Life
1772-1852; b. Co. Waterford; ed. TCD, BA 1796; curate of Finglas; completed John Warburton’s and James Whitelaw’s History of Dublin, 2 vols. (1815-1818) [see under Walsh, supra]; appt. chaplain to British Ambassador in Constantinople, 1820 and 1831-35; Hon. MD, Aberdeen and LLD Dublin; chaplain at St Petersburg and Rio de Janeiro, 1828-31; issued An Essay on Ancient Coins, Medals, and Gems (1828) and Residence at Constantinople during the Greek and Turkish Revolutions, 2 vols. (1836); Notices of Brazil in 1828-29 (London 1830; US 1831); rector of Kilbride, Co. Wicklow, 1835-59; rector of Finglas, 1839-52. ODNB DIW
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Notes
George A. Little, Dublin Before the Vikings (1957), Warburton, Whitelaw, and Walsh, History of Dublin gives an account of the excavation of Whitworth (now Mathew Talbot) Bridge, ‘In sinking the foundation for the south abutment ... [in 1816], it was found that the foundation of the Old Bridge, which occupied the site, stood upon the ruins of another still more ancient. The stones of which it was formed rather resembled Portland stone than any other sorts found in Ireland. These were regularly laid, connected by laid cramps, on a platform of oak timber, supported by small piles shod with iron which was completely oxidised, and being encrusted with sandy matter, the lower ends of the piles were are hard as stone, as if entirely petrified. It is supposed that the Old Bridge was first constructed as early as the reign of King John, but these ruins indicate that a bridge of better and more artificial construction had, at a remote period, preoccupied the situation.’ (p.1096) Little infers that the bridge was likely to be not of Viking but of pre-Scandinavian origin, and his fencing with the term Droicead Dubhghall as refering not the Danes, but the older ‘Doyles’ or dark Gaels. [vide 68]
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