The Leeson Lounge

From the 1930s until the 1960s, the Leeson Lounge was a shop, run by the Caldwell family. At the end of the 19th century, it was a grocery shop, J&T Davy, Grocers and Wine Merchants. It went into literary history when Leopold Bloom walked past there on 16 June 1904. It was at here that The Invincibles were said to have alighted from a cab after the murder of the Under-Secretary, Mr. Burke, in the Phoenix Park in 1882. The driver, Kavanagh drove his vehicle and passengers into Ranelagh, and then through Leeson Park to Davy’s pub in Leeson Street; 'leaving the brown mare reeking between the shafts outside, the four men went in to celebrate their famous victory'. Kavanah had a drink with his cautiously celebrating Invincible colleagues and Joe Brady gave him a pound note on the premises. Kavanagh was feeling a bit queasy, if substantially richer, and after one drink went home.

The Invincibles story happened on Saturday the sixth of May, 1882. The newly-arrived Chief Secretary of Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish — an ancestor of Princess Diana, incidentally — was walking in the Phoenix Park. He was accompanied by the Under Secretary, or Chief Administrator for Ireland, one Thomas Henry Burke. A squad of men armed with long surgical knives fell upon them at seven in the evening and hacked them to pieces. The killings were claimed by a previously-unknown group styling themselves The Irish Invincibles.