Boland's Bakery was the largest bakery in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

in the late 19th century. It was founded by the Boland family. The company sold a number of products, such as bread, biscuits, cakes, confectionery and flour, although over the years biscuits became the company's main product. The original bakery was located close to

Capel Street Capel Street ( ) is a predominantly commercial street in Dublin, Ireland, laid out in the 17th century by Humphrey Jervis. History Capel Street takes its name from the nearby chapel of St Mary's Abbey (from the Latin Capella – Chapel) altho ...

between Mary (

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

) Street and Little Mary Street. The Boland family lived on Capel Street. Following the death of Patrick Boland (father of future MP and Olympic champion John Pius Boland), in 1888 the company was floated by the executor of his will Bishop Nicholas Donnelly, his brother in law. A number of members of the Boland family remained shareholders in the company. The company had a number of production facilities around the city such as the buildings around Grand Canal Dock including

Boland's Mill Boland's Mills is a mixed-use development in Dublin, Ireland, on Ringsend Road between the inner basin of Grand Canal Dock and Barrow Street. The site includes several 19th century warehouses originally associated with Boland's Bakery. After ce ...

as well as a distribution network. Vans with the company name on it were a familiar sight up until the last quarter of the twentieth century. The main Boland's Bakery building on the corner of Grand Canal Street and Macken Street (then Great Clarence Street), now the Treasury Building, played an integral part in the

1916 Rising The Easter Rising (), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an i ...

and was occupied by

Éamon de Valera Éamon de Valera (; ; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was an American-born Irish statesman and political leader. He served as the 3rd President of Ire ...

. Also during a dispute when unemployed demonstrators, led by the writer Liam O’Flaherty, occupied the

Rotunda Hospital The Rotunda Hospital (; legally the Hospital for the Relief of Poor Lying-in Women, Dublin) is a maternity hospital on Parnell Street in Dublin, Ireland, now managed by RCSI Hospitals. The Rotunda entertainment buildings in Parnell Square are no ...

, Boland's Bakery in Capel St. donated 500 loaves to the demonstrators. In the late 1970s Boland's merged with Jacobs Biscuits Limited, to form Irish Biscuits Limited, with much of the production moved to premises in Belgard,

Tallaght Tallaght ( ; , ) is a southwestern outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The central village area was the site of a monastic settlement from at least the 8th century, which became one of medieval Ireland's more important monastic centres. Up to th ...

. Although many products were now being produced in Britain and labelled as Irish Brands. In 2004 production at the Tallaght facility stopped. Irish Biscuits were taken over by a number of foreign companies eventually ending up being owned by the French Groupe Danone. In 2004 it was sold to the Irish Fruitfield Food Group. The name survives today in a number of brands produced by Jacob Fruitfield Food Group, such as custard creams,

cream cracker A cream cracker is a flat, usually square, savoury biscuit. The name "cream crackers" refers to the method in which the mixture is Creaming (food), creamed during manufacture. The cream cracker is traditionally prepared using Fermentation in food ...

s and Bourbon creams. The name ' Boland's Flour Mills' is still clearly visible on the Grand Canal Dock basin.

References

External links

Jacob Fruitfield Food Group official web site
{{United Biscuits United Biscuits brands Food manufacturers of the Republic of Ireland