Pembroke Township was an area adjoining the city 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 ...

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, formed for local government purposes by private

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

in 1863. The township took its name from the fact that most of the area was part of the estate of the

Earl of Pembroke Earl of Pembroke is a title in the Peerage of England that was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title, which is associated with Pembroke, Pembrokeshire in West Wales, has been recreated ten times from its origin ...

. The township was governed by

commissioners A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

until 1899 when it became an

Urban District Urban district may refer to: * District * Urban area * Quarter (urban subdivision) * Neighbourhood Specific subdivisions in some countries: * Urban districts of Denmark * Urban districts of Germany * Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (hist ...

. In 1930 Pembroke Township was absorbed by the City and

County Borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent ter ...

Composition

The township consisted of a number of distinct areas:

Ballsbridge Ballsbridge () (from historic Ball's Bridge) is an affluent neighbourhood of the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The area is largely north and west of a three-arch stone bridge across the River Dodder, on the south side of the city. Th ...

, Donnybrook,

Sandymount Sandymount () is an affluent coastal suburb in the Dublin 4 district on the Southside of Dublin in Ireland. Etymology An early name for the area was Scal'd Hill or Scald Hill.

, Irishtown and

Ringsend Ringsend () is a Southside (Dublin), southside inner suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located on the south bank of the River Liffey and east of the River Dodder, about two kilometres east of the city centre. It is the sou ...

. The areas varied in nature, with Ringsend being an old fishing village, Irishtown a working-class residential and industrial district, while the remainder of the township contained affluent residential areas. Seven-ninths of the township was part of the Pembroke Estate, and the agent of the estate was an commissioner, the remaining 14 being elected by property owners. The Estate had a great deal of influence on the activities of the commissioners, and also made donations of land for the use of the township. This influence largely ended when a more democratically elected

urban district council In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...

replaced the commissioners in 1899.

Electoral history

Town Hall

Pembroke Town Hall was built on Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, and opened in 1880. Previously the township offices had been in nearby Ballsbridge Terrace. The town hall later formed the administrative headquarters of the City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee.

Dissolution

Following many years during which proposed amalgamations of Dublin local authorities were discussed, the Local Government (Dublin) Act 1930 dissolved Pembroke Urban District and added its area to the functional area of the City of Dublin.

Sources

* ''Dublin's Suburban Towns'', Séamas Ó Maitiú, Dublin 2003

External links

History of Pembroke Township

Pembroke Urban District 1880–1930 layer
on

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Dublin Historic Maps: Dublin Townships and Urban Districts, between 1847 and 1930
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