Page 135 - Greystones Archaeological Historical Society

GREYSTONES ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 8

to the ‘Brothers’ in 1944. (Two over-spill classes from the old,
overcrowded boy’s school in Blacklion were housed in the
supper room of the hall). After school I kicked my way in the
autumn months through the leaves of both the Church Road and
of the Church Lane, even detouring via the Turnpike to do so.
Later still, I sold fish door to door and collected for the Lifeboat
house to house along the same roads.

The image of the church shows the beginnings of a growth of
ivy in places on the external walls. The three-bay two storey
house to the right and somewhat lower down must surely be the
Rectory. Above or about the church there is no sign of the house
named Knockdolian; neither is there of any of the houses that
were built beyond it when the Church Lane hill was linked to the
lane from Blacklion. And who is the dark-bearded man in the
foreground? A younger Robert French? Is this, perhaps, the first
ever selfie? Derek Paine dates it ‘about 1885’, but this has to be
older. In that sense of place that I even still have, I feel this image
is the photo that should be dated 1864.

Other markers

There were other markers that I spotted, and false leads also;
photographs that were numbered as if they too were part of the
1880-ish sequence but clearly were not, and to better identify
them I went back to the online collection and did some detailed
research. Further information on this can be found in the
extended version of this paper available on the Society’s
website [14] .

Of particular interest are two images I came across in the
Lawrence archive that are titled and numbered simply ‘Bray
Head 3319.W.L.’ and ‘Bray Head 3320.W.L.’ (see below). The
first shows the fine broad embankment of the original railway line
approaching what is now the ‘second’ tunnel, i.e. the Cable Rock
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