Echoes Through the Hallway: Dublin's history reflected through social housing

From its origins as one of Dublin's earliest public housing schemes in the 1880s to a recent €9 million regeneration by Tuath Housing, a new exhibition explores 140 years of history, community and culture through social housing tenants at Benburb Street

To stand in Ellis Court on Benburb Street is to step inside Dublin ’s collective memory and experience history that pre-dates the Irish state itself and still carries forward the ethos of social housing to this day.

Ellis Court near Collins Barracks stands as one of Dublin’s earliest purpose-built social housing schemes and was constructed between 1885 and 1888 as part of Dublin Corporation’s first public housing programme. While years of deterioration saw its closure in 2005, a €9 million regeneration project by Tuath Housing and Dublin City Council saw residents return in 2023.

Not only was this an opportunity to maintain links to the past, but also a chance to uncover history that was in danger of being lost. This ambition formed the basis of ‘Echoes Through the Hallway: The Story of Ellis Court, 140 Years in the Making,’ an exhibition at Collins Barracks that invites the public to learn the story of a development that generations of Dubliners have called home.

Providing a sneak peek of the exhibition to Dublin Live at the National Museum of Ireland, Dr Eimear Rosato outlined how, through photographs, personal memories and archival material, they have traced a story that brings together issues of gender, class, health, and history. As the Policy and Research Specialist with Tuath Housing, Dr Rosato said that their regeneration project was not just about bringing Ellis Court back into use, but about fostering sustainable communities and respecting the cultural history that informs these buildings.

Ellis Court, which was originally called the Dublin Corporation Artisan Dwellings, housed Dubliners following the generation boom that came after the Famine, as population growth of 25,000 between 1841-51 put an intense strain on housing. Through the tenement era of the early 1900s right through two World Wars, Benburb Street was right in the centre of major cultural, social and political upheaval and acts as a microcosm for the story of modern Ireland itself.

View 6 Images Ronnie Byrne, Dr. Éimear O'Connor Director National Museum of Ireland and Dr Eimear Rosato, Research and Policy Specialist with Tuath Housing (Image: Julien Behal)

Faced with mounting social and public health concerns, the second half of the nineteenth century saw a growing effort by local authorities to intervene in housing conditions. By the 1880s, it was clear that private landlords and charitable organisations alone could not provide housing at the scale needed in Dublin.

Within this context, Dublin Corporation undertook its first major social housing scheme and Ellis Court was built. Dr Rosato explained there was a recognition of a need to address the overcrowding and illness caused by tenement living. She cited the influence of Charles Cameron, who led the Public Health Department, and spearheaded legislation to address appropriate housing for the workers of Dublin.

“There were night lodgings for both men and women. That doesn't often get recognised. They weren't mixed, but they had cooking facilities. That often gets left out of history,” she explained.

View 6 Images The Dunphy family, pictured at Benburb Street on May 11, 1968 (Image: Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock Photo)

Dr Rosato said that Collins Barracks acted as a hub for the community, with industry existing around the barracks to fuel and sustain it. She has catalogued the family and community histories that tell a story of health, labour and life.

“You had tailors and sheep shearers providing materials to create the uniforms for the soldiers. The soldiers went to the stores and the bars. The butchers provided meat to Collins Barracks. The housing was developed to kind of surround it,” she said.

“But this was an area of extreme poverty, social housing was clearly so important. That’s why it’s fantastic that Ellis Court has remained social housing. That 140 years of history wasn’t lost. It’s regained what it was always meant to be.”

One Dubliner who has a fascinating connection to Ellis Court is Ronnie Byrne, who grew up on Benburb Street in the 1940s and 50s and whose family lived and worked in the area for five generations. He explained that his family had a house there since 1907, and he clearly remembers moving in as a child just before the ‘Big Snow’ of 1947 hit the capital.

Ronnie’s earliest memory is getting a train set in the Christmas of ‘46 and playing with it in the snow of his backyard. Growing up throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Ronnie was entrenched in the social culture of the area and fondly remembers collecting jam jars with his friends that they could trade at Harry Lipman's on Red Cow Lane for enough money to go see a picture at the Phoenix Cinema.

While historical documents and statistics may offer the hard facts, Ronnie and other residents' personal recollections were a core part of the ‘Echoes Through the Hallway’ exhibition. He explained that his vivid memories of that time period have not faded as he conjures images of Guinness delivered from the brewery in wooden barrels to local pubs and watching the horse and cart drop them down on a big cushion for a soft landing.

View 6 Images Ronnie Byrne at Benburb Street in his Slua Muiri (Naval Service Reserve) uniform in 1960

Whether it was playing cowboys in the streets after seeing a Western picture or witnessing the early birth of rock n’ roll through local skiffle acts who used to play across the street, Ellis Court during the post-World War II era encapsulated a country on the precipice of great change. Even the landscape of the streets was beginning to transform, as Ronnie spoke about the traffic build up seen during the 1960s.

“There were no traffic lights, but we had a thing called the Winking Willy,” Ronnie said. “At each corner, there were cables going across the centre, and this red light would flash to warn traffic coming to a dangerous junction.”

But Ronnie’s insight goes far beyond his own personal memories, as he’s researched his family history at Ellis Court to the early 1900s. He even discovered ancestors tragically impacted by the Spanish Flu.

“A daughter got married. They were only married 10 months. They had a baby that contracted Spanish flu and died. The same day the husband died of Spanish flu,” he said.

Family members lived through the republican revolutionary period at Ellis Court and have their own connections with 1916, the War of Independence and the Civil War. “My grand uncle was in the Four Courts and was imprisoned down in the Curragh for two years,” Ronnie revealed.

Following years of deterioration and an eventual fire, the final residents of Ellis Court moved out in 2005. The site lay vacant for nearly 20 years before Tuath Housing, in partnership with Dublin City Council and COADY Architects, came together to invest €9 million into its refurbishment.

While it needed to be upgraded to modern living standards, there was a desire to retain the building’s history and use the opportunity to document its cultural, social and political legacy. The buildings are not registered as protected structures, but they are rated by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) of being of regional importance and social significance due to architectural, historic and social values.

View 6 Images The regenerated Ellis Court (Image: Karl Hussey Photography 2023)

The design sought to retain the building’s most significant features, while upgrading the layout to comply with current housing standards. This led to a restoration project that preserved their historic fabric while delivering 22 new social homes in the city centre. The complex now consists of 19 apartments and three townhouses.

For Dr Rosato, the Ellis Court regeneration has offered an opportunity to truly dive into the untold history of Ireland through the eyes of social housing tenants. She explained that "heritage is about more than physical buildings” and that every housing project is an opportunity to seek out the personal stories within Dublin’s architecture.

“Hopefully what this exhibition does is encourage people to tell their own stories and family history,” she said. The popularity of the Culture Night and Heritage Week showcase that there is a real desire to highlight these hidden histories and give the current residents of Ellis Court a chance to reflect on all that came before them.

View 6 Images Ronnie Byrne with his wife Mary holding a picture of Ronnie as a young man in the Irish Naval Reserve (Image: Julien Behal)

“Whether they've just recently arrived in Dublin or if their families have been here for five generations. Everybody wanted to tell their story of how they connected to that space,” she said. When they first conceived the idea there were some residents already onboard, but a poster campaign saw even more come forward to reveal their association with Ellis Court.

Now, Dr Rosato is encouraging anyone else who feels they have further insight to get in touch and share their thoughts. “We’re hoping that this keeps going. Tell me your stories about Benburb Street,” she said.

Echoes Through the Hallway: The Story of Ellis Court, 140 Years in the Making is now open to the public for free at the National Museum of Ireland. Talks led by the exhibition curators will take place on Saturday 3 and Saturday 10 October as part of the Dublin Festival of History .

A further session for Open House, Dublin’s free festival of architecture, will take place on Saturday 17 October. More details available here .

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

Want to see more of the stories you love from Dublin Live? Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives top stories and must-read content straight away. To add us as a preferred source, simply click here .