Family places of interest around Swords, Co. Dublin.

 1.  Greenfields, the home of James and Frances Smith (neé) Bryan.

My mother told me she understood that Frances’s father built the house at Greenfields for her. The house is on a townland called Greenfields and it appears that the Smith property was the only one on this townland. As her father, Walter Bryan had a large land holding at Ashbourne, in Meath, I imagine that his contribution was of a financial nature, not a practical one. 

The house still exists but, when last visited, was named Annsbrook House and is located on Seatown Road, a little way from Swords main street. 

Some years ago, we knocked on the door, and were invited in for a tour. A friend of those people had created a a small painting of what the artist thought the house would have looked like when it was first built.

James and Frances had ten or eleven children (the records are a little confusing).  At least one child died just after birth and several of the boys died by their 40s.  These boys are commemorated on the family headstone in the Swords Church of Ireland church yard.  For a long time I was unaware of how many children they had as Mum only spoke of the ones who survived their parents deaths.

Their youngest surviving boy, Thomas, known to Mum as Uncle Tommy, survived his parents and it would seem to have inherited the farm.  He was unmarried until after the death of his mother who had been widowed some years earlier. After his mothers death, he married and fathered two children. His death is commemorated on a separate headstone in Swords Church of Ireland churchyard. 

Annsbrook House in 2010

2. John Cloney's shop on the Main Street of Swords.

This map was found in a book about the history of Swords. I believe the shop was in North Street but I have no street number. I haven't looked for this shop as I didn't have this information at the time of our visits to Swords. John Cloney was a grocer and in addition was the Clerk of Petty Sessions in Swords that were held every second Saturday. 

John Cloney left a large estate of around £12,000, in Ireland and England, when he died. That seems an enormous amount of money for a shopkeeper. Perhaps the grocery also was licensed to sell alcohol, but I have found no record of that.  Perhaps John inherited a lot of money, although he had brothers and sisters and I have not found any information on his parents except for their names, Richard Cloney and Ann Knox. 

3. The Borough School, now the Old Boro Public House

The Borough School, in North Street, is where Alice and Florrie Smith were enrolled to attend school for a few years. It has been turned into a pub after it closed in 20