By Sean Collins
Not for the first time, the residents of Trinity Gardens have found the need to organize and rally against unacceptable changes to the heritage and posterity of their tidy little enclave.
Described as a “beauty spot” adjacent to the town centre in 1930 when the Drogheda Corporation expended the large sum of £128.00 to provide water mains and services for the forty new houses to be built there. The first 22 houses, built in 1925, entered through Simcox Lane from Trinity St, named Trinity Gardens.
The second stage of 43 houses allocated in February 1932 after some delays approached from Georges St. The planned and aesthetically pleasing entrance marked with a plaque 1931.
The listing of allocations for 1932 is posted here with a photograph of my Granny in her front garden at No.60. The houses were advertised as the “new cottages” at Trinity Gardens. 25 four roomed houses and 18 three roomed houses [note not bedrooms as is the modern approach] were for rent from the Town Clerk Mr. Joseph Carr with Robert B. Daly of Laurence St. as the letting agents. Seven shillings and sixpence for a four room, and 5/6 for a three room.
Their new houses brought good luck to some residents. In 1932 Mrs. Carr under the nom-de-plume “Trinity Gardens” won £100 in the Irish Sweep, a substantial amount in the 1930s, equivalent of about €8,000 today according to Google.
The following year 1933, Mrs. Gough of Trinity Gardens won first prize in the Boyne Rangers Raffle namely “A Fat Pig”, crubes and all. In 1934 Tom Cumiskey of Trinity Gardens stood as an independent candidate in the local elections.
Although he was not successful, Owen Quigley another resident was elected in the 1940s, replaced on his untimely death by his brother Kevin.
In the 1950s Mr. James Murphy was elected, all close neighbours in the Gardens. The local paper in 1947 announced the wedding at St. Mary’s, James Street, of Kevin Quigley of Trinity Gardens to Miss Brigid Matthews of Millmount Square, and in 1948 the Easter Wedding of Mary McAuley of Trinity Gardens to M. Richard Clinton of Piperstown, lovely people I remember well as my Uncle Frank’s neighbours.
In 1947 John J. Murphy set off from Trinity Gardens to Rome to take up a position in the Irish College. In 1953 his Mother and Father, Mr. and Mrs. James Murphy travelled to Rome to see their son John ordained a priest.
In the same year Liam Floyd, a close neighbor of John Murphy was also ordained, a very holy crowd in Trinity Gardens. 1953 proved a very busy year for James Murphy, now a member of Drogheda Corporation, he organized the first tenant purchase scheme for Trinity Gardens. Tenants could purchase their houses for the princely sum of £200 with £50 fees. After James Murphy’s gallant effort, in true Murphy fashion, he complained the price was too dear.
In 1956 Monsignor Stokes on one his major fund-raising drives for the parish got permission to hold dances on the green in Trinity Gardens. Formidable and all as Monsignor Stokes was with the weight of Armagh behind him the residents of Trinity Gardens were having none of it.
They protested in Fair Street, and a young Cllr. Peter Moore called for a rescinding of the dance permission, much to the chagrin of Mon. Stokes and the Mayor Larry Walsh. As Peter Moore said “would you want Razzamatazz outside your door at 12 midnight?”
I wrote this piece to support the residents of Trinity Gardens who are forced like their antecedents to rally once again, to stop, sadly not dancing this time but crazy development of their peaceful neighborhood.
“I wish you all well to preserve the place that first was a home to my Collins family in Drogheda and to recall with fondness our good neighbours and lifelong friends, the Murphys, Quigleys, McAuleys, Clintons, Harmons, Kierans, Somervilles, Lynchs, Staffords and Miss Gerrad , many now gone.
