Photo: The Bottlemakers Hall.
The Irish Glass Bottle company gave a large amount of long-term employment and stability to the community around the Ringsend area in its time. A large part of its social fabric for such a long time was a social club for its employees.
This social club was located on Irishtown Road, and was known as the Bottlemakers Hall or Dolphin House. The building was erected in 1915 and was known as the Irish Glass Bottlemakers Society club.
This Bottlemaker’s club with its large hall is said to have had six billiard tables, facilities for bingo, dancing and socializing.
Local resident George Kearns, who wrote an article, entitled, “The Bottlemakers Hall,” in the New Link magazine, found that there were eight bottle factories in the Ringsend area using the hall, along with their families.
The Irish Glass Bottle company closed its doors in 2002 and according to the DCC’s Valuation Services Department, the IGB workforce used the hall up until 2008 and there is also a record of the Health Service Executive (HSE) associated with the building up until the last update in their records of 2012.
However, the HSE property services department have no record of ever using the building.
The Bottlemakers Hall was placed on the Dublin City Council’s protected structure list in December 1980 for its architectural, historical and social aspects. The conservation department in the DCC state that the building’s architectural significance relates to “its aesthetic appeal and three-dimensional volumetric character both internally and externally” and its social and historical aspect relating to its “link with past traditions with the glass companies being a big employer in the area since late eighteenth century.”
Local resident and solicitor, Damien Cassidy, who is a member of the Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount Environmental Group, has said he has pushed for this hall to be put back into the hands of the community. Cassidy told NewsFour: “In order for a group to receive a government grant to restore the building for the community the building needs to be purchased rather than rented.”
The present ownership and future use of the building remains somewhat a mystery. NewsFour have been advised of the name of ownership of the building but cannot confirm this at present.
If any locals would like get in contact concerning information about the building and its history, please email editornewsfour@gmail.com
By Paul Carton
