Living in Ireland

Ballyfermot Dublin

Ballyfermot is one of the many suburbs of Dublin that was built to move people from the city centre slums, this development started in the 1940’s. Since then Ballyfermot has grown considerably, though not a place for foreigners to rent in - the area still hold onto its inner city tough atmosphere. The area lacks good infrastructure and has one of the lowest educated population in Dublin and at the same time it has one of the highest drug problems in Dublin city.

If you are moving to Dublin I would not recommend Ballyfermot as a good place to live. The crime rate is too high, and the police presence is too low. Still the houses in the area sell usally for more the €250,000 - Dublin is an expensive place to buy. Renting in Ballyfermot is really no different to the rest of Dublin when it comes to prices. Even though the area is not a desired location the rental prices are still in line with the rest of Dublin.

Ballyfermot is located 7 kilometers west from the city centre, and lies to the south of the Phoenix Park. It is bordered to the north by Chapelizod, to the south by Walkinstown, to the east by Inchicore, and to the west by Palmerstown and Clondalkin, all of them more attractive places to live.

It is reasonably easy to travel into the city centre from Ballyfermot, the road and bus routes are better than most other areas. It is close to two major industrial areas, Park West and Ballymount Industrial Estate. There is also a Luas - tram planned for, though this will still be many years away.

Schools & Colleges

Primary schools include:

• De La Salle National School,
• Mary Queen of Angels National Schools
• St. Raphael’s National School
• St. Louise’s National School
• St. Michael’s National School
• Dominican Convent Primary School

Secondary schools include:

• Kylemore College
• St John’s De La Salle College
• Dominican Convent Secondary School
• St. Louise’s Secondary School

Third level colleges include:

• Ballyfermot College of Further Education

Cherry Orchard Hospital houses the National Infections Monitoring Centre and the Eastern Region Drug Treatment Centre - so this gives an idea of the place.

Ballyfermot History

Ballyfermot’s name is from the Old Gaelic for Dermot’s Town. It was named for a local chieftain, Dermot Mac Giolla Mocholmog, who lived here around the turn of the first millennium. The Mac Giolla Mocholmog were an ancient sept who ruled the cantred of Ui Dunchada. Ancient Ui Dunchada covered much of the medieval Barony of Newcastle. It extended across south west Dublin from the Liffey to north west Wicklow. The sept held sway in commercial activity in and around the Danish city of Dublin.

The 12th century saw the Cambro Normans expand west from Pembroke in South Wales into Leinster. In 1155, the Papal Bull Laudabiliter was proclaimed under the authority of Nicholas Breakspear, Pope Adrian IV. He requested the aid of the Angevin King Henry II, who ruled the Norman lands of France, England and South Wales, Naples, and the Levant from his seat in Anjou, France. Henry was granted the title Lord of Ireland (Dominus Hibernia). Under the terms of the ‘Donation of Adrian’, Rome was to receive a levy of a penny per household of the Irish tithe, later called Peter’s Pence. Adrian planned to extend Norman rule and culture into Ireland and to bring the country into the European sphere. He enlisted influential Irish churchmen, most notably Malachy of Armagh, in his campaign. He planned to annex the loosely knit monastic Celtic Christian Church to the hierarchy of the Roman Christian Church and it’s rigid system of governance, finance and administration. The King’s knights duly arrived at Wexford in 1169 as allies of Dermot Mc Murrough Ri of Leinster. Mc Murrough was at war with Roderick O’Connor of Connacht, the Ard Ri, and O’Rourke of Breffney. The newcomers moved northwards into the midlands province of Meath. They captured the Danish city of Dublin.

Through grants and intermarriage the Norman knights William Fitzwilliam and Henry Fitzmyler came into possession of land in Ballyfermot. Family names associated with the west Dublin area at this time included O’Cathasaidhe, Le Gros (Large), O’Dualainghe, Tyrell, O’Hennessy, O’Morchain, Dillon, O’Kelly, De Barneval (Barnewall), and Newcomyn (Comyn).

Ballyfermot Castle was built in the fourteenth century by Wolfram De Barneval as a stronghold against the formidable O’Byrnes and O’Tooles. They were relatives of the Mac Giolla Mocholmog who by this time had intermarried with the Normans and were called FitzDermot. The Gaelic Irish families had been discommoded from their aboriginal territory around Naas. They were driven south into the wooded hills. Unlike their FitzDermot relatives, they had not integrated with the Norman Irish. They frequently raided, rustled and burned local bawn enclosures from their inaccessible hillside encampments.

Ballyfermot Castle eventually devolved to the Newcomyn Barnewall family, who held it well into the seventeenth century. Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland places a Captain Lamplin as living there in 1834, possibly the last resident. The castle is reputed to have been destroyed by fire.

The famous 19th century newspaper publisher and writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, proprietor of the Dublin Evening Mail lived in nearby Chapelizod. Ballyfermot and Chapelizod feature in his novel The House by the Churchyard and some of his other works. This house still adjoins St. Laurence’s parish churchyard in Chapelizod. The church, rebuilt in the reign of Queen Anne, alongside the original medieval bell tower, is still in use. It serves the united parish of Ballyfermot, Palmerstown, and Chapelizod in the Church of Ireland. Le Fanu Road is named after him, as is Le Fanu Park, referred to locally as The Lawns. Le Fanu was a mentor of the writer Bram Stoker of Dracula fame, whom he employed at The Dublin Evening Mail.

At the south end of Le Fanu Park is a mound which covers a local historical site, the ruin and churchyard of the rectory church of St. Laurence. It is believed to have originated as a Ceile Dé monastic establishment of the Celtic Christian Church, although not on the scale of Tallaght Maelruain or Kilnamanagh. The ruins had interesting beehive shape cells, and the church was reputed to display a Sheela Na Gig ( Sile Na Gighe ) over its main portal. It served Ballyfermot and the surrounding townlands into the late seventeenth century.

Among the local people buried here are members of the Newcomyn and Barnewall families. Sir Jacob Newcomyn, Baron of Newcastle is buried here. He was a casualty of the civil wars then raging in Britain and Ireland. His wife, Elizabeth (Barnewall of Drimnagh Castle) died later in 1643. She is buried alongside him. The Newcomyns were influential in Irish governance and legal circles. They resided at Ballyfermot Castle which stood in the great park nearby, now Le Fanu Park. The great park was complete with moat, deer herd, and an aquacultural fish pond. This influential noble family intermarried with the Barnwalls of Drimnagh, the Plunketts of Malahide and the St. Lawrences of Howth. They also married into the Fitzgeralds of Maynooth, and the Nugents, Husseys, Geoghegans and Nagles of Meath and Westmeath. They lost much of their authority, holdings and titles after the Williamite wars, during which they supported the defeated Jacobites. The City Council covered the churchyard ruin with topsoil, keeping its contents intact for future historical research. Close to the churchyard was the desmene home farm, last occupied by the Corrigan family. It was originally surrounded by the walled orchard and gardens. It was subsequently developed for housing.

Local manor houses of note include Johnstown House (St. John’s College), Colepark House, Sevenoaks, Floraville, Auburn Villa and Gallanstown House.

Townlands in the Barony of Newcastle, the dairy and stud farms at Ballyfermot Lower (east) and Upper (west) were acquired by the authorities in the 1930s and subsequently developed into suburban housing estates to alleviate the post war housing shortage. This development, along with estates at Drimnagh, Crumlin, Walkinstown in the south city, and Cabra West, Finglas and Donnycarney in the north city also provided modern accommodation to facilitate slum clearances by the then Dublin Corporation. The estate built in Ballyfermot Lower was originally called Sarsfield Estate. The street names reflect this theme. Construction began in the late 1940s. The adjacent townlands of Johnstown to the north, Blackditch and Cherry Orchard to the south west, and Raheen and Gallanstown to the south, were subequently developed

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