Fingal ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which was disestablished for administrative purposes in 1994. Its name is derived from the medieval territory of Scandinavian foreigners () that settled in the area. Fingal County Council is the local authority for the county. In 2022 the population of the county was 330,506, making it the second most populated council in Dublin and the third most populous county in the state.
Geography and subdivisions Fingal is one of three counties into which County Dublin was divided in 1994. Swords is the county town. The other large urban centre is Blanchardstown. Smaller towns include Balbriggan and Malahide. Suburban villages with extensive housing include Baldoyle, Castleknock, Howth (and Sutton), Lusk, Donabate, Portmarnock, Skerries. Small rural settlements exist in the northern and western parts of the county. The motto of the arms of Fingal reads meaning "Abundance of Land and Sea". The motto reflects the strong farming and fishing ties historically associated with the area. It also features a Viking longboat, which represents the arrival of the Norse in Fingal, where they became integrated with the existing Irish. Fingal is bordered by County Meath to the north, by Kildare to the west and by Dublin city to the south. At the Strawberry Beds, the River Liffey separates the county from South Dublin.
Towns and villages Fingal varies enormously in character, from densely populated suburban areas of the contiguous Dublin metropolitan region to remote rural villages and small, unpopulated agricultural townlands.
Balbriggan Baldoyle Balscaddan Ballyboughal Bayside Blanchardstown Castleknock Clonsilla Corduff Donabate Garristown Hollystown Howth Loughshinny Lusk Malahide Man O' War Mulhuddart Naul Oldtown Ongar Portmarnock Portrane Rush Rolestown St. Margaret's Skerries Swords Sutton Tyrrelstown
The northernmost parts of Ballymun, Santry and Finglas are also part of Fingal. Clonee, part of County Meath, has housing estates in its hinterland that merge into the estates of Ongar in western Fingal.
Baronies and civil parishes
The former county of Dublin was divided into nine baronies. The part of Fingal within County Dublin was in later centuries subdivided into the following administrative baronies: Balrothery West, Balrothery East, Nethercross, Castleknock and Coolock. While baronies continue to be officially defined units, they are no longer used for many administrative purposes. The last boundary change of a barony in Dublin was in 1842, when the barony of Balrothery was divided into Balrothery East and Balrothery West. Their official status is illustrated by Placenames Orders made since 2003, where official Irish names of baronies are listed under "Administrative units". The boundaries of Fingal do not respect the boundaries of the baronies. As a result, only three baronies are entirely contained in the county: Balrothery East, Balrothery West, and Nethercross. Parts of three baronies are also contained in the county: Castleknock, Coolock, and Newcastle.
In the case of Castleknock, most civil parishes of the barony are under the jurisdiction of Fingal County Council. Some of the eastern parishes are under the jurisdiction of Dublin City Council. The core of the civil parish of Finglas lies within Dublin City. There are two substantial exclaves of the parish proper that are located in Fingal.
In the case of Coolock, most civil parishes of the barony are in Dublin City. The parishes listed in the table below are located in Fingal.
Name in Irish Name in English Area in AcresBaile Dúill Baldoyle.450Baile Ghrífín Balgriffin.540Binn Éadair Howth.1772Cionn Sáile Kinsaley.1339Clochrán Cloghran.994Mullach Íde Malahide.606Port Mearnóg Portmarnock.1020Sord Swords.5Teampall Mhaighréide St. Margaret's1140
In the case of Newcastle, most of the barony is situated south of the River Liffey and so is under the jurisdiction of South Dublin County Council. Six townlands are located north of the Liffey in the civil parish of Leixlip. Listed in the table below, they are part of Fingal.
Name in Irish Name in English Area in AcresCoill AlainAllenswood210 –Coldblow279Láithreach ConLaraghcon295 – Pass-If-You-Can88Páirc San CaitríonaSaint Catherine's Park195Baile an BhaspailighWestmanstown437
History
Terminology and etymology The name "Fingal" derives from the medieval territory of Fine Gall (tribe or territory of foreigners), the Viking settlement north of Dublin. The Vikings referred to the hinterland of Dublin as .
In Ireland, the usage of the word county nearly always comes before rather than after the county name; thus "County Clare" in Ireland as opposed to "Clare County" in Michigan, US. In the case of those counties created after 1994, they often drop the word county entirely, or use it after the name; internet search engines show many more uses (on Irish sites) of "Fingal" than of either "County Fingal" or "Fingal County". The local authority uses all three forms.Fingal County Council website , where (apart from references to the Council itself) both "Fingal County" and "County Fingal" appear, but much less frequently than "Fingal" alone.
Fingallian is an extinct language, a hybrid of Old and Middle English and Old Norse, with Leinster Irish influences. It was spoken by the people of Fingal until the mid-19th century.
Fingal is within the part of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly, established in 2015, one of three such regional assemblies in the state. Within that, it is part of the Dublin strategic planning area.
Early Gaelic history In the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy identified Eblana (Dublin) as the capital of a people called the Eblani. In later centuries the territory north of the river Liffey was known as Mide or Midhe, i.e. "the Kingdom of Meath" (that to the south was known as Coigh Cuolan or Cualan). The west of this area was known as Teffia, and the east as Bregia (Latinised from Gaelic Magh Breagh, "the great plain of Meath"). Bregia comprised five Gaelic triocha-cheds (equivalent to cantreds) or the later baronies, and was ruled by the king at Tara.See Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the Four Masters (written 1632–36 by a team of Franciscan scholars, led by Br. Michael O’Clery, hereditary historian to the O'Donnell Kings and Princes of Tyrconnell, and based on records surviving from the earliest times; translated by John O’Donovan, ed., 1856, reprinted by De Burca Publishers, Dublin, 1998) These princes, and various Gaelic chieftains, held sway over the area until the coming of the Vikings in the 8th century.
Vikings and Hiberno-Norse By 841 AD a Scandinavian settlement had been established at Dublin; this was abandoned in 902, re-established in 917, and developed thereafter. It was so established by the 11th century that it was regarded even amongst the surrounding native Gaelic population as a minor kingdomIrish Society, Anglo-Norman Settlers, Angevin Kingship, by Marie Therese Flanagan, Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, 1989, ed. 1998, p. 9 ruled by Hiberno-Norse kings. The Norse Kingdom of Dublin stretched, at its greatest, from Drogheda to Arklow, and while mostly a thin strip of coastal land, from the Irish Sea westwards as far as Leixlip in the central part.
After the Battle of Clontarf, when High King Brian Boru curtailed the power of the Vikings in Ireland, the Norse-Irish Kingdom of Dublin continued, with its own bishop, part of the Westminster hierarchy rather than the Irish, though it gradually came under the influence of the Kings of Leinster. Diarmait Mac Murchada established himself there before his expulsion by the High King in 1166, a series of events that led to the area being invaded in the late 12th century, by the Cambro-Normans. This was to form part of the heartland of the area known as The Pale during the successive periods of rule by Anglo-Norman and the later kings of England.
After the Anglo-Norman invasion Early Anglo-Norman grants With the arrival of the Anglo/Cambro-Normans in 1169,For an account describing the religious undercurrents of this invasion, described as a "crusade" see "When the Normans came to Ireland" by Maurice Sheehy (former Professor of Palaeography and late Latin at University College, Dublin), published by Mercier Press, 1975 & 1998. the territory of the old Gaelic Kingdom of Meath was promised in around 1172 to Hugh de Lacy by King Henry II of England. At that time, Meath extended to most of the current county of Fingal (including as far as Clontarf, Santry and the barony of Castleknock), County Westmeath and part of County Kildare. Fingal was therefore implicitly included in the grant of "Meath" either as part of Meath proper or under the additional element of that grantHistory of Ireland by John D'Alton, 1910 (page 258)Note: A royal grant creates a tenant-in-chief, who could then also make a feudal grant by sub-infeudation that would create a lordship or seigneury of the grantor, still held by him in reversion. "and for increase to the gift, all fees which he has or shall acquire about Dublin". This element of the grant related to his role as BailiffThe original is quoted: "" and was copied into the Gormanston Register.Calendar of the Gormanston Register circa 1175–1397, being an extra volume of the Royal Society of the Antiquaries of Ireland, prepared and edited by James Mills, and M. J. McEnery, University Press, Dublin, 1916. See folio 5 of the Register; transliterated on page 6 of the Calendar
Strongbow was probably also assigned some fees within the royal demesne of Dublin,Irish Society, Anglo-Norman Settlers, Angevin Kingship, by Marie Therese Flanagan, Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, 1989, ed. 1998 (page 294) as in the case of Hugh de Lacy's custodianship of Dublin, in payment of his services. This appears evidenced by several grants which he made in his own name within the city to St. Mary's Abbey, and his foundation of a hospital of St. John of Jerusalem at Kilmainham. Therefore, both Strongbow and Hugh de Lacy exercised lordships within the royal demesne of Dublin.
In addition to Dublin city, the royal demesne itself also consisted of the royal manors of Crumlin, Esker, Newcastle, and Saggart, in the south-west of the county, and the royal demesnes of O Thee (O'Teig), O Brun (O'Broin), and O Kelly (O'Ceallaigh) in the south-east of the county, which were rented from the Crown by Irish-speaking tenants.Dublin, City and County from Prehistory to Present, edited by F. H. A. Allen and Kevin Whelan, Geography Publications, Dublin, 1992, page 91 and elsewhere for details of ancient manors and lordships Over half of the land in the county of Dublin was granted to religious houses and priories, as well as archbishops and monasteries, and minor lay lords. In such a way too, an estate was given to the Irish chieftain MacGillamocholmog, who held sway over the territory of Cualann (Wicklow) when the Anglo-Normans arrived.The Environs of Dublin, by Francis Elrington Ball, M.R.I.A, in volume I of his History of the County of Dublin, (1902)
De Lacy parcelled out most of this land to his vassals, who were to hold these lands from him, as he had held the Lordship of Meath from King Henry, by military tenure. D'Alton also provides a reference to the enumeration of these grants given in Hibernica, by Harris (pp. 42–43). Hugh de Lacy was appointed Viceroy in 1178, and again in 1181 after a brief period of royal disfavour.