From Humble Kitchen to a Tower of Strength
"The Long Road to Our New Home"

a visual journey through restoration and celebration

Following much campaigning for a premises, the Society accepted the offer by Liam Byrne, Assistant Manager, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council of a building in the Council's ownership for use by the Society as a permanent home for its Archive and Research Centre. This offer was endorsed in March 1997 by a subsequent vote by the County Councillors of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council in favour of the project

The Society planed to restore and refurbish the Seapoint Tower to house its expanding Archive and to provide a research centre. An DAONCHARTLANN, as it will be called, is the first such facility in the Republic. It should not be confused with the commercial research facilities provided by the various county based genealogical projects. This Society is a registered charity in Ireland and no commercial research is undertaken. We depend on our members for support and we have no paid officials - all are volunteers !!

The term "Daonchartlann" is a new one, roughly translated as "peoples' archive", yet the concept is not, many such facilities exist around the world, especially in New Zealand, Australia and North America. However, the best example of this type of facility is the Library of the Society of Genealogists' in London founded in 1911 and which, receives over 25,000 items of genealogical interest each year from all quarters of the world, including Ireland.

The facility in Seapoint will contain records from a number of sources and, in particular, it will function as a unique repository for family history research undertaken by genealogists from Ireland and from the Irish Diaspora. Already, the Society has collected over 8,000 publications, 4,500 manuscripts and an extensive microform collection. New items are received on a weekly basis, these are presently housed in a member's home. The Daonchartlann will permit greater access by researchers to this information and ensure that such records, many compiled by dedicated individuals over a life time of research, to remain in Ireland for future generations to appreciate their genealogical heritage.

The Society progressed with its plans to convert the Martello Tower at Seapoint, Co. Dublin for use as the Society's "DAONCHARTLANN". The plans were drawn up by our architect, Sean Gaynor, DipArch., MRIAI., for the restoration and refurbishment of this historic tower, definitely a "heritage building" under the Act.

The tower at Seapoint, dating from 1804, officially called Martello Tower No. 14, is entered by a recently added outside stone stairway to the first floor with a ground floor accessed by a stone stairwell in the very thick walls. Originally, troops entered by way of iron, timber or rope ladders - such mode of ingress was intended to improve the defensive quality of these towers. Access to each floor is by a stone-cut spiral staircase in the interior of its thick walls. This spiral staircase leads also to the roof which is of cut stone (Dalkey granite). Indeed, should the Sandycove Tower (Joyce Tower) be an object lesson in the admirable re-use of an important example of our architectural heritage, then this Martello Tower at Seapoint, which is in good repair, will certainly prove to be so too.

The Society will utilise the space as follows:

Entrance by way of the first floor to the main reading room/research centre containing microfilm/microfiche readers, computers (Internet) and research stations, with a service counter, behind which, will be microform library and a new service staircase to the ground floor.

The ground floor area would contain archive shelving in rows with a lower work space for restorative work on our manuscripts, bookbinding etc. This area would contain the administrative functions of receiving and cataloguing of the various collections.

The Schedule of Works was prepared by our Architect, Sean Gaynor, Dip Arch., MRIAI., and fully costed with a Bill of Quantities, prepared by Kevin P. O'Byrne, B.Sc. Quantity Surv., Post Grad Dip Proj Man., Post Grad Dip Physical Planning, M.I.A.V.I., M.A.

These towers were originally built by the British Military to repel a possible attack on Ireland's east coast by Napoleon Bonaparte. They normally have walls of locally quarried stone, in this case Dalkey granite, about 2.4 metres thick, 9.1 metres high and 10.9 metres in diameter outside with a doorway approximately 3.0 metres from the ground. The roof has a centre pivot for traversing cannon carriage, often a 24 pounder, which was capable of moving 360 degrees, (definitely no Maginot Line here as clearly, the builders did not quite trust the natives following the Great Rebellion of 1798 and Robert Emmet's Rising of 1803 !!).

Martello Towers got their name from a similar structure on the island of Corsica following a naval engagement at Mortella Point in 1794. The structure stood out against the continuous pounding by British warships HMS Juno and HMS Fortitute. The word 'Mortella' means 'myrtle' - a shrub which was common to the area in Corsica. The British were so impressed with this tower that they made detailed plans of it for the Admiralty in London before destroying it.

A number (approx. 28) of them were built around Dublin Bay to protect what was then the second city of the British Empire. Others were built in Counties Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Donegal, Derry, Galway, Clare and Limerick. As the east coast invasion by the French never materialised, the towers either went into disrepair or were acquired for various purposes. The one at Sandycove houses the James Joyce Museum, while others have been converted into homes and the one at Sandymount has been converted to serve as a restaurant.

Noting the Tower's historic significance, the British Embassy and The American Fund for Ireland have contributed to the Building Fund.

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