The finds were unglamorous by any measure, a scatter of broken crucibles, fragments of two furnace doors, glass cullet, which is essentially recycled broken glass, and frit, the partially fused raw materials used in glassmaking before they reach the furnace. Yet taken together, these fragments quietly rewrite a small but specific corner of Dublin's industrial history.

The works were established in 1675 on what the excavation records identify as Plot 1, by a man named John Odacio Formica. The name suggests continental European origins, and that fits a broader pattern: skilled glassmakers in this period frequently came from Italy or the Low Countries, bringing specialist knowledge of furnace construction and the particular chemistry of flint glass, a type prized for its clarity and weight, achieved by incorporating lead oxide into the mix. Formica's decision to set up in Dublin in the 1670s placed him at an interesting moment, a period when trade in quality glass was growing across these islands and a foothold in Ireland, closer to Atlantic trade routes, may have made commercial sense. The excavation, documented by F. Myles in 2006, was a pre-development investigation, meaning the site was recorded precisely because it was about to be lost.

There is nothing visible above ground to mark the spot today. The site lies in Dublin's north city, and the archaeological evidence has long since been removed and recorded rather than preserved in situ. For anyone interested in following this story, the detail lives in the archive rather than the landscape. The published excavation report is the practical place to start, and the finds themselves may be held in institutional collections. What the site illustrates, even in its absence, is how much of Dublin's early modern industrial life was conducted quietly, in plots and yards that have since been built over several times, leaving only the occasional handful of crucible sherds to suggest what once went on there.