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LIFE OF CHARLES HAL1DAY. CXVU
There had previously been a block-house here for men
engaged in watching wrecks and wrecked property. And
John Pigeon being one of these men, it probably got its name
from him. In the following year (29th August, 1787), the
block-house was to be enlarged and improved for the
accommodation of the Board, and referring to a ground-plan,
they order some rooms for Francis Tunstal, Inspector of
Works for the Ballast Board, and others for the housekeeper,
Mrs. O'Brien, and her husband, she keeping the Corporation
rooms clean, and providing breakfast for any of the members
whenever directed, with a liberty of retailing spirits, but
without any salary. In the Dublin Chronicle of 3rd
August, 1790, it is announced that an hotel is to be built
there for passengers by sea between England and Ireland.
This was Mrs. Tunstal's, so well known to men of a former
generation.
In 1798 the Ballast Board sold their property in the
Pigeon-house and the newly constructed hotel to the
Government, for a place of arms and a military post for
130,000.
The hotel was still continued there, and much frequented
by good fellows for gay dinners. But in 1848, in Smith
O'Brien's rebellion, the Pigeon -house fort was made a close
garrison, and Mrs. Tunstal's hotel thrown down, and she
came to Sandymount to reside ; and thenceforward to this
day the Pigeon-house remains merely as a fort, garrison,
and store for guns and ammunition.
THE WALLING-IN OF TBE LIFFEY.
The forming of walls to keep out the tide and take in Walling th
land on the southern side of the river, began probably with
the lease to Sir James Carroll, in the year 1 607. 1
The limits of the grant are not defined, but it probably
included the space between Burgh-quay and Townsend-
1 P. 145, n. l.