Introduction to Volume 1.

Introduction To The First Part

The** **parishes, which have been grouped in the present part of this history were closely connected in past times. In the 18th century they were united for ecclesiastical purposes under the Established Church, and in the mediaeval ages they were, with the exception of Kilmacud, under the spiritual care of the Priory of the Holy Trinity, which, on the dissolution of the religious houses by Henry VIII. became the Cathedral establishment of the Church of the Holy Trinity, commonly called Christ Church.

Owing to the modern divisions for the purposes of religious ministration not following the same line, the extent of the original parishes is little known to the present inhabitants; but the latter are still used for civil purposes, and will he found clearly defined on the maps of the Ordnance Survey. They lie to the south-east of the City of Dublin, in the barony of Rathdown, between the sea and the Dublin Mountains, and extend along the coast from Blackrock to Shanganagh, having for their western boundaries the parishes of Taney, Kilgobbin, and Kiltiernan, and containing the populous townships of Kingstown, Dalkey, and Killiney, and more than half of the township of Blackrock.

This history treats of the district in circumstances and appearance widely different from those with which we are familiar, and impressions gained merely from knowledge of the present condition of the neighbourhood of Dublin are likely to be very misleading.

When our history opens the southern part of the County Dublin formed part of the territory of the people of Cualann, which included also the eastern part of the County Wicklow, and was a wild tract of country covered with woods, bogs, and stony pastures. Amidst the woods here and there clusters of the dwellings of the period - small round houses made of mud and wattles - were to be seen; while on Dalkey Island and at Dunleary stood stone or earthern fortifications, known as duns, to protect the territory from foreign invasion..

In mediaeval ages, when the lands for the most part belonged to monastic owners, the district covered by these parishes was rescued from its primeval barrenness, tilled and cultivated, but owing to the frequent incursions of the Irish tribes by whom the Wicklow Mountains were inhabited, this was done by men with one hand on the spear and the other on the plough.

The population was very small, and the occupation of the lands was only possible through the erection of strongly-fortified castles, in which the inhabitants took refuge when necessity arose.

But even coming down to the 18th century we find the difference great between the district then and at the present time. The whole sea border is now built over with a succession of streets, terraces, and villas, hardly a site being unoccupied by a house.

A century and a-half ago the population of the seven parishes was returned as 2428, while in 1891 it exceeded 30,000. Kingstown was represented by a small village called Dunleary; Dalkey a place of importance in mediaeval times, comprised, besides the ruins of its former prosperity, only one or two houses and a few cabins; and Killiney was a seaside hamlet.

Two churches, those of Monkstown and Stillorgan, sufficed for the members of the Established Church, and one was all the Roman Catholic Church was known to possess. Fields of corn waved where roads and houses are now to be seen, and the only habitations, besides country residences, comparatively few in number, belonging to Dublin citizens, were those of persons deriving their livelihood from farming or fishing.

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