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Ha'penny Bridge, County Dublin
Photograph: Wikimedia Commons user Thpohl · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Province of Leinster

County Dublin

Baile Átha Cliath

“BAL-ya AW-ha KLEE-a” · town of the hurdled ford, from baile (town) + áth (ford) + cliath (hurdle)

Known as The Dubs. Dublin has no single settled nickname the way the others do, and none appears in the standard reference. The Dubs is what people say, and the Pale is what the county was for four centuries. The origin is not settled.

Did you know? Dublin takes its name from Duiblinn, the 'black pool' where the Vikings moored their longships — its site lies beneath the Dublin Castle gardens.
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Dublin by the numbers
Leinster province 1,458,154 people · 2022 census 922 km² · 30th of 32 by size County town Dublin +9% in the Famine · 372,773 people in 1841, 405,000 in 1851 (approx.) 10 baronies · 1,057 townlands 1930s folklore · the Schools' Collection ↗ 9 Olympic medallists born here 12 surnames 9 towns on the site 16,440 daily Irish speakers Highest point Kippure, 757 m 37 senior All-Irelands 30 notable people born here UNESCO: Dunsink (tentative list) 7,535 historic buildings recorded Everything on the site about Dublin ↓
Carlow Cavan Cork Donegal Dublin Clare Galway Kerry Kildare Kilkenny Laois Leitrim Limerick Longford Louth Mayo Meath Monaghan Offaly Roscommon Sligo Tipperary Waterford Westmeath Wexford Wicklow Antrim Armagh Down Fermanagh Londonderry Tyrone

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The history of Dublin

The oldest trace of people in Dublin is five wooden fish traps found near Spencer Dock in 2007, made with stone axes between about 6100 and 5700 BC. The Vikings founded the town in the 9th century, and under them it became the largest slave market in western Europe. Irish kings pushed back: the Norse were exiled as early as 902, Máel Sechnaill II took the town in 980 and freed its Irish slaves, and after Brian Boru's victories, Clontarf in 1014 above all, Dublin was a lesser kingdom.

In 1170 Diarmait Mac Murchada and his Normans stormed Dublin while its king was still negotiating, and it became the centre of English rule. That rule shrank to the Pale around the city by the early 16th century, until Henry VIII proclaimed the Kingdom of Ireland in 1542 with Dublin its capital. Most of the Georgian city was built between about 1750 and 1800. The Act of Union took the parliament away, and by the late 1800s Dublin was one of the poorest cities in Europe: in 1911 more than 20,000 families lived in one-room tenements, and 845 people lived on Henrietta Street alone.

Dublin became capital of the Irish Free State in December 1922 and later of the Republic. From the 1960s new suburbs — Tallaght, Coolock, Ballymun, Clondalkin, Blanchardstown — rehoused the city's poor, and from the 1990s Dublin drove the Celtic Tiger, entering the 21st century as one of Europe's richest cities.

Drawn from the History section of the Wikipedia article on County Dublin ↗, rewritten here and adding nothing it does not say; licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. The chronology above is this site's own; where the two differ, the article is the one to check.

The land — from Wikipedia

Dublin is the third smallest of Ireland's 32 counties by area, and the largest in terms of population. It is the third-smallest of Leinster's 12 counties in size and the largest by population. Dublin shares a border with three counties – Meath to the north and west, Kildare to the west and Wicklow to the south. To the east, Dublin has an Irish Sea coastline which stretches for .

Read the full article ↗ · Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Clans & surnames of Dublin
Byrne Ó Broin Gaelic sept · “descendant of Bran, 'raven'” Casey Ó Cathasaigh Gaelic sept · “descendant of Cathasach, 'vigilant in war'” Díaz — (Spanish name; Diaz in English) Spanish — the New Irish · “'son of Diego' — a patronymic from the Visigothic period; El Cid himself was Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, son of Diego” Doyle Ó Dubhghaill Norse-Gaelic · “descendant of Dubhghall, 'dark foreigner' — a Viking” Fitzsimons Mac Síomóin Norman · “son of Simon” Hackett Haicéid Norman · “son of Haket, a Norman personal name” Kilcoyne Mac Giolla Chaoine Gaelic sept · “son of the servant of St Caoine, or of 'the gentle youth'” McCormack Mac Cormaic Gaelic sept · “son of Cormac, 'charioteer'” Plunkett Pluincéid Norman · “Norman Blanchet, from French blanc, 'white, pale'” Ronan Ó Rónáin Gaelic sept · “descendant of Rónán, 'little seal'” Sherlock Scurlóg Norman-English · “'fair-locked' — bright-haired” Wallace de Bhailís Norman-Welsh · “le waleis — 'the Welshman, the foreigner'”

Tap a name for its full page — story, homeland map and neighbours. Or see all surnames from County Dublin, with the other counties each name is tied to.

Towns, saints and legends of Dublin

Towns. Dublin Baile Átha Cliath (1,263,219, 2022), Swords Sord (40,776, 2022), Balbriggan Baile Brigín (24,322, 2022), Malahide Mullach Íde (18,608, 2022), Rush Ros Eó (10,875, 2022), Skerries Na Sceirí (10,743, 2022), Lusk Lusca (8,806, 2022), Dún Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire, Howth Binn Éadair. What every town name means →

Saints. St Laurence O'Toole (14 November).

Legends set here. Gleann na Smól — Oisín returns. On the atlas →

First names that belong here. Lorcán, Peadar.

Irish in Dublin today

At the 2022 census, 467,679 people in Dublin said they could speak Irish. 16,440 speak it every day outside school, and 29,624 weekly.

41 primary schools here teach entirely through Irish (2025/26, 10,125 pupils), and 10 secondary schools.

CSO, Census 2022, table SAP2022T3T2CTY. Every county compared →

The top of Dublin

Kippure (Cipiúr), 757 metres, in the Wicklow Mountains.

Wrecks on its coast: Rochdale and Prince of Wales (1807), Royal Canal night boat Longford (1845), PS Queen Victoria (1853), RMS Tayleur (1854), Kingstown lifeboat disaster (1895), RMS Leinster (1918). Shipwrecks of Ireland →

Rivers and loughs: River Liffey.

MountainViews, via Wikipedia. Every county's highest point → · Rivers and loughs →

Dublin in the All-Ireland

Hurling: 6 senior titles (1889, 1917, 1920, 1924, 1927, 1938); 15 finals lost.
Football: 31 senior titles (1891, 1892, 1894, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1901, 1902, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1942, 1958, 1963, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1983, 1995, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023); 13 finals lost.

Every county's All-Ireland titles →

Born in Dublin

From Wikidata: people whose recorded birthplace is in the county, who have a Wikipedia article and are no longer living, with dates shown only where the article confirms them, ordered by how many languages Wikipedia covers them in. Traditional birthplaces of early saints are as Wikidata records them.

People in Dublin, census by census

Dublin had 372,773 people in 1841 and has 1,458,154 now (+291%). its low point 372,773 in 1841, 0% of 1841. It is one of the counties that has recovered its pre-Famine population.

1821183118411851186118711881189119011911192619361946195119561961196619711979198119861991199620022006201120162022
335,892380,167372,773405,147410,252405,262418,910419,216448,206477,196505,654586,925636,193693,022705,781718,332795,047852,219983,6831,003,1641,021,4491,025,3041,058,2641,122,8211,187,1761,270,6031,345,4021,458,154

Census returns as tabulated in the county's Wikipedia article. All 32 counties, 1821 to today →

Hidden Dublin — the places the buses miss
  • Clontarf
    Good Friday 1014: Brian Boru's forces break Leinster and Dublin's Vikings — and Brian is killed praying in his tent. Now a quiet seafront suburb.
  • Drumanagh promontory fort
    A headland fort that has yielded Roman coins, brooches and pottery — the strongest evidence of a Roman trading post (or a Romanised Irish king) in Ireland.
On the ground in Dublin

Every pin is placed by its documented coordinates. All the monuments of Ireland →

Everything on the site about County Dublin

The county

History

Monuments and heritage

Coast and country

People and culture

Quick answers
What is the Irish name for County Dublin?

Baile Átha Cliath. Dublin is one of the 12 counties of Leinster (Cúige Laighean).

Who ruled County Dublin in the Middle Ages?

Around 1014 it was held by Norse Kingdom of Dublin; by 1450, The English Pale. The full era-by-era chronology is on this page.

What surnames come from County Dublin?

Names historically associated with Dublin include Byrne, Casey, Díaz, Doyle, Fitzsimons, Hackett, Kilcoyne, McCormack, among others.

What does Baile Átha Cliath mean?

Baile Átha Cliath, said “BAL-ya AW-ha KLEE-a”, means town of the hurdled ford — from baile (town) + áth (ford) + cliath (hurdle). The English name is the other Irish name: Duibhlinn, the black pool, where the Poddle met the Liffey.

What is the population of County Dublin?

1,458,154 at the 2022 census, against 372,773 in 1841, before the Famine.

What is the county town of Dublin?

Dublin. County Dublin covers about 922 km², which makes it the 30th largest of the 32 counties.

Who are famous people from County Dublin?

Among the best-known people born in Dublin are James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, Sinéad O'Connor, Maureen O'Hara, Roger Casement, Liam Cosgrave. The full list, with their birthplaces, is on this page.

What did the Famine do to County Dublin?

The census counted 372,773 people in Dublin in 1841 and 405,000 in 1851 (the 1851 figure is approximate): a change of +9% in ten years, through death and emigration.

Sources for this page

A clean copy for school projects or the family file; collapsed sections print in full.

The chronology of who held the county is this site's own reading of the standard histories onto today's county borders, and says so where the fit is rough. Quoted passages are marked and licensed. Spotted an error? Say so — corrections are credited.

Trace your ancestors in Dublin

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