Killiney Historical Society – Wining, Dining and Dancing in Killiney and Dalkey through the ages

Killiney Historical Society is delighted to announce our second lecture of 2024 which will be delivered by local author and historian Eileen O’Duffy. The talk will take place in the upstairs lounge of the Druid’s Chair pub at 8.00pm on 2nd April. Admission is €5 and all are welcome.

Wining, dining and dancing in Killiney and Dalkey through the ages is a journey back in time to a golden era where local residents and visitors wined and dined in the numerous restaurants and hotels, danced in ballrooms at the Cliff Castle, Dalkey Island and Shangri-La, and partied until the small hours at The Court Hotel and Jesters nightclubs.

Eileen O’Duffy

Eileen worked as a Digital Education, Media and Marketing Strategist and Consultant for 20 years. During the Covid lockdowns in 2020/21, she decided to take time out to write her own book. In September 2021, Eileen self-published her first book, From Dirt and Dips to Dryrobes, bathing in Dún Laoghaire through the ages. The book was very well received, selling over 700 copies before the Christmas season. Eileen enjoyed the entire experience so much she started writing a second book about Dún Laoghaire almost immediately. This time, she wanted to focus on the elegant lifestyle of the past. Champagne, Cocktails and Crêpes Suzette, wining, dining and dancing in Dún Laoghaire through the ages, was published in September 2022. Eileen has lived in Dalkey for 50 years and now works with Lettertec Publishers helping companies write corporate history and anniversary books

Champagne, Cocktails and Crêpes Suzette

The small village of Dunleary was transformed beyond recognition when the new harbour was built in the early nineteenth century. The new town was called Kingstown and later Dún Laoghaire, and became the main mail and passenger link with England and the golden gate to Ireland. Dún Laoghaire was not only the point of arrival and departure, it was also a stylish and fashionable destination in its own right and one of the most popular seaside resorts in Europe.
Champagne, Cocktails and Crêpes Suzette is a journey back in time to a golden era where local residents and visitors wined and dined in the yacht clubs, restaurants and hotels along the waterfront, and danced in the Pavilion, the ballrooms and the nightclubs. It provides an insight into the symbiotic relationship between the harbour and the town and how this helped it to evolve into an elegant and glamorous centre of hospitality and entertainment, a “Dublin Riviera”.

The book is on sale in Dalkey News Dalkey, Eamonn’s Bookshop Sandycove and Irish Design Gallery Dún Laoghaire. Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the night at a once-off specially discounted price.