A History of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown

James Joyce Tower postcard. Courtesy of Ken Finley. 

The county was formed in 1994 from an amalgamation of the Borough of Dún Laoghaire and parts of the County of Dublin, but the area has a long and sweeping history with evidence of settlement in the general area dating back to around 6,000 years ago. Its story has always included the dual elements of the maritime and the rural hinterland. Closely linked to Dublin, the numerous castles dotting the county illustrate its position as borderland to the Wicklow Mountains. In recent centuries the area has become more closely meshed to the city, as its surrounding villages become part of the suburban landscape.

What’s in a name?

It's a curious fact that part of the county’s name comes from a placename in Wicklow. Rathdown near Delgany, an Anglicisation of the Irish "Ráth an Dúin", is the site where a castle was built and it is this castle which gave its name to the old barony of Rathdown. The barony originally stretching from the Dublin municipal boundary to just below Greystones covered parts of SW Co. Dublin and N. Co. Wicklow. Taking in as it did the pre-existing Irish area of Cuala, it was established as a Norman feudal barony or district soon after the Norman conquest.  The lordship remained with the original lords, the MacGiollamocheallnogh (later Fitzdermot) till at least the 15th century, and then belonged to the Fitzgerald, Barnewell and Talbot families. The barony was divided in 1609 at the Dargle River, when Co. Wicklow was created out of Co. Dublin, placing a moiety in Wicklow, and leaving the other half-barony in Dublin (from roughly the Dodder to the Dargle River). As John D’Alton’s notes in his book ‘The County of Dublin’ (1838):

“The tourist here [at the Dodder] enters upon the Half Barony of Rathdown, a maritime district including the most picturesque and highly ornamented portions of this county, and extending over fifty-nine townlands, comprising ten parishes – Stillorgan, Taney, Whitechurch, Kilgobbin, Rathmichael, Tallagh, Kiltiernan, Old Connaught, Killiney, and Kill, besides portions of the parishes of Monkstown, and Donnybrook. The whole area has been assessed as containing 17,246A. of which 1801 are stated to be waste”.

Dublin's half-barony came under the County Council of Dublin, as Rathdown (No.1 District).  Rathdown (No. 2 District) was under Co. Wicklow.  Dún Laoghaire (or Kingstown as it was known 1821-1920) was originally a fishing village called Dunlary or Dunleary, and as such was in the Dublin half-barony, but after the new town was built it had a separate local Government as a borough council from 1821 up to 1994.
The old Rathdown half-barony does not correspond exactly with the new county area, as it included Rathfarnham and Terenure, but when the new county was set up in 1994 the name had resonance of past connections.

Prehistory

The county was first inhabited after the last Ice Age towards the end of the Mesolithic period. Some time around 5,000-3,300 BC, along the coast, rivers and streams, the first pioneers of hunters and fishers entered the area. The distinctive flint tools known as “Bann flakes” at sites such as Dalkey Island, Dún Laoghaire and Loughlinstown provide evidence of their passing. The earliest settlers gradually shifted to a Neolithic farming culture of raising animals and growing cereal-crops. This necessitated the clearance of forest and the establishment of fixed settlements with houses and field systems. Stone axes have been found at Blackrock, Dundrum, Monkstown and Dún Laoghaire.

Field-monuments from this time show a new cult of the dead. These Megalithic tombs are of various types; The Portal tomb (or, ‘dolmen’) associated with Neolithic communal burial rites such as at Kilternan, gave way to the individualist styles with associated burial goods, such as the Wedge tomb (Ballyedmondduff, Shankill), and Cist burial (Stillorgan Park, Deansgrange, Edmondstown) following the introduction of metal. Those remaining can be found chiefly on higher ground in the south and west of the county.

The making of metal from rock to manufacture new artefacts (tools, ornaments and weapons), was a technological leap in skills. Amongst the many finds are those of a copper axe found in Cabinteely, a copper-alloy spear-head at Rathmichael, bronze axes at Stillorgan, Ticknock, and a penannular gold bracelet at Monkstown.

The Iron Age (600 BC to 400AD) in Ireland is generally an obscure period of pre-history. A hillfort and associated spearpoint at Rathmichael indicate a political centre in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown region. Numerous standing stones for this and earlier times dot the landscape, such as at Cabinteely, Newtown and the “Queen Mab” stone in Glencullen.

The late prehistoric rural and tribal society of Ireland continued through the Iron Age and into the early medieval period. The coming of Christianity in the 5th century saw a shift in the development of the built heritage to monastic sites and churches often on established sites. Rathmicheal became an important ecclesiastical site, with a round tower unique to the area, as the hillfort had been before it. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown was part of the kingdom of Laighin (Leinster), and represented part of the tuath of Cuala, which covered an area of the Dublin and Wicklow mountains, and the adjacent coast.

Early historic and medieval period

Early Christian church sites are well distributed through Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Surviving instances include the remains of churches (Balally; Dalkey Island; and Kill o’ the Grange), enclosures (Balally; Rathmichael), stone crosses, both High Cross (Tully) and Fassaroe-style (Blackrock; Killegar; Rathmichael; and Kiltuck (now Shankill)), as well as a wide example of religious sites including holy wells (Dalkey Island, Holywell Land, Dundrum; Tobernea (Blackrock); Jamestown), grave stones (including the Rathdown Slabs). Many of these sites were redeveloped in the 12 and 13th centuries, with the establishment of a diocesan and parochial structure of hierarchy following church reform. The region was now in the hinterland of Dublin and the Church came to own a lot of the lands in the area. The conquest of the Normans changed the basis of the legal, financial, political and land tenure practices of the country.

Photograph of Puck's Castle

A common thread from medieval times has been the defensive position of the area for Dublin City. The area is dotted with castles (Dundrum, Monkstown, Shankill) with the principal threat coming from the granite mountains and hidden glens of the Dublin and Wicklow mountains. With a wild landscape belying its modest height, it represents Ireland’s largest upland area. It has served as refuge to outlaws and rebels, from the native Irish O’Byrnes and O’Tooles who raided the area for centuries, down to the aftermath of the1798 Rebellion.  A military road (the modern R115), garrisoned at intervals, was built in 1800-09. It ran from Rathfarnham to Aughavannagh, and established control over the whole area in the early eighteen-hundreds. The threat also came from the sea. A military camp established at Lehaunstown, overlooking Killiney Bay, in 1795 was at the centre of a network of local roads to counter French invasion. Further need for coastal defence opened up the area with the construction of military roads and 14 Martello tower batteries were constructed from Sandymount to Bray over a year and a half period.

The district’s popularity with modern tourists dates back to the eighteenth century, when it became popularly known as Ireland's Riviera. The wealthy built villas along the coast with evocative names, like Maretimo and Frascat, recalling the Grand Tour. Visitors enjoyed the scenery and seabathing, and availed of the coffee-house which was built mid-century in the town of Dún Laoghaire.

Once a small fishing village located on an inlet on the rocky coast S.E. of Dublin, Dún Laoghaire is now a major ferry port and yachting centre. The ruins of Laoghaire's fort which gave it its name survived until c. 1805, when one of the Martello towers was built on the site. This in turn was removed by 1838 to make way for the railway.

Time transforms Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

The coastal history of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is inextricably linked with seafaring exploits and maritime tragedies.

In 1766 two pirates, McKinley and Zeckerman, were hanged from Muglins - a rock to the north of Dalkey Island - for the murder of Captain Glass and his family on the high seas.

1785 saw an early sea rescue carried out by the Dún Laoghaire barge when it picked up Richard Crosbie after he had ditched his hot air balloon near the harbour, having flown from the Lawn in front of Leinster House in Dublin city centre.

On 18th of September 1789, Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, to meet a bet with Thomas “Buck” Whaley undertook to walk from the Irish five-mile marker stone at Cornelscourt to the Junction of Leeson St. and Adelaide Road in less than an hour. Achieving the feat of walking the six statute miles in 55 minutes, he was paid over the one hundred and fifty Guineas. Buck Whaley, a famous rake and member of the Hell-fire Club, had himself undertaken a more famous wager against the Duke of Leinster to travel to Jerusalem and back within a year. Leaving Dublin on 29 September 1788, he returned to Ireland in July 1789 to bonfires celebrating his success and collected his £15,000.

Photograph of Martello Tower on Dalkey Island

Fourteen Martello tower coastal batteries were built from Sandymount to Bray from June 1804 to December 1805 by Colonel Benjamin Fisher. A portion of the road built to link them became in time George’s Street, the centre of the new town of Kingstown.

In 1807, the tragic loss of two troop-ships, the HMS Prince of Wales and the Rochdale, with the loss of nearly 400 lives, prompted the construction of the present asylum harbour at Dún Laoghaire to serve ships approaching the port of Dublin. It was built and designed by John Rennie, a Scottish civil engineer, with granite from the quarries on Dalkey Hill and Glasthule. It transformed Dún Laoghaire’s position from a quiet seaside village to the sea-link to Britain. By the early nineteenth century, Dún Laoghaire was the fourth largest urban centre in Ireland. The steam packet service was transferred there in 1826, beginning the tradition which later led to Dún Laoghaire becoming Ireland's premier ferryport.

In 1834, Ireland's first commuter railway - linking Dún Laoghaire to Dublin - was completed, further contributing to the town's development.  This year Dún Laoghaire also received Town Commission status. It merged with Dalkey, Blackrock and Ballybrack in 1930 to become the Borough of Dún Laoghaire.

The Harcourt Street railway line ran for over a century from Bray through the old district of Rathdown.

Photograph of Foxrock Station

It served the villages of Shankill, Carrickmines, Foxrock, Stillorgan and Dundrum until it was closed in 1959. The line prompted developers to build houses for the new middle classes seeking the healthy air of the rural county within commuting distance. Shankill has the unusual feature of a former post office building built ‘upside-down’ by the Harcourt line bridge,with guestrooms on the downstairs and kitchen and living room upstairs. The mansion called Contra, an architecturally important Victorian house, is similarly built up-side down. 

Development of the suburbs of Dublin was led in Stillorgan. It had a series of Irish firsts. There was the first bowling alley in Ireland, in 1963. Ireland’s first modern shopping centre was opened here also in 1966 by Dickie Rock, the year he sang for Ireland in the Eurovision song contest. The first stretch of dual carriageway was also built there in the 1970s between the Stillorgan Road-Newtownpark Avenue junction and Foxrock Church.

In 1994 with the re-organisation of Dublin County Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council became the local authority for the area. The region of Dún  Laoghaire-Rathdown region has seen a

Photograph of Luas Tram

change in appearance in the recent decades. Its suburban locales and once rural areas have been transformed with new roads, homes and other developments. The Southern section of the M50 was constructed between 2001 and 2005.

2004 during the Celtic Tiger boom saw the opening of Dundrum Shopping Centre, and the LUAS, along part of the old Harcourt Street line. The iconic William Dargan cable-stayed bridge was built to carry the new tramline.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown has been home to many famous people over the years, including such writers as Joyce, Shaw and Beckett, statesman Éamon de Valera, artists Evie Hone and William Orpen, nationalists Roger Casement, Charles Kickham and Lord Edward Fitzgerald, musicians Seán Ó Riada and John Dowland, and sportsman Stephen Roche.

 http://www.dlrcoco.ie/library/lhistory.html