 Richard Crosbie became the first Irish person to fly a balloon when he took off from the gardens in 1785.Crosbie wanted to cross the Irish Sea, but only made it to Clontarf.After the Act of Union in 1801, middle-class professionals abandoned Georgian mansions on the northside, and moved to places with smaller, more manageable houses in new southside suburbs such as Rathmines and Ranelagh.