Lemon’s Pure Sweets has been a part of the Irish landscape for almost 200 years. Founded in the 1840s by Armagh-born Graham Lemon, the brand epitomised quality above all else.
Published by Irish Academic Press, the book tells the fascinating story of the Lemon family, who would come to own and lease multiple properties in prime locations in Dublin city centre.
As they owned most of the property on Little Grafton Street, off Grafton Street, it was renamed Lemon Street in their honour in 1871.
Tracing the fortunes of the company from its heyday to its eventual demise and the closure of its Drumcondra-based factory in 1983, The Sweetness of Lemon’s is a fascinating trawl through family feuds and dodgy business decisions that played out over the years against the background of the famine, the Easter rising and the emergence of Dublin as a capital city of prestige and poverty.
While two families – the Lemons and the Tates – dominated the running of the company for most of its history, the mantra of exceptional quality and purity remained throughout.
The Sweetness Of Lemon’s by Cormac More and Alan Tate, €19.99
