On a beautifully hot day in June, Year 11 set off for a day in Dublin. The main destination was 14 Henrietta Street on the north side of the city in an area once occupied by poor slums. We had a detailed guided tour of the former tenement house and learned all about the history and hardships of its past. We study Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock, set in the tenements in 1922 and we were shown a room which resembled the poor conditions of the slums at that time.
We were able to appreciate more how the house had once been a grand Georgian residence for the Molesworth family. After the Act of Union, as Dublin’s social landscape changed, the condition of the house deteriorated and, eventually, many of the rooms were divided by partitions and large families moved into these rooms. Some houses had about 100 residents. We were able to learn about the plumbing, sanitation and general living conditions of the poor people who lived there.
We also visited O’Connell Street, where Johnny fought and we saw the bullet holes in the pillars, and Henry Street from where Juno bought her gramophone. We re-traced Juno’s steps along O’Connell Street to the tenements and the afternoon heat made us empathise with her when she said that the heavy load had her “almost kilt with the weight”.
We finished the day with some free time and the chance to explore the city centre with some enjoying a trip to the Lego store and others buying retro music and film posters!
