County: Dublin Site name: 43 ESSEX STREET EAST, DUBLIN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0529
Author: Claire Walsh, 27 Coulson Avenue, Rathgar, Dublin 6.
Site type: Post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 715434m, N 734140m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.344880, -6.266395
Test excavation, followed by excavation to the level of rebuilding, was undertaken to the rear of an early 18th-century house on East Essex Street, the headquarters of the Communist Party of Ireland. The house was to be refurbished as apartments and a new theatre built in the rear. The construction entailed the removal of 18th-century and later foundations, which had been built on reclaimed land at the Poddle River estuary. Construction did not extend into this tidal fill.
The main find of significance was a cache of perhaps late 18th-century costume jewellery, which included many cut crystals, watch parts, intaglios, enamels and other pieces. The conservator, Susannah Kelly, thinks the jewellery pieces were probably stolen, before being partly broken up and deposited in the drain in which they were found.
