My ancestors - O'Mara - Contents

43 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin

Home of James O'Mara during the 1919-23 Troubles.

43 Fitzwilliam Place (blue door, 2nd last house on the block).
Click to rotate.
From Google Street View.

Fitzwilliam Place is part of the nearly mile-long straight line of Georgian streetscape in Dublin, which runs like this:
Leeson St - Fitzwilliam Place - Fitzwilliam Square - Fitzwilliam St - Merrion Square - Holles St Hospital.

No. 43 Fitzwilliam Place was acquired by James O'Mara apparently c.1918.
Though listed as vacant in [Thoms, 1920, p.1588]. Might be slightly out of date.
O'Mara is listed there in [Thoms, 1921, p.1588].
The O'Maras lived at no.43 throughout the Troubles.
When James and his wife were in the US, 1920-1921, their children Pat and Steen let the house be used as a safe house for IRA men and Sinn Fein leaders on the run. It was raided a number of times by the British but no one was caught.
Through Dick Lavelle, explosives were hidden in the stables, which also survived a British search.
O'Mara is listed at no.43 up to [Thoms, 1925].
The O'Maras moved to Killiney c.1925.

Stables at back now gone (now mews, used for offices).
Now premises of Thomson Round Hall Ltd, legal publishers.

The modern street numbering.
From here.
On the N or W side of Fitzwilliam Place, houses run from Leeson St to Kingram Place (i.e. not as far as Fitzwilliam Square).
No.43 is on N or W side of Fitzwilliam Place, 2nd last house on the block (at Kingram Place end).

See entry for Fitzwilliam Place in [Thoms, 1914, p.1564].
This confirms there has been no re-numbering since 1914.
So the O'Mara house is the modern no.43.

Kate O'Brien's error:

Kate O'Brien in [O'Brien, 1969] said the O'Mara house was "the huge, Gothic edifice - once Edward Martyn's - on the corner of Fitzwilliam Place".
She is wrong. She is confused with two other buildings:
- The normal-looking no.44 next door, where Martyn / Lord Hemphill are listed in [Thoms] for many years up to and including the 1925 edn.
- The huge, gothic no.28 up the street, on the Leeson St corner, where Martyn / Lord Hemphill are listed in [Thoms] from the 1926 edn on.
No. 43 is just a normal looking Georgian building.

Fitzwilliam Place on Ordnance Survey of Ireland map. Date modified: 1889. From here.
No. 43 is on NW side of Fitzwilliam Place, 2nd last house before the junction with Kingram Place (opposite Cumberland Road).

43 Fitzwilliam Place (blue door).
No. 44 on RHS.
Photo 2007. See full size.
See other shot.

Maureen O'Mara, 43 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin.

Agnes Cashel at 43 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin, Jan 1922.