Griffith Avenue

One of the grandest roads on the north side, Griffith Avenue was laid out in the 1920s, and had its origins in the ‘100 foot road’, part of the Marino Housing scheme.¹

ln August 1925 the Corporation Commissioners² considered a motion for the compulsory purchase of as ‘much of the land lying between Philipsburgh Avenue and Drumcondra Road as is necessary to enable the Corporation… to continue the 100ft. roadway’.³

The aim was to provide a main road running from the Howth Road to Whitehall. The land was to be purchased in two sections, ‘from Whitehall to Philipsburgh Avenue’ and ‘Malahide Road to Howth Road’.

In adopting the motion, the Commissioners amended it to remove a requirement that the two sections would be laid out ‘with suitable building depth thereto’.

Is this the reason that the width of the roadway from the Malahide Road to the Howth Road, that is Copeland Avenue, is narrower than the Griffith Avenue section?

On 30 April 1927⁴ the Commissioners accepted a proposal that the ‘new 100-foot road from Howth Road to Ballymun Road’ be named Griffith Avenue (for the nationalist politician Arthur Griffith).⁵

However, despite that motion, the name ‘Griffith Avenue’ was applied only to the roadway from the Malahide Road to Whitehall.

The stretch from the Howth Road to the Malahide Road was laid out later, on part of the Mount Temple lands, and was named Copeland Avenue.

1. See Ruth McManus, Dublin, 1910-1940: Shaping the City (Dublin, 2002) for the history of the Marino scheme.
2. The Corporation was abolished on 20 May 1924, and three commissioners were appointed to act in place of the elected members.
3. Minutes 1925/382.
4. Minutes 1927/178.
5. Reports 1927/73.