Killester: From Medieval Manor to Garden Suburb, explores the area’s development from its earliest days as Killester Demense, through its transformation in the early twentieth century as a garden suburb for ex-servicemen.
Ruth McManus, associate professor in Geography and associate dean for Teaching & Learning at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in DCU, wrote the book with urban geographer Joseph Brady.
“Local residents felt they wanted to have some sort of a memorial to that phase of history,” Ms McManus said.
“I do a lot of work on suburbs. I think a lot of people living in newish parts, parts that really took off in the ‘50s and ‘60s and after that, they don’t feel they have much of a history.
“I love validating people’s experiences of moving out to new suburbs, telling them what it was like, the people they knew and the way the place changed over time. I think this is a really nice initiative.
“I went right back; I dug to the very earliest records we have of Killester.
“I live very close by, and thought I knew it reasonably well. But I had no idea there’s charters, legal documents about the ownership of Killester that go back to the 1170s. I think that’s really amazing.”
According to Ms McManus, for a lot of people, what will really be the attraction is stuff in the book that’s never been published before.
“I think everybody loves it when you start to look at a map and see what your place was like in the past. It’s very intriguing,” she said.
“We were really lucky because the Howth Estate owned Killester for hundreds of years and they had a book of estate maps.
“These are hand drawn maps from the 1800s. They’re hand coloured and really beautiful. But they also can get a sense of what the place was like.
“There were also some beautiful aerial photographs taken in the 1950s.
“People will be able to identify streets they know, ...
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