Tivoli Road was also known as Back Road, and was shown as "Road to Bullock" on earlier maps. The earlier maps show it undeveloped.
By 1849, there were 8 houses along "Back Road". The most prominent among them was that of Rev Bartholomew Sheridan, Parish Priest of Dun Laoghaire, who was responsible for building 5 churches in the area and for inviting many religious orders to provide schools, hospitals, orphanages, and other services in the area.
By 1870, the development of Kingstown had spread further inland, and Tivoli Road had about 30 houses along it's length as well as St Joseph's Orphanage.
By about 1900, further houses had been added as well as another orphanage, The Cottage Home for Little Children, designed by William Kaye-Perry, who lived at 1, Tivoli Parade. A further orphanage had also been established at Racefield House, just around the corner in Mounttown (Racefield, one of the Smyly homes)
St Joseph's Orphanage
The following is reproduced from "Orphaned in Kingstown" by Michael Merrigan in relation to St. Joseph's Orphanage, Tivoli Road
"Built in 1860, this large institution is situated on Tivoli Road (ref: 96/51) on what was once the extensive lands of Lodge Park built in the 1830s by Bartholmew, Canon Sheridan, P.P. who also completed the building, begun in 1824, of St. Michael's Catholic Church, Kingstown and was its Parish Priest from 1829 to 1863. He renovated the oldest Catholic Church in his parish situated at Cabinteely (1836) and built churches at Dalkey (1841), Ballybrack (1856), Monkstown (1861) and laid plans for the building of St. Joseph's, Glasthule (1867) which was designed by Pugin and Ashlin. Entering the Parish of Kingstown at the time of Catholic Emancipation, Canon Sheridan was arguably the most energetic incumbent since the earliest known holder of the office, Rev. Turlough Reilly who was appointed to the area by the Synod of Kilkenny in 1615.
Maybe it's time for the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to acknowledge Bartholomew Canon Sheridan's contribution to Dun Laoghaire in some meaningful way by perhaps renaming one of the many streets in the Town "named" after long forgotten members of the British royalty, Lords Lieutenant or foreign nobility. This would finally honour someone who actually contributed to the Town and its inhabitants rather than just pass through it on the way to the boat like king George IV in 1821.
Indeed, Canon Sheridan was responsible for the establishment of a number of schools in the area by inviting orders of nuns and brothers to locate in his rapidly growing parish. Some schools were within the new National Schools System (1831) and others outside it, such as the Sisters of Mercy School, Sussex Place (1835) - closed three years later following a disagreement with Canon Sheridan; the Domincan Convent School, Convent Road (1847) - later to join the National School System; the Loretto Convent School, Dalkey (1842) - later to apply for connection to the National School System (1854), refused connection, though successful on re-application in 1855; the Christian Brothers School, Eblana Avenue (1856) - unable to join the National School System until after independence due to a provision of the 1829 'Act for the relief of His Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects' (Catholic Emancipation) which proscribed organisations such as the Christian Brothers.
Peter Pearson in his "Dun Laoghaire - Kingstown" (mentioned above), stated that "apart from a good stone door surround, St. Joseph's is a plain block-shaped building". In later years, though, it was augmented by a series of low sized corrugated steel and wooden classrooms running in a line with a single covered inter-connecting corridor. This was the day school which, along with the Dominican Convent School on Convent Road, catered for the primary school needs of the locality. Indeed, it was here, in the barrack-like structures of the "old" school, that the Archivist and Hon. Secretary of the Society received their first fond memories of formal education. Thankfully, these low sized buildings were replaced by a new purpose built Primary School in the 1960s.
The nuns of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, originally from France, established the orphanage to train its "pupils" 'in the habits of industry and order' and many hundreds of children were so imbued through its many years of operation. On the Census Return each of the nuns are described as being "Employed in Works of Charity" (noted as *** in the listing) which certainly reflected the view of the day. As the main Catholic orphanage in the area, it touched the lives of many families in the community during the period of its operation and therefore, it's of immense importance to genealogists."
