Home Farm Road

Route

It runs for approximately 872 metres (2,861 ft) from Drumcondra Road Upper to Mobhi Road and has seven side streets: Arron Road, Achill Road, Clare Road, Valencia Road, Bantry Road, Lambay Road, Rathlin Road all named after islands around Ireland. Ferguson and Walsh Road named after Irish scholars

Fernside

Near the end of Homefarm Road, on Drumcondra Road, there is a house called "Fernside." In 1920 it was the residence of Professor Carolan and his family. On the night of 20 October 1920, Dan Breen and Sean Treacy were staying here with the Carolan family as they evaded the 'G' men of the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP). Around 1.00 a.m. the house was raided by a large force of DMP and British Army members, complete with armoured cars. Professor Carolan let this raiding party in, was questioned and then shot dead in his own hallway. Breen and Treacy fired off their weapons, killing several soldiers. They then jumped out a side window of the house and fell through the conservatory roof, sustaining many cuts. Making their way along St. Marys Road (now Home Farm Road) they eventually separated. Treacy going to an address at Inchicore Road and Breen to a safe house at Finglas. Breen was eventually brought to the Mater Hospital for treatment and the nuns there hid him from the authorities. Treacy left Inchicore one week later and made his way to Talbot Street, but was shot dead here by the British.

The British overreacted at Drumcondra that night and the machine-gunner on the armoured car panicked and let off a few bursts of gunfire at the house, killing and injuring some of his own. A Dublin Fire Brigade man (Joe Connolly, who later became Chief) who responded on an ambulance to the incident, said that twelve bodies were removed that night to the Military Hospital.

Amenities

These include Corpus Christi Church, the related Corpus Christi School GNS and several guest houses. There is one pharmacy on the road, called Homepharm. There is a Mace convenience store also and a hairdresser 'New Image'.

Its many famous past residents include the legendary uilleann piper and folklore collection, Seamus Ennis, who - in his later years - shared a flat there with the great Clare accordion player, Tony McMahon. Ennis's stay on Home Farm Road is celebrated in a poem, Seamus Ennis in Drumcondra, by Dermot Bolger.