13th February - Stephen Lucius Gwynn

Stephen Lucius Gwynn (1864 – 1950)

#OnThisDay, 13th February 1864 Stephen Lucius Gwynn was born.

Stephen Lucius Gwynn writer and nationalist lived in Raheny Park from 1905 to 1910. Raheny Park had formerly been known as Fox House.

In his book For Second Reading Gwynn gives a most evocative account of his attempts at small scale farming on the ten acres surrounding the house. He describes the harvesting of apples, the planting of potatoes and oats, bargaining for cattle and the annual visit of the threshing machine to the local farmers.

His description of Raheny Park read as follows: “The quaint arrangement of an oval wall into which the house was set, so that the long curves of mellow brickwork enclosing that acre of sunny northward sloping ground sprang from either hand as you looked out of the window”.

You can read more about Stephen Lucius Gwynn in the Raheny Heritage Society’s publication ‘Raheny Footprints’.