Irishtown, Dublin

Irishtown ( _ga. An Baile Gaelach) is a district of Dublin, Ireland. It is situated on the southside of the River Liffey, between Ringsend and Sandymount.

History

Irishtown lies a short distance outside the medieval city walls of Dublin. Dublin was originally a Viking city and after 1171, when an Anglo-Norman army took it, Dublin was the centre of English rule in Ireland. The native Gaelic Irish were therefore viewed as an alien force in the city. Suspicion of them was deepened by continual raids on Dublin and its environs by the O'Byrne and O'Toole clans from the nearby Wicklow Mountains.

By the 15th century, Gaelic migration to the city had made the English authorities fearful that English language and culture would become a minority there. As a result, the Irish inhabitants of Dublin were expelled from the city proper in the late 15th century (1454?), in line with the Statutes of Kilkenny. They settled in Irishtown, outside the city walls, giving the area its name. It was once part of the Pembroke Township.

Other towns in Ireland have similar named areas, for the same reasons, for instance Limerick, Kilkenny, Athlone and Clonmel.

ee also

*History of Dublin