Exceptional Residence, Clifton House, Coliemore Road, Dalkey, A96X921

Stokes Property are delighted to offer this exceptional property on Coliemore Road to the market for the first time in almost 100 years.

Clifton House is two-storey, detached, four-bedroom, Victorian home on an elevated, generous site (c. 0.25 Ha / 0.62 acres) with commanding, panoramic views over Dalkey Island and Dublin Bay.

With beautifully proportioned rooms with high ceilings and many intact period features, Clifton House boasts a very large garden with two separate driveways onto Coliemore Road.

Brief History
Clifton House has a fascinating history including a connection with James Joyce:
Ulysses 16.157-9: – “There’ll be a job tomorrow or next day, Stephen told him, in a boys’ school at Dalkey for a gentleman usher. Mr Garrett Deasy. Try it. You may mention my name.”

Clifton, or Clifton House, as it was also known, was originally located at No 64 Coliemore Road, Dalkey. The house was in the possession of Edward Hamilton, M.D., F.R.C.S. (according to Thom’s Directory) in 1890 and 1894: Hamilton practiced at 120 Stephen’s Green in the centre of Dublin, but the house remained empty, or enjoyed only occasional occupation, as it was advertised to let on various occasions between 1890 and 1893. In mid-1893, its future appeared settled, and its commodious rooms and grounds were converted for use as a school:

Dalkey, Killiney, Bray – An Oxford Honorman, assisted by competent staff, proposes opening Classes in Classics, Mathematics, Modern Languages, about 7th August, at Dalkey, for Uni versities, Army, Navy, Juniors, Public Schools, and Intermediate [examinations]; can undertake Private Tuition at once; highest references exchanged. For terms apply- T. P. W., Clifton, Dalkey.
Irish Times 28 June, 1893

Thomas Preston Walsh was the founder headmaster of Clifton School (later to be the employer of none other than James Joyce).

Clifton, Dalkey, County Dublin. Principal – Mr Preston Walsh (Honor, Oxon). Daily and Resident Tuition- Instruction entirely given by Honor Graduates. Vacancies for Resident Pupils. Healthy situation, tennis ground, sea baths close to house.
Irish Times (1893), 5 August p. 3

In the following March, the school’s situation was specially noted in advertisements:

Clifton is a large house, with Tennis Ground (stabling for pony, if required, for resident pupil), Hot and Cold Water throughout, perfect Sanitation; two minutes from Dalkey Sea Baths (hot and cold), eight minutes from Station.
Irish Times 24 March, 1894

By this time, the school also offered “Individual Tuition, if required, for backward Boys”. The Irish Times carried several advertisements for teaching staff, not necessarily full-time – which is perhaps relevant in the light of Joyce’s involvement with the school ten years later albeit at another address.

Assistant Master – University Man Wanted for Junior work two or four hours daily, morning; resident if preferred. Apply, personally or by letter, Principal, Clifton School, Dalkey.
Irish Times (1894), 22 September

In 1889 the Irish Times carried an advertisement for a large house called Clifton (House) to be let in Dalkey. The house was well equipped, with seven bedrooms, stabling, and a tennis court:

To be Let, Furnished, from the 1st of August, Clifton, Dalkey, standing on 2 acres, nicely planted, commanding fine sea view; 3 sittingrooms, 7 bedrooms, servants’ room, pantries, &c.; stables, tennis court: 8 minutes tram or train. Apply to Mr Casey, Post-office, Dalkey.
Irish Times 13 July, 1889

Francis Irwin is still a rather shadowy character in the Dublin mythology of Ulysses, though he is mentioned in many of the classic texts which help us to understand the novel and its background. Richard Ellmann introduces Irwin to us in his biography of Joyce, because Irwin ran the small, private school, Clifton School, at which Joyce worked for a short while as a teacher, in the first half of 1904. In the novel it is, of course, Stephen Dedalus who is briefly employed as a “gentleman usher” or assistant master by Deasy:

“Joyce’s next venture was as a schoolteacher. There was a temporary vacancy for a gentleman usher at the Clifton School, Dalkey, a private school…… headmaster was an Ulster Scot, very pro-British, named Francis Irwin, a Trinity College graduate. Joyce devotes the second chapter of Ulysses to describing Stephen’s activities at a school clearly modelled on Irwin’s.”
Richard Ellman- James Joyce (1982)

The property has been occupied by the vendors’ family for almost 100 years.