Celebrating Greystones’ Rebel Rebel

Peter Murtagh & Dara MacMahon get into the Lizzie spirit

ollowing last week’s portrait unveiling at Greystones train station, the late and ridiculously great Lizzie Hawkins-Whitshed is now the very first subject for Legends Of Greystones at The Whale.

Put together by local historians and natural born performers Peter Murtagh and Dara MacMahon, this night of story and song will tell the tale of an exceptional explorer, mountaineer, writer and photographer.

And the one-time Lady Burnaby’s presence can still be felt in Greystones, 89 years after her death. Just take a look at the street names around you.

Ahead of the sold-out tribute at The Whale on Friday, November 24th, young Murtagh sets the scene…

Greystones has many big stories to tell but few are larger than the life story of Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed.

She was an only child of the big house who lost her father when she was just 11 years old.

She was catapulted into London society as a painfully inexperienced 18-year-old, but a year later married one of the most famous soldiers of Victorian England – adventurer, journalist, author, and balloonist Frederick Gustavus Burnaby.

But within a few years, the swashbuckling daredevil Burnaby was killed trying to rescue General Gordon of Khartoum.

Left alone, a young mother in her early 20s, and lacking formal education or training, Elizabeth grabbed life by both hands and went on to become an accomplished photographer and film-maker, a mountaineer who conquered Alpine and Norwegian peaks never climbed before, by man or woman!

Setting out to climb her first show-covered mountain, she realised she didn’t know how to put on her own boots. That was something a nanny had always done for her! But her spirit prevailed and she became a sensation in her own right — cutting against the grain of convention, breaking the restraints placed on women.

She wrote numerous books about her mountain climbing adventures, travelled widely and lived several full-on lives in one.

And after Fred was killed, she also built Ireland’s first planned housing estate – here in Greystones. She named it The Burnaby, after her first husband (there were three in all!). Over time, this collection of fine individual Edwardian houses, along with those on Church Road, both conservation areas, helped define the essential character of our seaside town.

In honour of their two families, Elizabeth named the roads of the Burnaby Estate after their them, leaving us a lasting legacy of them and their times.

In short, Elizabeth was a legend of Greystones — one of several exceptional individuals our town has either produced or become home to, and who are now being honoured in a special project at the town’s Train Station.

Earlier this month, a large portrait of Elizabeth by local artist Tom Byrne, was unveiled in the station, sponsored by the Durkan family of homebuilders, themselves Burnaby residents.

This totemic portrait, set in a specially designed Corten steel display frame, with a QR code access to Elizabeth’s life story, is the first of several it is hoped will appear in the station, honouring exceptional achievers from our community.

Elizabeth’s life story, and that of her first husband, will be told, in words, song, music and images, during a special evening of entertainment at the Whale Theatre on Friday, November 24th.

You can join the waiting list for Legends Of Greystones: Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed on Friday, November 24th here, and explore her remarkable history here.