On the Bloomsday route
NEWBRIDGE Avenue in Sandymount is a place of pilgrimage for Joycean scholars, as it was here, on June
13, 1904, that Paddy Dignam died suddenly at his home at Number 9.
The report of his death on June 16, the day of his funeral, in the Evening Telegraph, related that “the deceased gentleman was a most popular and genial personality in city life and his demise, after a brief illness, came as great shock to citizens of all classes by whom he is deeply regretted.”
In Joyce’s Ulysses, en route to Dignam’s burial, his old friend Leopold Bloom looks out of his carriage window “at the lowered blinds of the avenue” — since identified as Newbridge Avenue. It was customary at that time for blinds to be lowered and shops closed during a funeral as a mark of respect.
Newbridge Avenue is one of the prettiest roads in Sandymount, its attractive houses considered most desirable, thanks in part to their proximity to the city centre.
Number 7 dates from 1850 and is a four-bedroom, semi-detached, period house that has recently been refurbished and extended.
It is laid out over two floors and has 2,120 sq ft of living space, with an entrance hallway, drawing room, dining room, kitchen/breakfast room, utility room and guest lavatory on the ground floor. The kitchen has handcrafted fitted units with illuminated granite worktop areas and a granite-topped island unit, as well as integrated appliances, and there are sliding doors to the garden.
Upstairs, there are four bedrooms, the master en-suite, and a family bathroom.
The professionally-landscaped front and rear gardens are immaculate. There is off-street parking behind wrought-iron electric gates.
Number 7 Newbridge Avenue in Dublin 4 is for sale with Hunters (01)
668 0008 and has an asking price of
€1.495m.