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by Cormac Moore (Author)
'Pineapple rock, lemon platt, butter scotch. A sugarsticky girl shovelling scoopfuls of creams for a christian brother. Some school treat. Bad for their tummies. Lozenge and comfit manufacturer to His Majesty the King...' Immortalised by James Joyce in Ulysses, Lemon's Pure Sweets was a vital part of Dublin's social fabric for over a century. Armagh native Graham Lemon opened The Confectioner's Hall on Lower Sackville Street (now O' Connell Street) in 1847, and would soon become one of Dublin's wealthiest men. As his business prospered, Lemon invested heavily in Dublin property, including most of Little Grafton Street, which was renamed Lemon Street in his honour in 1871 - a name it still bears. Among his tenants were the Gaiety Theatre proprietors and James Connolly. Looted during the 1916 Easter Rising and forced to cut output due to World War Two shortages, Lemon's weathered decades of 20th century upheaval before EEC free trade dealt the final blow, closing its Drumcondra factory doors for good in 1983. Yet the iconic name lingers - on tins of Season's Greetings, and in the sweet memories it still evokes among the people of Dublin and Ireland.
Author Biography
Dr Cormac Moore is a historian-in-residence with Dublin City Council and a columnist with The Irish News, where he also edits the ' On This Day' segment. He has published widely on Irish history, including the books The Root of All Evil: The Irish Boundary Commission (Merrion Press, 2025), Laois: The Irish Revolution, 1912- 1923 (Four Courts Press, 2025), Birth of the Border: The Impact of Partition in Ireland (Merrion Press, 2019), and The Irish Soccer Split (Cork University Press, 2015).
