Booterstown
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Booterstown (Baile an Bhóthair in Irish) is a townland and parish situated in the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council Area along the coast, about 5 miles [8 kilometers] south of the city of Dublin in Ireland. The name "Booterstown" is an anglicised form of the original Irish Gaelic name "Baile an Bhóthair", meaning Town of the Road.
Booterstown Marsh is a well-known bird sanctuary which over the years has been sought to be protected by An Taisce.
Kevin O'Higgins, Minister for Justice in the Government of The Irish Free State was assassinated on Booterstown Avenue on his way to mass at the local parish church, on 10 July 1927 by members of the IRA whose ire he had aroused by ordering the execution of many republicans during his tenure in office. In later years, it became known that he was the lover of Lady Lavery, wife of Sir John Lavery and whose portrait appeared on Irish currency notes over many years from the foundation of the State. The Catholic Church of the Assumption, is the focal point of the area.
The Congregation of the Irish Christian Brothers had their headquarters at St. Helen's, Booterstown from 1925 to 1988. St. Helen's was built in 1760 for Thomas Cooley, MP and was known originally as "Seamount". It was extensively refurbished a century later while in the ownership of Viscount Gough, Field Marshal of the British Army whose wife Marie Frances opened the gardens to the public. The house is now an hotel of The Radisson Group.
Booterstown is also the home of St. Andrew's College which moved here from Clyde Road in 1973.
Booterstown is serviced by the DART and is between the stops of Blackrock and Sydney Parade
[edit] Booterstown Marsh
The Booterstown Marsh resulted from the building of the Dublin and Kingstown (now called Dun Laoghaire) railway line, which was one of the first in the world, from 1834-35. The line was built on an embankment, protected by a granite seawall, and this cut off two acres [0.8 hectare] of the tidal shore.
By 1876 this reclaimed land was in agricultural use, made possible by the use of water control systems. A large gate valve was installed at the Williamstown (southern) outlet to the sea, which was lowered on the flow tide and raised on the ebb tide. The Williamstown lagoon acted as a sump, collecting the water draining from the agricultural land. Some landfill soil raised the level of the marsh and it was irrigated with fresh water from a number of local streams.
During both World Wars the marsh was used as allotments, however with increasing prosperity these fell idle and in the 1950s the area was used as pasture. The water control systems were also neglected, allowing salt water to enter the system.
By the 1970s the marsh showed salty vegetation at the railway side and fresh-water at the inner edges. This mixed habitat became an important site for many marsh bird and plant species. In 1970 the lease on the land was acquired by An Taisce, a conservation society, which has managed it as a nature reserve.
Oil spills in 1982 and, more severely in 1985, led to de-oxygenation of the marsh. The vegetation was dominated by Scirpus maretimus, a rush that could withstand the conditions, though the re-discovery of a rare species of grass following some works on the drainage enhanced the conservation status of the marsh.
In response the flap valves were removed, allowing a free flow of salt water that is rich in oxygen. At present the condition of the mud has improved, and birds have returned in large numbers, including Brent Geese, Little Egrets and many different Waders, and the Scirpus growth has significantly reduced.
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