Lissonfield House

Lissonfield house was beside Portobello Barracks, and was used to house Auxiliaries

My parents lived in Lissonfield House, Rathmines, from 1922 to 1966. This old rambling house with its spacious grounds was contiguous to Portobello Barracks as it was then known. It was there that I and my five siblings were reared. In my Richard Mulcahy (1886-1971)—A Family Memoir I have given separate chapters to the three families, the most detailed account being about our lives in Lissonfield during the twenties, thirties and forties. Curiously, as far as I can gather from the comments of readers, the story of our lives in Lissonfield appears to have evoked more interest than the overtly political material. Perhaps more needs to be written about the social history of Ireland between the two great wars.

WS813

Lissonfield House near Portobello Barracks was occupied by the Auxiliaries. We decided that we could effectively snipe them from the roof of the Catholic Church at Rathmines Road. One evening in April, 1921, I took up a position in the Church roof and waited for the Auxiliaries to come out in front of Lissonfield. After about two hours wait one of the Officers came out of the house onto the lawn in front and sat on a swing. I fired at him, hit him and made my escape. On another occasion before this I was also in position waiting for the Auxiliaries to come out of the house when Sweeney, our Section Commander, rode up on a bicycle, stopped at the gate leading to Lissonfield House, drew his gun, shot the sentry and made good his escape on a bicycle.