LENABOY AVENUE, c.1890

by Tom Kenny

This photograph was taken from the top of Dalysfort Road (which seems to have been little more than a track at the time) and shows Lenaboy Avenue at the bottom of the hill and part of the main Salthill Road in the distance. Most of the buildings in the Avenue were part of the Whaley Estate. Many of the occupants were fishermen and many of them had seaweed rights which were quite valuable at the time. The avenue was a main pathway to the shore for people living inland at the time.

The houses we see were at one time, going from the left, occupied by Molloys ; A golf professional called Mahony ; Hacketts who once lived on Gentian Hill ; Stiffs ; Delia Farrell ; Keanes ; Martin McGrath ; Miss Molly Jordan ; Andy McGrath ; there were two small thatch cottages across the road and they were occupied by the Fallon cousins, they also owned Nos. 9 and 10 ;

Next was a Mr. Finnerty who was a sergeant in Renmore Barracks ; Paddy Keane ; Tommy Conneely ; Mary Conneely ; Martin McGrath ; Mrs. Concanon who had formerly lived where the church is now ; The last house on the avenue was thatched and occupied by a Mrs. Ward. The large house at the top end was Kenny’s Pub and next to that was Mr. Slater’s house.

Near the top of the avenue was a small road up the hill to the right known as Barrack Lane. This was where the Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks was and beside it were three houses occupied by Sergeant O’Reilly, the Glynn family and a Mr. Woods who ran the post office which was a two-storey house next to where the Banba was later. Next to the Post Office was a house owned by a Mr. O’Donoghue and beside that was a Miss McEvaddy’s house where the Grand Hotel was later.

When the Gardaí first came to Salthill, they moved into Number 1, Lenaboy Avenue.

There was yet another smuggler’s cave legend associated with the area, a long cave that was supposed to run from the hill at Salthill Park down to where Seapoint is today, and was, as with all such legends, used for a lot of smuggling.

Our thanks to the National Library for today’s photograph.