Lawry's Lane Carlow

87 Tullow Street

Tullow Street map

I shot this from the tower of the Cathedral just after Christmas 1970. - J.J. Woods*

Map of Courthouse

The image on the left is 87 Tullow street shows the entrance to Lawry's Lane. Note the red car coming out of Dempsey's store yard in the photo above on the left; this was the Tullow Street entrance for Lawry's Lane which is now called Cathedral Place.  The map images are from OSi Mapviewer.

J.J. Woods photo: from the bottom of the picture -the first row of houses are what remained of Lowry's Lane in 1970.  The adjoining yard with all the overgrowth belonged to the Purcell family. The yard at the top of the photo, alongside Purcell's, was in the ownership of Ina Brennan.

Lawry's (Lowry's) Lane used to go through what is now St. Patrick's college to the old Dublin road somewhere opposite or near the Courthouse.

During the 1798 rising some of the united Irishmen escaped through the lane from Tullow street.

This is another item of Carlow history that should be highlighted for locals and tourists.

Lowry's Lane is now the store yard adjoining and owned by Dempsey's Hardware shop on Tullow Street. Carlow.

If you walked in to Dempsey's yard through the vehicle gateway beside the shop entrance in the 1960's you would see the remains of two rows of houses, these were no longer dwellings but were used by the Dempsey family business for storage of "everything from a needle to an anchor", since then the houses have been demolished and various sheds erected. In my earlier contribution I mentioned the Courthouse, this was only to give some sense of direction, the Courthouse was built well after 1798. Lowery's lane may have run parallel to School Lane ? Perhaps a visit to Dempsey's shop and a word with one of the family might lead to some photographs of the old lane, its worth a try.

Above notes provided by Michael Purcell, J.J. Woods & Carloman2. *Image from J.J. Woods

The Griffiths Valuation for Carlow County c.1851/52. Lowry's-Lane: Brennan, John Fennell, Edward Kenna, Edward Kennedy, Daniel McCabe, Mary McEvoy, James Maher, Patrick Mogan, Martin Sullivan, Patrick

1901 Census of Ireland Houses in Lawry's Lane Carlow 1 James Rafter 2 Margaret Bryan - Cook, Domestic Servt 2 John Mills - Towel Dealer 2 Mills Michael - Light Porter 3 Stephen Lyons 4 Margret Lacey 5 John Brooks 6 Kate Nolan