Pidgeon House Fort

Reverend Thomas Goff

Diary entry 1801

 

A page from Reverend Thomas Goff's Diary
[Courtesy: IADT Dun Laoghaire]

 

1 February 1801

I rode to the Pidgeon House & read prayers for the Garrison there - great uneasiness prevails among the Artillery officers, on account of the proposed Incorporation of the two Regiments British & Irish.

Men who have expos’d their lives in the Warfare of the Empire, & whose whole subsistence arises from their military situation, are trembling in suspense not knowing what is to be their destiny, when this union takes place –

Thus the Men who have never left the luxury of English Climate, & English Living, decide upon the fate & fortune of others, who have sweated under the scorching atmosphere of the Torrid Zone, & have met Death in all his most tremendous aspects. 

Announcement of Goff's succession to his cousin's chaplaincy.
[London Gazette, 11 Sept 1798]

Reverend Thomas Goff was Chaplain to the Royal Artillery Regiment – a commission which he had purchased on the death of his cousin Reverend Thomas Trocke on Vinegar Hill, Co. Wexford during the Rebellion of 1798.

 

The fort was originally a hotel!
Built in the days before Dublin port was safe for navigation
and Ringsend was still a peninsula.
Here's how it looks now.
It's right beside the old Poolbeg Power station.

Partly in response to that rebellion The Act of Union (1801) was bulldozed through the Irish Houses of Parliament with a mixture of state sponsored bribery and threats. Goff was decidedly cool to the Union, sharing his apprehension with many Irish people, both Protestant and Catholic.