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This image from the Mason Collection is intriguingly entitled “Swiss Instructors Cottage”, but where is it, and why is it called this? There have been a number of buildings with Swiss connections in Ireland, not least Geneva Barracks in Crooke, Co. Waterford, and of course, the “Swiss Cottages” in Santry. But this is an instructor??
Photographer: Thomas H. Mason
Collection: Mason Photographic Collection
Date: 1890 - 1910
NLI Ref: M57/30
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
Source: Flickr Commons
Views: 12367
Photographer: Thomas H. Mason
Collection: Mason Photographic Collection
Date: 1890 - 1910
NLI Ref: M57/30
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
Info:
Owner: National Library of Ireland on The CommonsSource: Flickr Commons
Views: 12367
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
Nearby in the catalogue is this one which has yet to be identified - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/23580569985/in/photolist-BVJzVt
Architecture of Dublin
These 8 cottages in Raheny (1790) I have also heard called the Swiss cottages despite the fact they have nothing do do with Switzerland - www.dublincity.ie/dublin-buildings/crescent-cottages-raheny. And these ones in nearby Sutton (1996) are also sometimes called the swiss houses or "the toblerone village" due to their pointy roofs commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Howth_Housing_-_geograph..... Is this just a Dublin thing? North County Dublin first came to mind when I saw this photo but this house is not listed on any of the NIAH country houses that I have seen in North County Dublin (of which there are many. It certainly would have been recorded by them if it is still standing. It seems of modern enough dimensions to still be standing. Possibly the windows had already been widened when this photo was taken. They all may have been like the window on the far right element prior to this with 6 over 6 pane.
Architecture of Dublin
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] This isn't the same building shown here anyway but there is an "M" surrounded by a laurel wreath or wreath of some sort which may be a corporate or trade symbol
Architecture of Dublin
https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia this has an air of a British institutional or corporate built labourers cottage. The are very fancy to be labourers cottages and I can say categorically that they have not been built by the Irish state at any stage. I would imagine they were built by a protestant institution for protestant tenants. They remind me of the Almhouses that you would see built for the poor around London even. Open windows and doors indicate they were staged for something - they were just built perhaps as part of a model town. It seems very likely this is in Northern Ireland
Irish Life (Staff) Pensioners Association
A very long shot . . Census 1901 lists 266 people of Swiss birth, of which 82 were male, I guess "Instructress" would have been a more likely title for a female occupant back then). Only 3 had occupations of an instructional nature Walter Herman (Antrim) Mod. Lang. Teacher www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Cromac/S... Theodore Gmur Professor of Music (Cork) www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Cork/Cork_Urban... Joseph Mob Rognier Classic Teacher (Athlone) www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Westmeath/Athlo... and theres a Dublin photographer . . . Emil Gromman www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Wood_Qua...
derangedlemur
Swiss instructor refers to swiss embroidery, I think. This would have been associated with an industrial school. I researched this one when we were looking for the labourer's cottages. I couldn't find it though. It did seem that the most likely locations were all in the north, though Stillorgan, Tipperary and West Cork were all also a possibility.
derangedlemur
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] Agreed. With no NIAH in the north, though, it makes them very difficult to find. They could also be Isle of Man, Channel Isles or Mainland Britain.
Architecture of Dublin
The swiss cottages in Santry as shown in the historical picture archive www.historicalpicturearchive.com/shop/pictures/swiss-cott...
derangedlemur
Well it's not Ormeau, anyway.
derangedlemur
There's a grand big mill at Ballydugan. The map says it's a flour mill, though. goo.gl/maps/6qy6wYLeKcx8p9qu9 www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/49991413532/in/dateposted/
John Spooner
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]] The Hans Seifert/Siefert (depending on which newspaper you read) in the 1911 census appears to have started a dynasty. Belfast Telegraph - Saturday 11 April 1959:
John Spooner
An advert in the Belfast News-Letter on Saturday 02 July 1910 invited tenders for building a machine embroidery school at Ballydougan, Gilford. Coincidence that that appears to be where Hans Seifert lived? Except if the tender was sent out in 1910 it wouldn't leave enough time to build and open the school and for Hans to be recruited and installed before the 1911 census.
derangedlemur
Ballydugan was a red herring, alright. Hans is in Ballydougan near(ish) Tullylish. There's a place called Newmills nearby - could be related. Edit: New Mills is corn, not textiles. www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/49991014318/in/dateposted/
Guerilla Photography (Ireland)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] I doubt they had Toblerones in 1790. 😄
John Spooner
For what it's worth, the building marked as Hemstitching and Embroidery Works matches pictures of Ballydougan Embroidery School Streetview. Machine Embroidey School EDit: or was the school built on the site of an existing embroidery works?
derangedlemur
Whichever it was, I'm not finding the house. I think it might be a different embroidery works.
derangedlemur
It's not impossible that this is the inside of Ballydougan: catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000519362
derangedlemur
Here's a better picture of the outside: catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000519114
derangedlemur
Hans being 25 in 1911 fits the interior picture pretty well.
derangedlemur
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] They've got four central panes. The interior only has three.
derangedlemur
Besides, I've trawled Maghera for the instructor's cottage before. I don't think it's there.
derangedlemur
Looking at the top 12 pane windows in both pictures, I'm fairly confident the interior is of Ballydougan. What I'm not so sure of is that it's the same swiss instructor that inhabits the cottage. I'm not seeing anything local on the map that matches up, unless the house across the road used to look like this.
derangedlemur
I've found where the windows went: goo.gl/maps/TYat6438JStt7bwEA
derangedlemur
Here, where's O Mac gone with all his posts?
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] Alone, all alone... You've been abandoned it seems:-(
derangedlemur
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland Have we offended him or did he say something rude and get banned?
Swordscookie
It would not be like him to be rude but he may have been frustrated at the slow progress?
derangedlemur
Here's some info from the National Museum of Northern Ireland. It must not be detailing events in chronological order, or this photo must be interwar, not pre-1910, and I think we would conclude from the census that there were swiss embroiderers in Ireland by 1911: www.nmni.com/collections/history/sound-and-visual-media-a...
derangedlemur
It hadn't occurred to me before, but Cultra has got three local buildings: Tullylish-Bleach-Green-Tower Picture-House Ballydugan-Weavers-house
Architecture of Dublin
Seems to be Adrigole House in West Cork. Built around 1820 but I think on top of an even older structure www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/20911...