Castleknock

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Castleknock (Caisleán Cnucha in Irish meaning "Castle of the Hill" or "Cnucha's Castle"[1] is a village with some affluent residential enclaves at the edge of Co Dublin and located 8 km west of the centre of Dublin, Ireland. The village is located just inside the city's M50 motorway ring road, bordered to the west by the village of Blanchardstown and to the east by the Phoenix Park and north by Dunsink. The Royal Canal and the Dublin – Sligo railway line pass through the area. Castleknock is in the Dublin 15 postal area and the Dublin West electoral constituency. St. Brigid is the patron saint. Castleknock was once second to the Hill of Tara [2] in importance in Ireland, the history of Castleknock Castle details and references much of the history of the area. State bodies such as the National Food Centre are located in Castleknock.

Castleknock was a rural village in North County Dublin until the late 1960s, when the first housing estates began to be developed. Castleknock developed in tandem with neighbouring settlement Blanchardstown, which both grew rapidly from the early 1970s to the present. During the 1970s and 1980s, the village became built up and was subsumed into the suburban fabric of Dublin. However, despite its development, Castleknock retains a disntinctive rural character, helped by the separation of it and the remainder of suburban Dublin by the Phoenix Park. Today, Castleknock is considered an exclusive upper middle class suburb of Dublin.

1 Notable buildings
2 Amenities
- 2.1 Transport & communications
3 Schools
4 People
5 Sport
6 External links

[edit] Notable buildings

A fine example of a Harry Clarke stained glass work can be found in St Brigid's Church of Ireland church, Castleknock. The church is the most prominent building in the village located beside the well known and popular public house 'Myos'. There is also a more recently constructed Catholic church nearby, called 'Our Lady Mother of the Church'. The layout and art works within are by Dublin based artist Imogen Stuart, with fine examples of Swedish tapestry work sculpture and furnishings. The current colour schemes are not in keeping with the original vision of an orchestra of light.

[edit] Amenities

Retail outlets in the village proper are mainly found in the Castleknock Village Centre shopping precinct which houses a variety of small local businesses and restaurants. Ethnically themed restaurants include two Chinese, one Japanese and one Italian.

[edit] Transport & communications

Public transport in Castleknock is served by Dublin Bus, Urbus and a commuter train station on the Western Suburban Maynooth line.

[edit] Schools

The village is also the location of Castleknock College , a Dublin secondary school for boys run by the priests of The Vincentian Order since 1835, which was exclusively a boarding-only school until 1987, following which day pupils were admitted and now it is day only as the boarding house was closed down in 2006. The other significant secondary schools in the locality are Castleknock Community College in nearby Carpenterstown whose pupils are mixed gender and the girls' only Mount Sackville Convent in Chapelizod. There are three primary schools, two of which are unsurprisingly called St. Brigid's. One of these is Church of Ireland denomination and the other St. Brigid's National School is Roman Catholic. The third primary school is non denominational Castleknock Educate Together National School.

[edit] People

Some noted present day Castleknock people include actor Colin Farrell, Olympic athlete Eamonn Coghlan, TV presenter Amanda Byram, Minister of State Brian Lenihan, Jr, model Glenda Gilson, former Miss Ireland, model and TV presenter, Michelle Rocca

[edit] Sport

Castleknock lays claim to the largest tennis facility in Ireland, which was home to tennis for the 2004 Special Olympics.
Golf is catered for by the municipal course at Elm Green on the edge of the village as well as by two private clubs in the Porterstown area.
The local association football club Castleknock Celtic FC boasts over 600 playing members.
Rugby Union is played at Coolmine RFC.
Gaelic games are played at the Castleknock Hurling and Football Club and also St. Brigids GAA club.