Lynch’s Place

Located off the Phibsborough Road, just down from the North Circular Road junction, this was originally called Pinchgut Lane and was renamed in 1905.¹

There’s no evidence of the origin of the name ‘Pinchgut’ (it’s not in M’Cready), but it’s a narrow laneway and maybe it’s a jocular reference to that?

When the Paving Committee proposed the change of name to the Corporation, Alderman Kelly opposed it. To laughter, he said he had consulted local antiquarians who told him that the name had been in use for three generations. Although the name wasn’t ’very picturesque’, he was against changing names ‘in order to make localities respectable’. He was out-voted and the name was changed, although it’s not recorded why ‘Lynchs’ Lane was chosen.²

The change in name inspired a humourous(?) literary response in the form of a piece by ‘Murty’ in the Weekly Irish Times; a sort of ‘The Brother’ by Flann O’Brien, avant la lettre.³

Lynch’s Lane is still there: it leads into St Peter’s Court, but there’s no name plate for it; the name plate just says St Peter’s Court.

1. Reports 1905/41. ↩︎
2. ‘Pinchgut Lane’, Dublin Daily Express, 5 April 1905. ↩︎
3. ‘The Cobbler on Pinchgut Lane’, Weekly Irish Times, 8 April 1905. ↩︎