ABSTRACT
In 1909, The Irish Builder published a special golden jubilee edition of the trade journal. Looking back on fifty years of development in Dublin, it pointed to the city’s open spaces, adorned with many statues commemorating its eminent citizens and social reformers. However, there were none to recognise the role of the builder, described as: ‘the capable and energetic men who for years burrowed like moles beneath our city … but alas! Alas! They were only contractors and their lot, and who thinks of thanking or lauding them?’ 1 This chapter aims to begin to address this imbalance by focusing on those responsible for developing some of Dublin’s Victorian streetscapes. It begins with a brief overview of the speculator and then focuses on the work of three builder/developers, who erected high-quality houses in different sectors. Part of a rising Catholic middle class, it follows their careers through the Victorian age, as they engaged in business and wider industrial markets. To what extent was house speculation profitable for these entrepreneurs? Where did they source the labour force who physically constructed these streetscapes? This chapter opens up the world of Dublin’s nineteenth-century builders, revealing their creative impact on the Victorian city and suburbs.
