St. Colmcille’s Boys’ National School, Chapel Lane, Swords, Co.Dublin K67 WP65

(01) 8405132

St Colmcille's BNS

Ní neart go cur le chéile

The Big Tree

Our trail starts at the “Big Tree” pub on North Street. This public house that is owned by the Taylor Family had an all-night licence to cater for the market gardeners who were bringing vegetables to the market in Dublin. The young people of Swords used throw stones at the market gardeners to wake them up before they passed the local RIC station (on the Main Street), otherwise they would be fined for not being in proper control of their ponies and carts. Up to the 1940s, there was a big elm tree with a trunk of about 10 feet growing in the middle of the road. It was about 150 years old when it was knocked down because it constituted an obstruction to the buses. Writing about Swords at the turn of the 20th century, Francis Coleman said that at the base of the tree, “unemployed workers basked in the sun”.