Merriman's house in the Main Street of Clane was the Garda Station up until 1973. The Gardai moved to these premises in 1922 after the burning of their previous quarters that were at the Teacher's House beside the Boy's old School on the Dublin Road. The Old R.I.C. barrack at Marron's had suffered the same fate after it had been vacate in 1920.
The house was once the family home of the Marmion's. Their illustrious son, the Benedictine Abbot, Dom Joseph Marmion was born on April 1st. 1858, shortly after the family had moved to Dublin. He was Abbot at Mardesous in Belgium and the first to re-introduce that order after the persecution of the clergy which followed the French Revolution. In the course of his career, he was a theology professor at Dublin and Louvain and is famous for his spiritual writings. His cause for beatification was introduced in the sixties.
The house in which Joseph was born in Dublin was afterwards the birthplace of teacher/broadcaster, the late Paddy Crosby of 'School Around the Corner' fame and this fact is referred to in Paddy's book 'Come in, Your Dinner's Poured Out'
Reproduced from "Le Chéile" by kind permission