In the Lyric Feature on Sunday 29th February, Patricia Baker goes in search of the hidden history of a place behind a locked door in Dublin 8 - listen to Recalling the Layers above.
Below, Patricia introduces Recalling the Layers...
Thomas Street, Bridgefoot Street — the Liberties in Dublin. I know this area well. I was a student at the National College of Art and Design. I shopped in the vegetable shops and butchers, drank pints in the local pubs, rummaged through second-hand stores, and bought flowers from the street sellers. I live in Inchicore. I travel through the area by bus everyday, I love to sit in the front seat on the top deck, and even now I feel a little thrill when it's free. Through the bus window I’ve seen how much the landscape has changed over the years. Buildings lost, vast sites exposed, skylines reshaped by high-rises. Walking the streets, I notice how the soundscape has also shifted: a beautiful chorus of multiple ethnicities layered over the strong Dublin accents. It’s a rich tapestry now — and it keeps evolving.
I always thought I knew this place well, until a conversation with my friend, architect Gráinne Hassett, changed everything. She told me about Marshalsea Barracks; a debtors’ prison that had once dominated this whole area. I was puzzled. Where was it? I’d never seen a trace.
Why does it matter? Because sharing our histories invites others in.
Gráinne described a hidden place, the last remnant of Marshalsea Barracks. Even though I knew the streets intimately, I couldn’t picture it. Then one day, walking down Bridgefoot Street, I noticed a tall, awkwardly placed stone wall. Grainne brought me into the enclosed space the walls surrounds. I heard the metal door creak open, behind which a large overgrown wild space: the Ballcourt. This was it. A magical, forgotten space. The only remaining piece of Marshalsea Barracks.
The documentary took time to make. It was like piecing together a puzzle from fragments: old maps tracing the transformation from Barracks to Tenements. Precious fragments of oral stories passed down through families, childhood memories of the tenements, of the Ballcourt: a playground, a space for horses, a place to play racquet ball.
It’s these layers revealed through interviews, soundscapes, music, and readings that shaped the journey of this audio documentary. Each fragment tells part of a bigger story. A hidden history brought back into the light.
As I finished the project, I kept returning to one question: why does it matter to recall these lost layers of history? One afternoon, walking with Gráinne down Thomas Street, she stopped into the local dry cleaners run by a kind, very skilled tailor originally from Afghanistan. Listening to him chat, then walking past students, locals, and tourists, I thought: most of them have no idea that these streets used to be full of people who are going in and out of the debtors' prison, supplying goods, having parties and visiting prisoners.
prison that had once dominated this whole area.'
So why does it matter? Because sharing our histories invites others in. It creates connection. And in those connections between past and present, between people and place something important can be developed about who we are. Something vital is passed on and shared.
Listen to The Lyric Feature: Recalling the Layers on Sunday 29th of June at 6 pm on RTÉ lyric fm - listen to more from The Lyric Feature here
