MANY VIKING STREET NAMES IN ARBOUR HILL – STONEYBATTER
7 March 2021.
In recent years the area has become known as an example of an area undergoing gentrification.
Apart from the striking artisan dwellings, the area is also known for the prominent Viking street names. For example, there is Viking Road, Olaf Road, Thor Place, Sitric Road, Norseman Place, Ard Ri Road, Malachi Road, Ostman Place, Ivar Street, Sigurd Road and Harold Road. At the time of the Norman invasion, the Vikings, Ostmen or Austmenn (men of the East) as they called themselves, were exiled to the north of the Liffey where they founded the hamlet of Ostmenstown later to become Oxmantown.
The northern end of Stoneybatter derives its name of Manor Street, bestowed in 1780, from the Manor of Grangegorman in which it was located. During the reign of Charles II (1660-1680), the Manor was held by Sir Thomas Stanley, a knight of Henry Cromwell and a staunch supporter of the Restoration. The short thoroughfare in Stoneybatter called Stanley Street is named after him.
James Collins’ 1913 book Life in Old Dublin notes that “Centuries ago (Stoneybatter) was called Bothar-na-gCloch”. In Joyce’s Irish names of places we find the following interesting information as to the original name of the place: “Long before the city had extended so far, and while Stoneybatter was nothing more than a country road, it was — as it still continues to be — the great thoroughfare to Dublin from the districts lying west and north-west of the city; and it was known by the name of Bothar-na-gCloch (Bohernaglogh), i.e. the road of the stones, which was changed to the English equivalent, Stoneybatter or stony road”.
Stoneybatter is the main location for events in the Tana French novel “The Trespasser” and the area is mentioned in the Irish folk song “The Spanish Lady”.