Newcastle ()Barony of Newcastle
/ref> is a feudal title of nobility and one of the

baronies Barony may refer to: * Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron * Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron * Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...

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 Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. Today, it lies in the modern

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

South Dublin , image_map = Island of Ireland location map South Dublin.svg , map_caption = Inset showing South Dublin (darkest green in inset) within Dublin Region (lighter green) , area_total_km2 ...

. At the heart of the barony is the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

of the same name -

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

- which is one of eleven civil parishes in the barony. The ruins of the eponymous castle, also known as Newcastle-Lyons, are located in 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 origi ...

of Newcastle South. The town with the biggest population in the barony is

Lucan Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (3 November 39 AD – 30 April 65 AD), better known in English as Lucan (), was a Roman poet, born in Corduba (modern-day Córdoba), in Hispania Baetica. He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imperial ...

Location

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

of Dublin.According to the "Local Government Act, 2001", section 10(2): "The State continues to stand divided into local government areas to be known as counties and cities which are the areas set out in Parts 1 and 2, respectively, of Schedule 5." It is clear from SCHEDULE 5, Local Government Areas (Counties and Cities, PART 1, that "Dublin" is defined only as a city (as distinct from a county). It stretches from the

River Liffey The River Liffey (Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the River ...

to the

Wicklow Mountains The Wicklow Mountains (, archaic: ''Cualu'') form the largest continuous upland area in the Republic of Ireland. They occupy the whole centre of County Wicklow and stretch outside its borders into the counties of Dublin, Wexford and Carlow. Wh ...

(from north to south) and from the border with

County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...

Clondalkin Clondalkin ( ; ) is a suburban town situated 10 km south-west of Dublin city centre, Ireland, under the administrative jurisdiction of South Dublin. It features an 8th-century round tower that acts as a focal point for the area. Clondalk ...

and

Palmerstown Palmerstown (; officially Palmerston, see spelling) is a civil parish and suburb in western Dublin on the banks of the River Liffey. It forms part of the South Dublin local authority and the Dublin Mid-West parliamentary constituency. The area ...

(from west to east). It is located between the baronies of

Castleknock Castleknock () is an affluent suburb located west of the centre of Dublin city, Ireland. It is centered on the village of the same name in Fingal. In addition to the suburb, the name "Castleknock" also refers to older units of land division: ...

(north of the river), Uppercross (to the east) and

South Salt South Salt () is a barony in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland. Etymology South Salt derives its name from the Latin name of Leixlip: ''Saltus salmonis'' (literally "salmon leap"; the English name is derived from Old Norse ''Lax-hlaup''). T ...

, County Kildare (to the south and west). Apart from 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 civil parish of

Leixlip Leixlip ( or ; , IPA: �lʲeːmʲənˠˈwɾˠad̪ˠaːnʲ is a town in north-east County Kildare, Ireland. Its location on the confluence of the River Liffey and the Rye Water has marked it as a frontier town historically: on the border between ...

that lies beyond the river, the rest of the barony is contained within the modern county of

and it is subject to

South Dublin County Council South Dublin County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Átha Cliath Theas) is the authority responsible for local government in the county of South Dublin, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities created by the Local Government (Dublin) Act ...

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 England then claimed sovereignty, all allegedly sanc ...

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 Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

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. This is true of Newcastle, which at the time of its creation, was part of the túath of ''Ui Donnchad''. The ''Ui Donnchad'', or sept the ''Mac Giolla Mocholmog'', was also home to Vikings of

(Dyflyn) who were allies and trading partners of the Chieftain Dermot Mac Giolla Mocholmog during the century period. Following the initial Hiberno-Norman policy of integration and assimilation, the descendants of this chief became the FitzDermots. Through grants and intermarriage, by the time of the

shiring Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the begi ...

of County Dublin, Newcastle-Lyons was raised to the status of an

Irish feudal barony An Irish feudal barony was a customary title of nobility: the holder was always referred to as a Baron, but was not the holder of a peerage, and had no right to sit in the Irish House of Lords. In 1614 the Dublin Government noted that there were ...

. In 1627 a disputed claim to the barony led to tragedy when

Edmond Butler, 3rd/13th Baron Dunboyne Edmond Butler, 3rd/13th Baron Dunboyne (1595–1640) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman of the early seventeenth century. His short life was full of violence and disputes over the Dunboyne inheritance. His father was murdered when Edmond was a small chil ...

killed his rival James Prendergast; James' brother Edmond was recognised as baron, but later forfeited. It eventually came into the Newcomen family who secured succession in the seventeenth century. The village and castle bawn was fortified with walls and multiple tower houses. It later became a

pocket borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorat ...

until the Parliamentary Union of Dublin with Westminster in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. After the Union, and the famine, the Barony like Dublin City and County went into a long period of economic and population decline.

Civil parishes

* Aderrig * Clondalkin * Esker * Kilbride * Kilmactalway * Kilmahuddrick (a single townland) *

* Lucan * Newcastle * Rathcoole * Saggart

References

{{Areas of Dublin

Location

Legal context and history

Civil parishes

See also

References