Cabra History.Com

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Cardiffsbridge used to be a little village at one time. It had a pub called ‘The Jolly Toper’. There was also a shovel factory that harnessed its power from the river that runs alongside the village. My great grandmother’s brother William Somerville and his wife Catherine lived near the village when they were married on the 24th July 1881. Some people may remember the village in latter years where one of the villagers sold ice cream from her little house. According to the 1901 census for Cardiffsbridge there were five families living in the village. Thomas O’Keeffe was a Publican and John Glass from County Fermanagh was a Chandler. In older photographs of Cardiffsbridge the village and its people are clearly seen, one photo even shows the village pump. When I was a young boy my mother often brought us across the bridge and down onto the bank where we would paddle in the water. Everything seemed so much bigger then. The river appeared to be two miles wide and fifty feet deep and a million miles of a walk from our house in Cabra West. Cardiffsbridge was also the scene of many a battle between the lads of Finglas and Cabra, each side claiming Cardiffsbridge as their territory. Nowadays you would hardly even notice it was there. Cars go  by on its right to Finglas and on its left to Ashtown with the river stuck in the middle. I wonder what the bridge would say if it could talk?