The Terrace was built around 1875 with an approved manning of 1 officer and 6 men under the control of the admiralty.

The 6 men each had a small terrace house for them and their families. The officer occupied a standalone house, now occupied (and enlarged) by John and Kathleen Martin. The houses were built by a local builder using a standard layout coming from Mr Henry Case, surveyor of coastguard buildings of the admiralty from 1860. Here is a link to a short history of coastguard house design.

In the book coastguard by William Web (1974), it is interesting to note that fraternisation with the local fishermen and their wives was not supported. Indeed, after a baby was born the family were often moved to a different location, the assumption being that a pregnancy would lead to unavoidable familiarity with the local population and that there would be troublesome loyalties after the birth. The book contains a fascinating but short chapter about the experience of the coastguard in these houses during the war of independence. The author refers to this as the troubles and in order to illustrate the situation in Kincora and the entire terrace shortly before the evacuation in 1922, I have included the chapter in a seperate page linked here.

In 1911 the census records records 6 families in the terrace from left to right as the Kellys (4), Cooks (5), Dunnes (5), Satlers (2), Brickendens (6), and Tylers (3). The chief officers family, the Robins’ (7), were in the house adjacent to the coast guard terrace now Creadon View Guest-house. It appears that the Kellys and the Dunnes lived in the two houses that are now the single house of Kincora. It is interesting to note that in the census records, the last family, the Tylers, had no children and yet there was 3 occupants, the third being a 2-year-old baby, May born in England. The Brickenden’s next door are missing 1 of their 4 children and they report 1 child that is present is sick on the night. It is assumed that the baby  was staying next door to avoid being infected by the sick child, child mortality was still high in those days and medicine difficult to come by.

In the period leading up to the evacuation in August 1922, the terrace was photographed as above. Note that three of the houses have a large sheet (Steel or other heavy material) mounted to shield the window from gunfire from the side. The idea appears to be that visitors to the front door would be covered by a guard looking out from the upper window (Either with a gun or just for visual control) and the shields protected them from hostile shots from the side. So it is clear that the coastguard porch construction was as a security portal. It is interesting how the five men standing in front of the house appear to be on-guard but nevertheless are not in any uniform. William Webb's book describes how these last intake in stations like Dunmore were largely single men coming in for short periods of service. It is assumed that they came and left by boat as this is how they all left on the day of evacuation.

Shortly after the picture was taken, the treaty was enacted and the coastguards were evacuated from the house. It might have been hours or days, but shortly after the houses were completely burned out and had no windows or roof until 1938. The photo below is an aerial photo taken in 1933 by the Royal Navy in a survey of the ports during the time that the British were considering handing back the ports. As you can see, a tree is growing out of the middle of the house. In 1938 the Office of Public Works (OPW) were able to legally take ownership of the houses. This was as a result of the deal between Ireland and England regarding the repayments of rents in the retained ports of Ireland. The rents had been suspended in 1930 and the deal saw the payment of back rents and the surrender of the properties.

Three professional gentlemen from Waterford bought the terrace and proceeded to rebuild the houses as 3 family homes in 1939. Newsapapers from May 1939 were found under the oilcloths and refer to the ongoing rise of the Nazis in Europe. So we can assume that the house was finished just in time to avoid the trade and materials difficulties of the emergency years. Kennedy, Murphy and Boyd, bought the houses and they appear prominently on the deeds of ownership and the more interesting deed of partition. The deed of partition goes into great detail to ensure the retention of right of way to the property from the rear access. The dormer windows were added in 1939 to give light to the new staircase and bathroom in the middle of the 2 terraced houses. The pitched rooves on the porch were replaced by flat rooves. The old tiled fireplaces were built in at this time and were the height of modernity. Each house had an Aga stove in the rear kitchen, feeding a hot water boiler in the 1^st floor and boasted a washhandbasin with hot water in every bedroom.

An interesting contrast to the houses in the picture and the current house is how the walls are whitewashed and the pillars are blank concrete. Whereas now the pillars are the painted feature. In the middle of the terrace today there is an old Bakelite telephone terminator. This is not visible in the photo above, so it is clear that the 3 gents, all professional businessmen from Waterford, got the telephone fitted during the 1940s or 1950s to help run their affairs from their house at the sea.

In the 1980’s and 1990 some renovations were done to the house now called Kincora such as modern windows, central heating and oil boiler and rudimentary electrics. The name of the place in Killaloe where Brian Boru was born. Cean Coradh means head of the weir and it was a fortified house of the local chief. There is no known connection to Killaloe apart from the wish to hibernify the property by the new owners.

In 1917, the Kennedys sold the house.

Here is one of the newspapers that we found under the flooring during renovations. the Irish Press from Thursday 25 May 1939