News

Members of community groups and organisations across Fingal are being invited to let their creativity and imaginations run wild, dust off the disappointment of 2020 and begin to plan for next year.

Fingal County Council is delighted to receive a total of seven Green Flags as part of the prestigious Green Flag Awards 2020.

Fingal County Council’s Sports Office, in partnership with the Fingal Orienteers Club and the Irish Orienteering Association and with support from Sport Ireland through the Dormant Accounts Fund, have organised an innovative orienteering initiative called ‘Run Your Town’.

Councillors voted to approve substantial funding grants of just over €260,000 to 218 community groups and projects in Fingal at the monthly meeting of Fingal County Council on Monday

Fingal County Council Arts Office is delighted to announce an exciting programme of free events taking place in various locations in Fingal to celebrate Culture Night 2020. 

"Transcending Time",  is a new immersive mobile digital installation which aims to brighten up the lives of Fingal residents during the Covid-19 pandemic.This exciting new artwork can be summoned directly to homes and areas in the county by visiting a dedicated website www.transcendingtime.ie

Fingal County Council’s Arts Office will be the first in Ireland to deliver a coaching support programme for artists and arts organisations on responding to and working within the changed landscape of Covid-19.

Fingal County Council’s Arts Office continues to support professional Fingal artists during the Covid Crisis through a range of initiatives

A great resource for old photos of places in Fingal is www.digital.libraries.dublincity.ie 

Find out more about the architectural heritage of Fingal from the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.

Every field in Fingal, and across Ireland, has a name or had one in the past.

Aerial Photography provides us with a fascinating record of the changes to Fingal’s landscape over the years.

Ireland is home to 28 species of land mammal, over 400 species of birds, more than 4,000 plant species and over 12,000 species of insect.

Fingal has about 50 holy wells. The veneration of water had its origins in prehistory, when people threw offerings into sacred springs, rivers and lakes-a tradition we mirror when we throw coins into a fountain

There are 54 historic graveyards within Fingal which form a significant element of the county’s heritage. Many are still in use. Some such as Lusk, Swords, St Douloughs and Grallagh are associated with saints and date from the earliest periods of Christianty. Others like Cloghran, Holmpatrick and Mulhuddart are medieval parish graveyards.

Mary Ellen (Molly) Adrien was born on 25 September 1873. She is remembered as one of Fingal’s ‘Revolutionary women’. Molly joined Cumann na mBan after its establishment in April 1914 and is said to have been instrumental in forming the Lusk branch. On Easter Sunday 1916, Cumman na mBan were ordered to assemble at Black Church Phisboro, an order countermanded and were sent away to await recall. However Molly remained in the city and was chosen to bring the order to rise from Pearse to the leader of Irish Volunteers Joseph Lawless and then to Thomas Ashe Commandant of the North County Brigade.

Saturday the 16th May is National Drawing day which brings to mind the importance of illustrations, drawings and paintings of our heritage sites that have survived through the ages. In the 18th century the fashion for drawing antiquities was exemplified by Gabriel Beranger whose paintings of his Rambles thro’ the County of Dublin in 1770s beautifully recorded now long gone castles and monuments in Fingal.

Fingal has an ancient and varied maritime history from Viking raids and the medieval havens of Howth where the pague arrived, to the pirates of Lambay and the smugglers of Rush and Loughshinny. By the later fourteenth century the mouth of the Liffey had silted up and merchandise had to be landed elsewhere along the coast.

Contrary to popular belief most of Ireland’s natural forests were cleared before 1600, much of this clearance in prehistoric times. In medieval times there were scattered woods and copses throughout Fingal but forest cover reached a critical low in the 17th century. Much of present day Blanchardstown was covered in woodland known as the Great Scaldwood. There was an organised wolf cull in the Great Scaldwood in 1652.

Hundreds of sites in Fingal are both archaeological monuments and protected structures. Take Brazil house (as the archaeologist’s recorded it) or Brazeel House (according to the architects).  This was the former residence of the Bolton family, many of whom had distinguished legal careers, including Sir Richard Bolton, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, in the reign of Charles the First.