CRUMLIN, NIR - Postcode - BT29 4JS

Description of Crumlin

Crumlin, or Cromghlinn, is a neighborhood in south Dublin. Once a rural region, this area experienced rapid urbanization beginning in the early 20th century. Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Ireland's largest children's hospital, is located in Crumlin. While the exteriors of the RTÉ drama Fair City were shot in the Crumlin-Drimnagh area for the first three seasons (1989-93) before the set in RTÉ, Donnybrook was finished in 1994, the year the fourth season premiered. In 1994, the exteriors of the houses seen in the programme were recreated in Donnybrook Studios. To this day, it is being shot at same location.

History of Crumlin

Manorial communities, consisting of a manor house, church and graveyard, farmland, and cottages, dotted the countryside around Dublin during the Middle Ages. A series of villages sprung up in the vicinity of Dublin, providing a sense of security and continuity. Despite the circular layout of the old Saint Mary's churchyard in the hamlet suggesting pre-Norman roots, Crumlin village formed as an Anglo-Norman settlement shortly after the Norman Conquest in 1170 and has persisted through the years to become what it is today. The current building, known as the Old Saint Mary's Church, was constructed on the foundations of an earlier church dedicated to the same saint dating back to the 12th century. King John (then the Earl of Moreton) donated the Crumlin church to the Saint Patrick's Collegiate Church as one of its prebends in 1193. Although the existing ancient church's main body was restored in 1817, the tower's much earlier origins were kept, Before his death in 1216, King John formally established Crumlin as a royal manor, along with Saggart, Newcastle, Lyons, and Esker (Lucan). A number of prominent English families of the time established deep roots in Leinster, Ireland. William Fitz John of Harptree was a powerful lord in Somerset who most likely served in King John's army in Ireland. Fitz John, who had no ancestors from Ireland, became custodian of William de Carew's holdings and held the royal manor of Crumlin at the start of the reign of King Henry III. Crumlin was the hub for brick manufacturing in the 19th century, supplying bricks for construction around Dublin. Brickfields Park had brickmaking-grade yellow clay on the property. 

Pearse College on Clogher Road and Ceannt park are just two of the many Crumlin landmarks that pay homage to the 1916 Rebels who held a training camp not far away in Kimmage, at the intersection of Sundrive and Clontarf Roads.

Crumlin, which had been primarily rural prior to the 1920s, underwent a drastic transformation during that era. A total of 702 new homes were constructed by the Corporation of Dublin at this time, and an additional 136 homes were constructed by the Iveagh Trust on a 30-acre (12-hectare) plot of land off Crumlin Road, both in an effort to alleviate urban congestion. In 1935, after the Corporation was granted expanded compulsory purchase rights, a total of 2,915 new homes were built. By 1945, another 2,416 homes had been built in an area just off Kildare Road. The foundation of the current St. Mary the Virgin Church dates back to the 12th century. Rapid house construction in the area necessitated a relocation to a new site in 1942, and the business did so to a McDonnell and Dixon–designed yellow brick building. St. Agnes' Church, the other local church, was founded in 1935.