Locality
Glasnevin
The parish of Glasnevin, or known in Celtic times as GlasNaeidhe after the stream of Naeidhe, is situated nearly two miles north of Dublin City, and belongs to the Barony of Coolock. Glasnevin lies on rich, fertile lowlands, created by an incision of the land by the rivers Tolka and Liffey. The village itself grew up on the northern bank of the river Tolka (Túlca - meaning flood), which rises at Batterstown in County Meath, and flows down through Dunboyne, Blanchardstown and Glasnevin, until it reaches Dublin Bay. One of the river's tributaries, known as the Cemetery Drain, rises from the nearby Royal Canal and runs beneath the cemetery and into the adjoining Botanic Gardens.
Locality
Middle Ages
Glasnevin was founded by Saint Mobhi the sixth century as a monastery, which attracted settlement around it over a number of centuries.
After the Norman invasion, the monastery became the property of the Priory of the Holy Trinity under the juristiction of the Archbishop of Dublin, one of whom was St. Laurence O'Toole.
In 1240 a church and tower was reconstructed on the site of the Church of St. Mobhi in the monastery. The returns of the church for 1326 stated that 28 tenants resided in Glasnevin.
By 1667 Glasnevin had expanded, it is recorded as containing 24 houses. The development of the village was given a fresh impetus when Sir John Rogerson built his country residence, "The Glen" or "Glasnevin House" outside the village.
A Protestant church, St. Mobhi's, was built in the mid-17th century and most of it was rebuilt in the mid-18th century. It was part of a site where the ancient monastery of St. Mobhi once stood.
Locality
Early Modern Times
By the beginning of the eighteenth century, a number of notable people came to reside in and around Glasnevin - in spite of a comment attributed to the Protestant Archbishop King of Dublin that "when any couple had a mind to be wicked, they would retire to Glasnevin". In a letter, dated 1725 he described Glasnevin as "the receptacle for thieves and rogues. The first search when anything was stolen, was there. But since the church was built, and service regularly settled, all these evils are banished. Good houses are built in it, and the place civilised."
Locality
19th and 20th Centuries
Glasnevin became a township in 1878 and became part of the City of Dublin in 1900.
The parish population was recorded as 1,001, of whom 559 resided in the village. Glasnevin was described as a parish in the barony of Coolock, pleasantly situated and the residence of many families of distinction.
When Drumcondra began to expand rapidly in the 1870s, the residents of Glasnevin sought to protect their district and opposed being merged with the neighbouring suburb. One of the objectors was the property-owner, Dr Gogarty, the father of the Irish poet, Oliver St. John Gogarty.
On 1st June 1832, Charles Lindsay, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin and the William John released their holdings of Sir John Rogerson's lands at Glasnevin (including Glasnevin House) to George Hayward Lindsay. This transfer included the sum of £1,500 sterling. Although this does not specifically cite the marriage of George Hayward Lindsay to Lady Mary Catherine Gore, George Lindsay almost certainly came into the lands at Glasnevin as a result of his marriage.
George Hayward Lindsay’s eldest son, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Gore Lindsay, was in possession of his father’s lands at Glasnevin when the area began to be developed at the beginning of the twentieth-century. The development of his lands after 1903/04 marked the start of the gradual development of the area.
Glasnevin remained relatively undeveloped until the opening up of the Carroll Estate in 1914, which saw the creation of the redbrick residential roads running down towards Drumcondra. The process was accelerated by Dublin Corporation in the 1920s and the present shape of the suburb was firmly in place.
