Ward ( ga, An Bharda) is a civil parish in

Fingal Fingal ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which was disestablished for administrative purposes in 1994. ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. It is part of the historical

barony 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 ...

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: a ...

. The Ward River, the major tributary of the Broadmeadow River, flows through the area, and probably gave the civil parish its name.

Location

The civil parish lies to the north-east of the civil parish of

Mulhuddart Mulhuddart () is an outer suburb situated 12 km (7.456 miles) north-west of Dublin, Ireland. The River Tolka passes near the village. Mulhuddart is also a civil parish in the barony of Castleknock in the historic County Dublin. Histor ...

, and is bounded to the south-east by the civil parish of

Finglas Finglas (; ) is a northwestern outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It lies close to Junction 5 of the M50 motorway, and the N2 road. Nearby suburbs include Glasnevin and Ballymun; Dublin Airport is to the north. Finglas lies mainly in the post ...

. Its centre of population, which was originally situated on one of the chief roads to the north of Ireland, has now been by-passed by the

M2 motorway This is a list of roads designated M2: Europe * M2 motorway (Great Britain), a motorway in England * M2 expressway (Hungary), a motorway in Hungary * N2 road (Ireland)#M2 motorway, a motorway in the Republic of Ireland * M-2 highway (Monteneg ...

. The River Ward separates Ward from the barony of

Nethercross Nethercross ( ga, An Chrois Íochtarach ) is a feudal title of one of the baronies of Ireland. Originally part of the Lordship of Meath, it was then constituted as part of the old county of Dublin. Today, it lies in the modern county of Fingal. ...

to the north-east. At the confluence of the Ward and the River Pinkeen to the north-west, the parish borders

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the so ...

. The old N2 national road, now the R135 Regional road, runs through the parish from north to south. Only the townland of Newpark lies to the east of the R135. Ward is known as the meeting place of the Ward Stag Hunt.{{fact, date=December 2022

History

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 san ...

, the lands of la Garde, or the Ward, were possessed by the family of le Bank. Nicholas le Bank was granted extensive property in Ireland by King

Henry II of England Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin king ...

. In the first half of the thirteenth century a right of turbary in his "tenement near Finglas" was conveyed by Sir Raymond le Bank to the canons of All Saints. During the first half of the sixteenth century the castle, round which the village sprang up, was occupied by Richard Delahide, who was a judge. The castle came into the possession of the barons of Howth. The Ward was formerly a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the commu ...

of the parish of

.Lewis p. 674

Townlands

The parish contains seven

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 orig ...

s of Cherryhound, Irishtown, Killamonan, Newpark, Spricklestown, Ward Lower and Ward Upper.

Ecclesiastical parishes

The nearest

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

is located at St Margaret's, a

Chapel of Ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ease is deliberately bu ...

of the parish of

whose main church is St. Canice's. In the Church of Ireland, the nearest churches are St Canice's, Finglas or in

References

Civil parishes of the barony of Castleknock