Page 86 - Greystones Archaeological Historical Society

A WALK AROUND GREYSTONES

1872 by John Doyle, these premises were taken over in 1922 by
the newly-formed Garda Siochana, and one of its most famous
short-term residents was playwright Brendan Behan, charged
with drunk and disorderly behaviour and detained there
overnight in March 1959. Along the edge of the street you will
see a few more of its original cobblestones.

Continuing along Trafalgar Road, St Brigid’s School on the
left is built on the site of Lewis’s Hotel, where Collins is also
reputed to have stayed. Following the closure of the hotel, the
building was acquired in 1955 by the Holy Faith Sisters for use
as a girls’ boarding school. On the other side of the street is
Brooklands, which Collins, in anticipation of his marriage to Kitty
Kiernan, reportedly hoped to acquire as a family home.

Next door to St Brigid’s (now a national school) is the Holy
Faith Convent of Our Lady of the Angels, built by Patrick Kinlen
st
to house the Holy Faith Sisters, who arrived in Greystones on 1
September 1906, in response to the invitation of local parish
priest, Dr Nicholas Donnelly. Two days later, on 3 September,
the sisters officially opened their school, with just seven pupils
on the roll. Numbers steadily increased over the years: a national
school for girls was established in 1917, as well as one for boys
at Blacklion, and other properties, including the former Lewis’s
Hotel and a number of houses on the seafront were acquired to
provide primary and second-level education for an ever-
expanding population.

Across the street is the Presbyterian Church. A Presbyterian
mission station was established in Kilpeddar, about four miles
away, in 1851, and by the 1880s one was opened in Greystones
itself. In 1884 William Robert La Touche of Bellevue donated a
site for a meeting house for the combined congregations of
Kilpeddar and Greystones. The church was built by local labour
in just four months, and formally opened on 3 July 1887.
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