paul Simon even naming a song on his Graceland album ‘Gumboot’. The famous Drakensberg Choir even incorporates Gumboot dancing as part of their African-folk routine.

Gumboot dancing troupes are now a fairly common sight, with places such as the V & A waterfront playing host to a number of  different groups. Most festivals have at least one group performing, and gumboot dancing buskers have become regulars at tourist hotspots.

The end of Apartheid allowed dance to flourish in a way it had never before, with South Africa embracing and utilising its artistic heritage - to create new and exciting expression through movement, and breathing new life into the old.

- See more at: http://www.capetownmagazine.com/whats-the-deal-with/Gumboot-Dancing/125_22_17289#sthash.C5ctslYI.dpuf

Stand by me ....

Awesome 

Countdown ....

I can't believe it's so close only 15 days before we fly home to Africa for 3 weeks in the sun!  This is where I will be on St. Patrick's day instead of watching the parade in Dublin!!!

Art

Art washes away from the soul, the dust of everyday life....Pablo Picasso

 

Big Brother

I meant to blog about this over the week-end and forgot.  When D's nephew arrived at Dublin Airport last week for his 4 nights, he had to go through the Non-EU passport control, due to his SA passport and of course they asked him all kinds of Questions.

Passport Control:    "Who you coming to visit?"
Bran:                      "My Aunt and Uncle"
Passport Control:    "What are their names?"
Bran:                      "D & R Surname"
Passport Control (Turning the computer screen towards Bran):  "Is this your Uncle?"  (shows photograph of D) then pulls up another and says "Is this your Aunt?" (shows photograph of moi)
Passport Control:    "What is their address?"
Bran:                       " I don't know, somewhere in Dublin, they are picking me up"
Passport Control:    "Well this is their address and rattles off our exact address"

Kind of Freaky, I bet they don't do that to people who were born and bred in the country .... 

Time

When a bird is alive..it eats Ants, When the bird is dead.. Ants eat the bird!
So....Time & Circumstances can change at any time..
Don’t devalue or hurt anyone in life. You may be powerful today..But Remember..
... Time is more powerful than You!!! One tree makes a million match sticks..
But when the time comes.. Only one match stick is needed to burn a million trees..
So be good and do good for the sake of your soul!!!

I love my Job, I do, I do, I do ...

Did I tell you I love my job, for the first time in the 12 years I have lived and worked in Ireland I finally found a company where I feel I belong.  Now that's not to say that I did not like any of my previous jobs or companies, because I did.  However I now work for an American company, and the reason for being employed in the company is for your knowledge and ability.

For the first time in 12 years, I am not the "foreigner", no I am one of many foreigners even though I am now Irish, and there is not a majority of Catholic Irish people, there are Irish people but I would say majority are of other religious beliefs.  In our Dublin team alone there are only 4 Irish, 1 South African, 1 New Zealander,  1 British and 1 Tanzanian which makes it a 50 / 50 split.  In the company in Dublin well that is a whole different story, we are now up at 5 Italians, a lot of French, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Kenyan, Australian and the list goes on.

Having come from South Africa where I was brought up in a country of people from every corner of the globe, where we respected everyone's religions, beliefs and customs I now feel at home.  No longer am I the only one who doesn't do Ash Wednesday, Shrove Tuesday or any other customary event that the Irish celebrate.

Life in Ireland has been tough and especially between 2008 and 2011, where I felt like the outcast and the person who was stealing an Irish persons job, because people made you feel like that.  However that is a whole different story which I won't get into tonight, we'll keep that for another day.

The Merry Ploughboy

The Merry Ploughboy pub

D's nephew is over visiting Dublin for three days and tonight is his last night, so thought we would take him to a traditional Irish pub.  If ever you want the best pub food in Dublin this has to be the place, the Seafood Chowder is to die for, it's really a meal all of it's own.

This pub is literally five minutes away from where we live but we hardly ever go there, I often see the Trafalgar tours and Contiki tours taking bus loads of tourist up the road, although that is normally in summer. I thought they might have something on tonight, but alas no, however he still loved the place.

Absolutely far better than Johnny Foxes and price wise so reasonable compared to JF's, so if ever you are looking for a traditional Irish pub, this is the place and it too is in the Dublin mountains. 

Baby Shower

I was asked volunteered by our Gay German-American Boss to do do a "Baby Shower" for a male co-worker.  Now in Ireland people are really superstitious about accepting gifts before the baby is born, however, this guy is not Irish although his wife is, he is also agnostic, and that is besides being Lactose intolerant as well as glucose intolerant. :)

Oy Vay, so what to do?  Half the people at work say "I wouldn't do it", well most of the Irish bar the ones in our team lol who are all game for organizing this.  So I guess I should just go with the flow and organize.  I guess in writing down my thoughts I really do answer my own questions, so perhaps this blogging thing is good!

And I guess all the food just has to be wholesome organic - and have you ever heard of a man who can only drink Cider and nothing else! So challenging, but I guess this just has to put my organizational skills to the test.

Will post the photos from the shower!

Any nice ideas on what to do for a male co-worker?

Photo Fun

Inspiration ... "Bloggers Block"

I'm looking for inspiration to Blog again, I have so many thoughts going round in my head but just can't seem to put pen to paper ... I guess if I really was a writer it would be called "writers Block", so in this case it is "Bloggers Block".

It's Looking Good

Just one of those little saying's my 9 and a half year old said this morning when I asked her how she was doing and if she was almost ready!  

It was a very Merry Christmas ...

That one Rule

Tinie Tempah - Written In The Stars ft. Eric Turner

Halloween 2012

Queen - No One But You (Only The Good Die Young)

SFO to Atlanta, Georgia

Wednesday 09/05

So I was up at 3:00 a.m. showered and out the door by 3:50 waiting for the bus to the airport, the flight was uneventful but cramped, I had some guy sitting next to me wanting to take over my seat too.  The view from the plane was awesome, we flew over the Rocky Mountains, over Denver and then over Memphis, where you could see the Mississippi Delta and river.

Been here at Atlanta airport for ages waiting for the next leg of the flight to Dublin, we should be boarding soon - thank goodness for WIFI, it cost me $6.75 for 24 hour WIFI and I got to talk to D and Em for ages on Skype, just finished talking to a colleague and going to pack up the computer now so that we can start boarding.

Chat tomorrow from Ireland, unless they have WIFI on the plane over like they did coming here :)

Last day in SFO

Tuesday 09/04

Pretty much uneventful day today, the girls took me for lunch to a Japanese restaurant, then K gave me a lift through to Millbrae at 4 o'clock, but not before all the good byes and hugs from my team and from Sri.  I miss them already, but I want to get home to see my family, miss them so much!

Driving to Millbrae, we had to take the San Jose / San Mateo bridge, the fog had come down behind the sky scrapers in San Francisco and the view was awesome, like a fog blanket over the city - it was also weird driving on a motorway that crosses the ocean.

What I could not get over was the amount of traffic, even though each morning I had watched the traffic report on TV which starts at 4:30 a.m. at 5:30 a.m. this morning there was already a huge traffic jam on the Interstate 680 which was due to a CHP being shot by a motorist today - lots of shootings in SFO.

So K dropped me at my hotel and I basically just lazed about and then decided to go and get some dinner from the Mexican place across the road, I didn't realise it was a fast food - The Chipotle Grill and of course having no experience at ordering mexican, I really mad a twat of myself, but managed to get something to eat at the end of it.

And now I am back here thinking that I had better get some sleep because I need to be up before 3 a.m. so good night everyone and goodbye SFO ... I will be back to this wonderful city! 

Labor Day

Monday 09/03

Well I haven't done much today, took a walk to the Apple store at Stoneridge Mall to get an iPod touch and then went to the Cheesecake Factory for the best Milkshake I have ever had!  I have spent the rest of the day here at the desk in my hotel room, chatting on skype and blogging ... it's just too hot outside and I need to pack!

Tomorrow after work I am off to a hotel in Millbrae which is close to the SFO airport so I don't miss my 6 a.m. flight on Wednesday morning.

Will chat again soon, but I best start packing!

Downtown San Francisco - Labor Day week-end

Sunday 09/02

So ... my trip the previous day had been pretty successful, didn't get lost except maybe for waiting for the Marriott shuttle on the Dublin side of the Bart station instead of the Pleasanton side, but that's another story.  I left the Residence Inn at about 10:00 and headed over to the Marriott and got the shuttle over to the Bart. 

I got off at Montgomery Street Bart station and then walked over to Union Square, I am not sure what I was expecting to see but I though it would be a big shopping Mall, there was one but that was in Market Street.  There are loads of expensive shops round the area, so I did a bit of browsing and then decided to head down Powell street to Market as the Internet had said to go there to get tickets for the Cable Car (which is like Cable bus), well the queue was round the block, about 300 people in the queue, so I just went shopping!

When I was all shopped out I jumped on the Bart at Powell Street and headed back to Pleasanton, walked from the Bart to Stoneridge and did more shopping and then back to the hotel, let's hope my suitcase is not going to be over weight!

I was so hot when I got back that I decided to go for a swim, the water was awesome and I ended up chatting to a girl called Lisa from Florida, then went over to the Marriott for the best burger I have ever had! and a Heineken of course.

Then off to bed for me.

My week-end in San Francisco

Saturday 09/01

I met Mustafa down in Reception and we got the guy from the Marriott to take us to the BART station, I was so glad M was with me as I was a bit nervous about my first trip into SF.   But by the time he showed me the ropes and gave me his BART map it was really a piece of cake.

I decided to get off at the Civic Centre Bart station as I wanted to get to the Spirit shop on Van Ness street to get Emily a halloween costume, I wasn't sure where about it was, so thought I would just start at the beginning.  It was probably a good place to start as I got to see the Opera house, civic centre and some other cool buildings.

After getting off the Bart and walking down to the start of Van Ness by Market street, I couldn't believe how many homeless people there were and they came in all shapes, wow really sad.  I walked for ages and eventually thought well either I missed the Spirit store but will just carry on walking as it doesn't look that far on the map, I eventually come across the store and spend ages there.  After the store I plan to head down to Pier 45, so check with the store girl who says to me to get the bus as it's too far to walk, I reckon it can't be that far and carry on walking.  Well it took me ages and yes it was far but I eventually got there.  Miraculously I end up in front of the Ghirardelli Chocolate shop, I should have gone in but I didn't.

The weatherman had predicted that it was going to be a cold and cloudy day in SF, but to the contrary it was absolutely beautiful.  I first went to the Maritime museum and then did a boat trip around the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz, never got to Sausilito where T had told me to go.

I did a bit of touristy shopping and then decided after getting a bite to eat it was time to head home, I found the trolley bus in front of Walgreen's so went in to get a few things, found Peanut Butter M&M's on special!  Got the bus to Embarcadero Bart station and then the Bart back to the hotel.

View Larger Map

Work ... work ... and play ...

Okay so let me start at the begining, I had just got back from SA and on my 6 month anniversary with the company, my boss who I have never met in person said to me that everone including our new QA person from Toronto was going to be in Pleasanton the following week.  So I went on line and found a good air deal, so I told her and she told me to book - within 5 days of booking I was on the plane.

Sunday 09/26

We had a braai the night before with good friends, who left round 9pm, so I had to madly rush and finish packing - I was then up at 3:30 a.m. so D could take me to the airport for my flight to Paris, then an hour wait and the flight to SFO.  Wow, it was long - luckily I sat upstairs where there weren't that many people and I had two empty seats next to me for most of the flight.  Well with an additional 8 hours daylight by the time I arrived in SFO, I had been awake for like 20 hours.

Monday 09/27 (HOT)

My dear collegue T who came over to Ireland for 3 months to mentor me came to fetch me in the morning, it was so cool to see her again so soon and I met my boss for the first time and the new guy from Toronto - Monday was a short day as we left the office at midday for a team outing at Wente Vineyards in Livermore, it was loads of fun and great way to meet all the people from my team.  Ended up playing pictionary with the guys what a laugh. 

After T dropped me back at the hotel, I was chatting to the rest of the guys who were here from Dubln, so we ended up going out for dinner to the Cheese Cake Factory at Stoneridge Mall - it was great to have other people from the Dublin office here else I would have been all on my own.

Tuesday 09/28

A busy day at work and uneventful, then ended up going out with the gang again, this time we went downtown pleasanton and had dinner at a mexican restaurant called Blue Algarve Club I can't find a website but there is a link to facebook, we then had a night cap back at the Marriott.

Wednesday 09/29

Well today was another busy day and a last minute invitation to a team dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory at 5:30 - at 3:15 the alarm goes off in the building and we have to evacuate, well it took them at least 20 minutes to evacuate the building, by which time we could have all been burnt to death - I still had time to go back and get my sun glasses and a visit to the rest room and I was still in the same queue. 

Dinner at the cheescake factory was nice and it was nice to be out with all the team, reminded me of my days in SA when we used to go out for lunch / dinner.

Thursday 09/30 (HOT)

Well Thursday was another short day at the office, it was the company meeting out at the Marriot in San Ramon seems like a good place to stay to explore the Napa valley wine region.  Anyway the meeting was good, I couldn't believe how much people in America drink and drive though, reminded me of days back in SA.  

After the meeting and getting our T-shirts we all headed over to The Firehouse No. 37 in San Ramon which was a great night, but I wasn't in the mood to drink, so couldn't wait to get back to the hotel.

Friday 09/31 (COOL very COOL)

Another busy day in the office, T came back to the hotel with me to unload the Computer and stuff, we then walked over to the Marriott to wait for Stu and then got our favourite driver from the hotel to take us to downtown Pleasanton, once there we got some wine from the wine shop and went to Strizzi's for dinner which was good, then we had to wait for our driver, but it was great we had a good view of the "Blue Moon".  Once back at the hotel, I said my goodbye's to Stu who was heading off the next morning to the Yosemite (which looks absolutely awesome)  and T who was going off to Oregon, I was still going to see Mustafa in the morning before he headed off to Vegas - I was being left in Pleasanton all on my own.
 

San Francisco

What a whirl wind month, I got back from South Africa on the 5th of August and the 21st I was booked to go to San Francisco ... it's been an awesome, but busy week.  Today I went into the city and did some sight seeing awesome, awesome, awesome!!!  Will tell you all about it.

 

South Africa ... dear land!

Barry Hilton at The Laughter Lounge in Dublin

You're never too old to learn ...

I learnt a lot about myself this week ... I learnt that I tend to take care of others and neglect myself.

I learnt that one thing that humans know how to do well and that is to hurt each other.

I learnt that instead of standing up and fighting for what is right, I let other people win.

I learnt that as much as someone can promise you that they will always be there for you, humans tend to forget what always means ... always and forever doesn't last

I learnt that when people hurt me, I walk away and build a wall to shut them out.

I learnt that if people want to be your friend they will tell you your faults and still be your friend and not shut the door.

I learnt that God sends us people to show us the way ... Thank you for sending me Trinity she restored my faith in friendship, I know I will only have her for a short time but she has helped me so much.  Thank you for sending me Athena, my faith in South African friends has been restored although she too is only here for a short while.

I learnt that I need to now start looking after myself too!  

Arthur-In My Africa

9 Weeks

9 Weeks today and I will be in SA ... count down and hopefully a trip to London before that for my dear friend Tracy's 40th!!!! Life is good ... 

Cat stevens-How can i tell you + lyrics

Facebook CIA Project: The Onion News Network

Americans viewpoint on SA

Americans Viewpoints on South Africa from Harold Schenk on Vimeo.

Pule Mofokeng Photography

Pule Mofokeng Photography: 

Stunning photos of a "Traditional wedding" in South Africa! I stumbled upon this blog and had to share!!  Click on the link above to see the rest of these amazing photographs. 

Dublin 8

I park my car in the back streets of D8 just South of the Liberties, this morning I was a bit earlier than normal and managed to get a parking on Mill street, the streets were really quite, it was cold and the sun was streaming down, I parked my car and looked up and noticed and old building which I had obviously not noticed before.

 Like quite a few buildings in the area it was all boarded up, but this one looked like it was probably a couple of hundred years old, and must have been quite a grand place in it's time could possibly have been a school. The building half broken down had all kinds of things growing out of every crevice and all that was occupying it were the birds flying in and out feeding their young in their nests. Next to the old building is an abandoned excavation site.

It was so peaceful.  Just down from this building is an old pub that has also been boarded up. I was upset because I hadn't brought my camera in and would have loved to have capture the moment, as I walked down and turned the corner by the pub, a heard the clip clop, clip, clop of a horse - and there before me was a young lad riding a horse drawn carriage, the carriage not in too bad shape was small and black and looked almost like a hearse, it felt like I had suddenly been drawn back 100 years or more with the beautiful silence and only the sound of the horse on a cobble stoned road.



View Larger Map I did a "Google Search" and found some history on the area:

http://www.excavations.ie/Pages/Details.php?Year=&County=Dublin&id=13043

Dublin
2003:556
10 Mill Street, DublinUrban post-medieval

Test excavation on a large site at Mill Street, Dublin 8, was undertaken in October and November 2003. The site includes a standing historic structure (10 Mill Street), which was the subject of a separate report.
The development site has frontage to Mill Street, Sweeney’s Lane, and flanks Warrenmount Lane and convent grounds. The development of this area is heavily influenced by the River Poddle, which powered many mills and serviced other industries in the south inner city from the medieval period onwards. The site of the medieval “Double Mill” of St Thomas’s Abbey, with its water channel and millpond, is located on the development site. The millpond (SMR 18:20(398)) was located to the west of the mill and the mill (18:20(92)) was sited towards the eastern end of the site. One channel of the Poddle led north-east around the boundary of the lands of St Thomas, and a mill, known as the Double Mill, was located on this branch. This is located on the site under study.

The first edition of the OS map shows the millpond, fed by the combined sources of the stream from the mill at Greenmount Terrace (annotated the ‘factory water’ on the estate map of the earl of Meath) and another branch down Sweeney’s Lane. The millpond at the site appears to have been visible as late as 1973, when Fitzgerald wrote: ‘it is of special interest to see today – still open and in the centre of Dublin – the Mill Pond belonging to the ‘double mill’ listed above. It is the last open portion of the Poddle still there, within hailing distance of Saint Patrick’s.’ She describes it as ‘about 3ft wide and 2ft deep with no sign of power or history at all, except where it finally cascades underground, under the former old mill at Warrenmount’.

The location of the trenches was determined by the perceived location of historic features, which included the mill building/s (Trench 1), early 18th-century buildings on Sweeney’s Lane (Trench 3) and the edge of the millpond (Trenches 2, 4 and 5). The locations were limited by the presence of live services, a culvert for the Poddle and the presence of standing buildings. All the trenches were excavated by a JCB fitted with a toothed bucket.

Trench 1 was located in the area of the two buildings indicated closest to the millrace on Rocque’s map of 1756. Two discrete groups of industrial features were uncovered in the trench, which measured 2m in width and almost 10m in length. Further investigative work is required in this area. The features uncovered relate to the industrial buildings last present on the site. They are likely to relate to the 19th-century mill on the site, which stood until the 1970s. This large mill building may have incorporated elements from the smaller mill depicted on Rocque’s map. These are likely to include the watercourses and wheel pits. None of these were exposed in the test-trench.

Trench 2, in the yard to the west of the millpond, uncovered a decayed timber pipe or drain. A shard of 19th-century pottery was retrieved from the silt which filled the central perforation of the pipe. The pipe lay on subsoil.

Trench 3 was dug along Sweeney’s Lane. It was expected that evidence for the substantial houses built here by 1718 would be uncovered. Concrete overlay hard-core to a depth of 0.4m. This directly overlay subsoil.
No deposits were uncovered in Trench 4, which was located in the south-western part of the site, close to the west wall of the large modern building. It was expected that the retaining wall/s for the millpond would be uncovered. The trench measured 20m in length. The sides collapsed continuously throughout excavation, due to the unstable nature of the deposits uncovered. The trench was dug to a maximum depth of 2.5m, and the profile was consistent throughout. Very loose stone and brick rubble and loam, which included plastic debris of recent date, was uncovered. No structural features were evident. The material uncovered represents deliberate and rapid infilling of the millpond.

Further archaeological work is planned for this site.
Reference
Fitzgerald, A.D. 1974 Down the old Poddle. In E. Gillespie (ed.), The Liberties of Dublin. Dublin.
Claire Walsh, 27 Coulson Avenue, Rathgar, Dublin 6.

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