Fingal
The modern County of Fingal (Contae Fhine Gall), created by Local Government Acts of 1993 and 2001, is one of four administrative divisions of the old County Dublin, now known as the Dublin Region.
It covers the coastal area north of the City of Dublin along the Irish Sea and south of the River Delvin to the River Liffey, and is bordered by Co. Meath, Co. Kildare and South Dublin County.
Local History
Known to the Vikings as Dyflinarskiri – “the hinterland of Dublin”, Fingal derived its name from the Irish Fionn Gall, meaning fair strangers, denoting the Norse (as opposed to Dubh Gall, meaning black / dark foreigners, denoting the Danes, identified with the area south of Dublin). Early Norman versions of the name include Fiehengall, Fynnegal, Fyngal, and Finegal, leading to confusion with Fine Gall, meaning Foreign Tribe.
The Lordship of Fingal in the County of Dublin was confirmed in 1208 by letters patent from King John to Walter de Lacy and his heirs in perpetuity. As a Prescriptive Barony with paramount superiority over several sub-infeudated smaller baronies (e.g. Castleknock, Santry, Balrothery, and later Finglas, Feltrim, Howth, Shankill and Swords), it accrued vicecomital attributes leading to the granting of the first viscountcy in Ireland in 1478 to the 4th Baron Gormanston, Robert Preston (1435-1503), a direct descendant of Walter de Lacy and former occupant of the Manor of Fyngallestoun. Successive Prestons have retained the title of Viscount Gormanston to this day, but the titular prescriptive barony of Fingal, an incorporeal hereditament in gross, was passed to the late Patrick Denis O’Donnell.
Until the mid-C19th many locals spoke the now extinct language of Fingalian, a hybrid of Old English and Old Norse with Gaelic influences.
Fingal is Ireland’s primary horticultural region, producing 50% of the national vegetable output and 75% of all glasshouse crops grown in the country However, the areas of production are coming under severe pressure from other development and the rural towns are increasingly becoming dormitories for the City of Dublin.
Clonsilla (Cluain Saileach – meadow of the Willow / Sallows), straddling the Royal Canal, was once a village in its own right, but is nowadays regarded as part of the greater Blanchardstown area. Massive residential development has seen the local population multiply dramatically, and little remains of the rural district that oldtimers fondly recall.
Clonsilla was once home to many stud farms, including the famous Ongar stud formerly owned by Prince Ali Khan and his then wife Rita Hayworth.
Luttrellstown Castle dates from c.1420, when it was built by the Luttrell family, who had been granted extensive property in the area in 1210. The estate was confiscated from the family briefly during the Cromwellian administration (when it was seized by Col. Hewson) and after the Williamite War, when it was returned to the treacherous Col. Henry Luttrell, and sold in 1800.by Henry Lawes Luttrell, 2nd Earl of Carhampton, notorious for his role in suppressing the 1798 Rebellion.
The purchaser was Luke White, who changed its name to “Woodlands”. His descendants, the Barons of Annaly, changed the name back to the original, extended the medieval building into a vast Gothic mansion, and laid out the magnificent grounds.
Queen Victoria first visited Luttrellstown in 1849 en route to at Carton House to stay with the Duke of Leinster. She returned in 1900, and drank a cup of tea near the waterfall, an event commemorated by a obelisk made of six blocks of granite.
In 1927 the (much reduced) estate was bought by Ernest Guinness as a present for his daughter, Eileen Guinness (one of the famous “Glorious Guinness girls” who wowed royalty and Hollywood stars alike in London, Paris and New York in the 1920s) on the occasion of her wedding to Brinsley Plunkett.
In 1983 it was bought by a private consortium, which turned it into a luxury hotel and golf resort. An English footballer not renowned for his intellect married a minor pop singer there amidst much publicity at the end of the last century.
The Shackleton Gardens, opposite Luttrellstown Castle, were formerly owned by the Shackleton family. The most famous feature is a beautiful walled garden containing many rare flower species.
More soon!
