Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown () is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It is in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Leinster and the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to

County Dublin County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...

, which was disestablished in 1994. It is named after the former borough of Dún Laoghaire and the barony of Rathdown. Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county was 233,860 at the time of the 2022 census.

Geography and subdivisions

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown is bordered to the east by the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

, to the north by the city of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, to the west by the county of South Dublin, and to the south by

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...

. With the city of Dublin,

Fingal Fingal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which ...

and South Dublin, it is one of four local government areas in the old County Dublin. Located to the south-east of the capital city of Dublin, the

county town In Great Britain and Ireland, a county town is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county, and the place where public representatives are elected to parliament. Following the establishment of county councils in ...

of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown is

Dún Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in County Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. The town was built up alongside a small existing settlement following 1816 legislation th ...

. Since 2015, the county is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. University College Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology are located in the county.

Towns, villages and suburbs

* Ballinteer * Ballybrack * Ballyogan *

Blackrock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager ...

* Booterstown * Belfield * Cabinteely * Carrickmines * Cherrywood * Churchtown *

Clonskeagh Clonskeagh or Clonskea (; , meaning "meadow of the Crataegus monogyna, Whitethorn"), is a small southern suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The district straddles the River Dodder. Location and access The district is adjacent to ...

Dalkey Dalkey ( ; ) is a village in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown county southeast of Dublin, Ireland. It was founded as a Viking settlement and became a port in the Middle Ages. According to chronicler John Clyn (c.1286–c.1349), it was one of the port ...

* Deansgrange * Dundrum *

* Foxrock * Goatstown *

Glasthule Glasthule ( ; ) is a suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is along County Dublin, County Dublin’s south coast, between Dún Laoghaire, Sandycove, Glenageary and Dalkey. Amenities Sandycove and Glasthule are served by a number ...

Glenageary Glenageary ( ) is an area on the Southside, Dublin, Southside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. While it has no formal boundary, it is surrounded by the areas of Dalkey, Dún Laoghaire, Glasthule, Johnsto ...

* Glencullen * Johnstown * Killiney * Kilmacud * Kilternan * Leopardstown * Loughlinstown * Monkstown * Mount Merrion * Rathfarnham * Sandyford * Sandycove *

Sallynoggin Sallynoggin () is an area of Dublin in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, County Dublin. The area consists mainly of former local authority housing built between the late 1940s and the mid-1950s by the Corporation of D� ...

* Shankill * Stepaside * Stillorgan * Ticknock

Administrative history

In 1986, the administrative county of

was divided into three "electoral counties": Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Dublin—Fingal, and Dublin—Belgard. The city has been administered separately from County Dublin since 1548. An "area committee" for the electoral county was formed within Dublin County Council under the Local Government Act 1991, On 1 January 1994,

and the Borough of Dún Laoghaire were abolished and the three electoral counties became the administrative counties of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown,

, and South Dublin respectively.; Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown comprises the former Borough of Dún Laoghaire and the south-eastern part of the former County Dublin. Additionally, the powers of the former Deansgrange Joint Burial Board were subsumed into the new authority. From 2002, all "administrative counties" in Ireland were redesignated as "counties". The three counties together with Dublin city constitute the traditional County Dublin.

Naming

The coastal town of

(called ''Dunleary'' until 1821 and then ''Kingstown'' until 1920) gave its name to the larger borough of Dún Laoghaire established in 1930. Rathdown was the south-easternmost barony in County Dublin, named after Rathdown Castle. When

was created south of County Dublin in 1606, half of Rathdown was transferred to Wicklow, including Rathdown Castle, now a ruin. From the 1840s, the

poor law union A poor law union was a geographical territory, and early local government unit, in Great Britain and Ireland. Poor law unions existed in England and Wales from 1834 to 1930 for the administration of poor relief. Prior to the Poor Law Amendment ...

(PLU) of Rathdown covered all of the Wicklow barony and most of the Dublin barony, with part of Uppercross. From the Dublin and Wicklow sections of the PLU, the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 created

rural district A rural district was a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. I ...

s respectively named Rathdown No. 1 and Rathdown No. 2, abolished in 1930 and 1925. Rathdown PLU survived as Rathdown Public Assistance District until 1960. Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown was a Dáil constituency created by the Electoral (Amendment) Act 1947 coterminous with the former Rathdown No. 1 rural district. The name "Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown" was given to the electoral county created in 1985. Before its establishment as an administrative county, possible alternative names before deciding to retain "Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown". The Local Government (Dublin) Act 1993 named it "Dun Laoghaire–Rathdown" in English, omitting the on the "u" of "Dun", and in Irish. The 1993 act empowered Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council (DLRCC) to apply to change the county's name, but this was not invoked. The spelling in English as "Dun Laoghaire–Rathdown", without the , is used in the list of counties in the Local Government Act 2001 (and as amended by the Local Government Reform Act 2014). However, in the Placenames Database of Ireland and the ministerial order under the Official Languages Act 2003, the name of the county in English is "Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown". This is followed by the County Council, with the used in English. The placenames order also distinguishes between the use of "County" as a prefix for the traditional counties, but not in the case of "Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown" and other counties listed as "administrative counties".

Local government and politics

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council is the local authority for the county. There are six

local electoral area A local electoral area (LEA; ) is an electoral area for elections to Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authorities in Ireland. All elections in the Republic of Ireland, elections use the single transferable vote. Republic of Ir ...

s (LEAs) for the county which return a total of 40 councillors as follows:

(6), Dundrum (7),

(7), Glencullen– Sandyford (7), Killiney– Shankill (7), and Stillorgan (6). For elections to Dáil Éireann, the county is split between the

Dáil constituencies There are 43 multi-member electoral districts, known as Dáil constituencies, to elect 174 Teachta Dála, TDs to Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas, Republic of Ireland, Ireland's parliament, on the system of propor ...

(4 TDs) and Dublin Rathdown (3 TDs), with the division generally running along the N11. These constituencies currently have three Fine Gael TDs, two Green Party TDs, one

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland. Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...

TD and one People Before Profit–Solidarity TD. It is part of the 4-seat

constituency in

European Parliament elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by Universal suffrage, universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after Electio ...

County motto

The motto on the insignia of the County Council reads, , Irish for "From Harbour to Mountain". The crown in the device is that of Lóegaire mac Néill, a legendary 5th-century

High King of Ireland High King of Ireland ( ) was a royal title in Gaelic Ireland held by those who had, or who are claimed to have had, lordship over all of Ireland. The title was held by historical kings and was later sometimes assigned anachronously or to leg ...

and the eponymous Laoghaire of "Dún Laoghaire".

Demographics

Transport

The Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) system runs through the eastern coast of the county and connects to Dublin city centre to the north as well as other points north and south on the Iarnród Éireann railway system, with connections to

Intercity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...

and

commuter Commuting is periodically recurring travel between a place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regular o ...

trains. The Luas Green Line runs through the centre of the county. There is a medium-sized harbour at Dún Laoghaire, with now discontinued ferry crossings to and from Holyhead in North

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

; this was a popular route for tourists travelling across the

from Britain. This service was suspended indefinitely in September 2014.

Footnotes

References

External links

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County CouncilDún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Enterprise BoardDún Laoghaire–Rathdown Tourism
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Counties of the Republic of Ireland County Dublin Local government areas of the Republic of Ireland