Greenhills () is a suburb 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 ...

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

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 ...

and lies between Kimmage,

Tallaght Tallaght ( ; , ) is a southwestern outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The central village area was the site of a monastic settlement from at least the 8th century, which became one of medieval Ireland's more important monastic centres. Up to th ...

Ballymount Ballymount (), is a locality on the south side of Dublin, near the mainly residential areas of Walkinstown to the east, Tallaght to the west and Greenhills, Dublin, Greenhills to the south. Ballymount is accessed by a number of public bus routes ...

Templeogue Templeogue is a southwestern suburb of Dublin in Ireland. It lies between the River Poddle and River Dodder, and is about halfway from Dublin's centre to the mountains to the south. Geography Location Templeogue is from Dublin city centre t ...

Terenure Terenure (), originally called ''Roundtown'', is a middle class suburb of Dublin in Ireland. It is located in the city's D6 and D6W postal districts. The population of all electoral divisions labelled as Terenure was 17,972 as of the 2022 ce ...

and

Walkinstown Walkinstown () is a suburb of Dublin in Ireland, six kilometres southwest of the city centre. It is surrounded by Drimnagh to the north, Crumlin, Dublin, Crumlin to the east, Greenhills, Dublin, Greenhills to the south, and Ballymount, Bluebel ...

, which the area of Greenhills was historically part of, and includes several residential developments. Greenhills is in the Dublin postal district of Dublin 12 and the

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

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

Name and history

The area's name comes from the sand-based hills that made up a glacial esker which formed in the area at the end of the Ice Age. Greenhills may have housed settlements since at least the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

, as an urn dating from that time was found in the area in the late 1890s. Discovered in a former quarry between the Greenhills Road and St. Columba's Road, this urn is now held by the

National Museum of Ireland The National Museum of Ireland () is Ireland's leading museum institution, with a strong emphasis on national and some international archaeology, Irish history, Irish art, culture, and natural history. It has three branches in Dublin, the arch ...

. However, the area was mostly farmland until expansion in the 1950s and 1960s, when new housing estates were built.

Facilities

Tymon Park is partly situated in the old townland of Greenhills and is located to the south of the Limekiln estate. It is administered by

South Dublin County Council South Dublin County Council () is the local authority of the county of South Dublin, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities created by the Local Government (Dublin) Act 1993 to succeed the former Dublin County Council before its abolitio ...

. The River Poddle and connected artificial ponds are features within the park. The M50 motorway splits the Greenhills side of the park from Kilnamanagh and the Tymon North estate (both in Tallaght). A smaller park, Greenhills Park, is also administered by the South Dublin County Council and is used for

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

. The Church of the Holy Spirit is the local

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church. It has a

verdigris Verdigris () is a common name for any of a variety of somewhat toxic copper salt (chemistry), salts of acetic acid, which range in colour from green to a blue-green, bluish-green depending on their chemical composition.H. Kühn, Verdigris and Cop ...

copper roof. The church stands beside a

community centre A community centre, community center, or community hall is a public location where members of a community gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may be open for the whole community or for a sp ...

, which has function rooms, and advice, adult education and other services. Local primary schools include Holy Spirit Junior and Senior Schools which were formed in September 2015 following the amalgamation of St. Paul's Junior and Senior Girl's National Schools, and St. Peter's Boy's National School. Riverview

Educate Together Educate Together () is an educational charity in Republic of Ireland, Ireland which is the patron body to "equality-based, co-educational, child centred, and democratically run" schools. It was founded in 1984 to act as the patron body for the ...

National School opened on Limekiln Road in 2016. Secondary schools include St. Paul's Secondary (girls) and Greenhills College VEC (boys).

Transport

The Walkinstown Roundabout, or Walkinstown Cross, is a junction which serves six local roads: the Greenhills Road into Tallaght, Ballymount Road towards Ballymount and the M50, Walkinstown Avenue towards

Ballyfermot Ballyfermot () is a suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located west of the city centre, south of Phoenix Park. It is bordered by Chapelizod on the north, by Bluebell, Dublin, Bluebell on the south, by Inchicore on the east, ...

, Walkinstown Road towards Drimnagh, Cromwellsfort Road towards Kimmage and Crumlin, and St. Peter's Road towards Greenhills and

. The area is served by

Dublin Bus Dublin Bus () is an Irish State-owned enterprise, state-owned bus operator providing services in Dublin. By far the largest bus operator in the city, it carried 145 million passengers in 2023. It is a subsidiary of CIÉ, Córas Iompair Éireann ...

routes 9, 15A, 27, 77A, 77X, Nitelink 77N and 150.

Sport

The former Irish international football manager, Brian Kerr, lives in Greenhills, having been brought up in nearby Drimnagh. Michael Carruth, a gold-medal winner in the welterweight boxing division at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

, is from the area.

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

is one of the main sports in the area, through clubs such as Greenhills FC and Manortown United, while

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

is also played, with clubs such as Crumlin GAA, Robert Emmets GAC, St Jude's GAA (Templeogue), Faughs (Templeogue) and St. James Gaels. Community Games athletics and

rounders Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a wooden, plastic, or metal bat that has a cylindrical end. The players score b ...

are also played - the latter represented by Limekiln Rounders Club which has won a number of national titles. Olympian Gymnastics is based in Greenhills at a facility beside the NCT centre.

Administration

Greenhills is in the northwest of

, and in elections to

is part of the

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 ...

of Templeogue–Terenure. Greenhills is part of the Dáil constituency of Dublin South-West.

References

{{Portal bar, Ireland, History, Europe Towns and villages in South Dublin (county)