The Dublin Working Boys’ Home and Harding Technical School Lord Edward Street, Dublin
‘...To help them to help themselves ...’
was the axiom adopted by Mr Francis B. Ormsby (pictured below), honorary secretary of the ‘Harding’ from 1876 till his death in 1917. A committee - the Rev. Hercules Henry Dickenson, Dean of the Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle and Vicar of St Ann’s Church, William Digges La Touche and J.B.Pim, was established with the aim of establishing a Home ‘to afford comfortable and healthy lodgings at cheap rates for boys who were earning their bread’. Such a Home proved useful to country clergymen and fathers when their their young male parishioners and sons came to Dublin for apprenticeship and employment. The Rev. H.H.Dickenson had been associated with the Claremont Institution for over 50 years, first as a young boy, raising funds as part of a ‘Juvenile Association’ for support of deaf pupils, and became a fluent signer, and assisted with interpreting.
The two houses in Denzille Street which formed the Home from 1876 to 1891 proved too cramped for the increasing number of boys, some of whom were referred from the charities – Protestant Orphan Society, the Grand Canal Home, The Coombe Boys’ Home, etc. In 1888, the Committee purchased a site at the top of Lord Edward Street, facing Christ Church Cathedral. On 22nd February 1892, the Lord Lieutenant officially opened the new building (pictured above). Some residents did not stay for long having reached the maximum age of 19, where they had to relocate to other lodging homes. Some were so wild that they were either expelled or left to join the Army or the Navy. Others left to emigrate to America, Canada, England and South Africa.
In the late 1880s, having an interest in the educational welfare of the boys, Miss Anna Middleton Harding left a bequest to the Committee for establishing a technical school for the residents of the Home. In 1904, the Governors had been approached by employers seeking boys, and by boys seeking employment, so the Registry Office for ‘respectable Protestant lads’ was set up in the Harding Home.
Among the facilities provided by the Home for the residents was the Gymnasium. During the period 1933 to 1950, the Gymnasium Club had been successful, the team having won the Irish Union Challenge Shield in 1933. As for sports, the boys had their cricket, badminton, soccer, rugby, table-tennis and swimming. In the dining-room was the Cherry Memorial plaque with a list of Boys who received the Good Conduct prize. The spiritual welfare was not forgotten, where each boy had to attend Divine Service at the parish church of St Werburgh across the street. Some residents formed a Bell-ringing club, with Christ Church Cathedral conveniently closeby. At one time there was a Literary/Debating Society, and in 1933, William ‘Bill’ Lockhart presented a paper on ‘Dublin – a Sketch’, outlining the history of that city. In Mount Jerome Cemetery, the Dublin Working Boys’ Home had a plot for the residents, purchased by one of the Governors, Thomas Spunner, in 1885.
From 1876 to 1959, more than 2,483 boys had passed through, many of whom filled important positions in the city and elsewhere. In 1964, a large donation came from Canada from an Old Boy who acknowledged the benefit of the Harding in his early days. Another Old Boy – who was at the Home in Denzille Street in 1890 – never forgot the Home, having left a generous legacy. In the Great War (1914-1918), over 300 Old Boys served in the forces, while of these over 30 gave their lives. During the Second World War, 1939 to 1945, some of the Old Boys, numbering 76, went to war, and over eleven were killed in action. Another ten enlisted in the regular and auxiliary forces of the Irish Free State. The Superintendents of the Home were: J.Sides (1876-78), Thomas Spunner (1879-1896), James Harris (1897-1901 and 1910-1929), Henry Meredith (1901-1910), James ‘Nobby’ Clarke (1930-1960), Dudley Dolan (1960-1970) and Jim Condell (1971-1978).
In 1987, the Dublin Working Boys’ Home (fondly known as ‘The Ranch’ by the Old Boys) finally closed its doors. The building was sold off and then converted into a hostel for budget travellers – under the name of Kinlay’s Hostel. On the facade of the building is the stone engraving of the young apprentice wearing an apron and carrying his tools – which is the badge of the Harding Old Boys’ Union, formed in 1930, and still going strong, with the organisation of the Annual Reunions and social gatherings.
Contact details:
Email: info@irishdeafhistory.com
