Coolock ()Barony of Coolock
/ref> is one of the baronies of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It was constituted as part of the old county of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

. Today, it covers much of the northern parts of the city of

and the south-eastern part of the modern

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Fingal Fingal ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is located 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. ...

. At the heart of the barony is the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

of the same name - Coolock - which is one of twenty civil parishes in the barony.

Legal context and history

Baronies were created after the

Norman invasion of Ireland The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land from the Irish, over which the kings of Kingdom of England, England then claimed sovereignty ...

as subdivisions of counties and were used for administration. While baronies continue to be officially defined units, they are no longer used for many administrative purposes. They have been administratively obsolete since 1898. Nevertheless, they continue to be used in land registration and specification such as in planning permissions. In many cases, a barony corresponds to an earlier Gaelic

túath ''Túath'' (plural ''túatha'') is the Old Irish term for the basic political and jurisdictional unit of Gaelic Ireland. ''Túath'' can refer to both a geographical territory as well the people who lived in that territory. Social structure In ...

which had submitted to the Crown. However, the status of barony is still used in modern times

Location

It is one of seven and a half baronies that used to comprise the old

of Dublin. It stretches from Dublin Airport and the

Malahide Malahide ( ; ) is an affluent coastal settlement in Fingal, County Dublin, Ireland, situated north of Dublin city. It has a village centre surrounded by suburban housing estates, with a population of over 17,000. Malahide Castle dates from th ...

estuary to the Royal Canal and River Tolka estuary (from north to south) and from the

Phoenix Park The Phoenix Park ( ga, Páirc an Fhionnuisce) is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tr ...

Dublin Bay Dublin Bay ( ga, Cuan Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a C-shaped inlet of the Irish Sea on the east coast of Ireland. The bay is about 10 kilometres wide along its north–south base, and 7 km in length to its apex at the centre of the city of ...

(from west to east). It is located between the baronies of Nethercross (to the north), Castleknock (to the west) and Dublin City (to the south). The northern two-thirds of the barony is now administered by

Fingal County Council Fingal County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall) is the authority responsible for local government in the county of Fingal, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities that comprised the former Dublin County Council before its abolit ...

while the southern third is subject to

Dublin City Council Dublin City Council ( ga, Comhairle Cathrach Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the authority responsible for local government in the city of Dublin in Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. Until 2001, the council ...

Civil parishes

For convenience, the table below groups the barony's twenty

civil parishes In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

by their location in one of the modern

local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

areas. Some parishes, however, straddle both areas. :Note 1 In 1773, during the reign of King George III of Great Britain, the parishes were assessed as having the acreage as set out in the above table. In addition, the parishes of Kilossory and Kilbegh are mentioned as being in the barony with 900 and 500 acres respectively. Today, Killossory is in the barony of Nethercross but the date of its presumed transfer from this barony is unknown. The identity of Kilbegh is unclear although Kilbarrack may be a candidate. The source makes no mention of St George's parish. :Note 2 The parish of Clonturk is now mainly identified with the district of Drumcondra. :Note 3 The parish is St George is split between this barony and the barony of the City of Dublin. That part of the parish which lies in Coolock is bounded by the River Tolka to the north,

to the east and the Royal Canal to the south. :Note 4 An

exclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

of the parish of Swords lies in the barony. It is a single parcel of land, just over 5 acres in area - the

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

of Glebe.Glebe townland
/ref> Today, it is the site of the Metropoint Business Park. The table below lists the population and the number of houses in the various civil parishes according to the 1851 census of Ireland.Census of Ireland 1851: part I, area, population, and number of houses, by townlands and electoral divisions: County and City of Dublin; HMSO, Paper No. 1553

External links

Enhanced British Parliamentary Papers on Ireland
- Census of Ireland 1851: part I * Source given is "Ordnance survey".

References

From From other sources: {{Fingal Coolock History of Fingal