Palmerstown
Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Hiberno-English Template:Infobox settlement Palmerstown (Template:Irish place name; officially Palmerston, see spelling) is a civil parish and suburb in western Dublin, Ireland on the banks of the River Liffey. It forms part of the South Dublin local authority and the Dublin Mid-West parliamentary constituency. The area is bordered to the north by the River Liffey and the Strawberry Beds, to the west by Lucan, to the south-west by Clondalkin, to the south by Ballyfermot and to the east by Chapelizod. Palmerstown village is situated near the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre. The area is near the junction of the M50 motorway and the N4 road. It lies approximately 7Template:Nbspkm west of Dublin city centre. The Old Lucan Road, once the main western route out of the city, passes through the centre of Palmerstown village.
Name origin and spelling
A "palmer" in medieval times was a pilgrim who returned from the Holy Land with a palm branch or leaf.<ref name="lee1967"/> Between 1185 and 1188 Ailred the Palmer and his wife took religious vows and founded a priory and monastic hospital of Crutched Friars outside the West Gate of Dublin, on the road to Kilmainham, which they endowed with all their property.<ref name="Hennessy1988">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1188 Pope Clement III confirmed the priory's grants, including both the parish of Palmerstown west of Kilmainham and the other parish of Palmerstown northwards in Fingal.<ref name="Hennessy1988"/> Gerard Lee notes an association of palmers with leper hospitals, of which there was one dedicated to Saint Laurence in the townland of the Saint Laurence in Palmerstown.<ref name="lee1967">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The spelling "Palmerston" rather than "Palmerstown" was fixed by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland in the 1830s; this remains the legal spelling and is officially recognised by South Dublin County Council.<ref>Palmerston - Chronology Template:Webarchive</ref> Locals generally use "Palmerstown", and road signs have used both.<ref name="herald27886793"/> A plebiscite of residents is required for a legal name change.<ref group="n">Technically, the plebiscite is of ratepayers, both business and domestic, as required by the Local Government Act 1946 and detailed in a 1956 statutory instrument.<ref>Template:Cite web; Template:Cite web</ref> Domestic rates have not been levied since 1978 but residents are still legally classed as ratepayers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The relevant provisions of the 1946 act are replaced by Part 18 of the Local Government Act 2001, itself amended in 2011.<ref name="revisedacts2001">Template:Cite web</ref> However, the 1956 provisions were used for the Palmerstown plebiscites held in 2009 and 2014, because Part 18 had not commenced.<ref name="revisedacts2001"/></ref> In 2009, a plebiscite to change to "Palmerstown" received a majority of votes cast but not of eligible voters.<ref name="herald29830212">Council faces a €70k bill for second vote in name row over Palmersto(w)n</ref> The area concerned was the townlands of Palmerston Upper and Palmerston Lower with an estimated electorate of 8,000.<ref>Template:Multiref</ref> Supporters of the change argued that the wording of the ballot confused some voters who wanted "Palmerstown" but voted No.<ref name="herald29830212"/> They also argue the spelling without W creates confusion with Palmerston Park further east in Rathmines.<ref name="herald29830212"/> Opponents argue the cost of changing road signs is prohibitive.<ref name="herald29830212"/> Others argue that the name "Palmerston" legally applies only to the civil parish and townland, and that the locality known as "Palmerstown" has a separate identity.<ref name="herald27886793">Palmerston will vote to end a very bad spell</ref> In 2014, another plebiscite was held, restricted to the electoral division (ED) of Palmerston Village (bounded by the Liffey, M50, and N4<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>) and excluding the adjoining ED of Palmerston West.<ref name="thejournal1879108">Template:Cite news</ref> The electorate was 641, of whom 425 voted in favour and 17 against;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the change to "Palmerstown Village" was formally approved at the county council meeting in January 2015.<ref name="thejournal1879108" />
The title Viscount Palmerston created in 1722 in the Peerage of Ireland derives from the place;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> its spelling also varied,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but the form "Lord Palmerston" is now usual for the Victorian prime minister.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Townlands
The civil parish of Palmerstown is the most northerly parish in the former Barony of Uppercross. Much of Palmerstown has been developed for residential, transportation and commercial purposes over the last half century. Townlands include:<ref>Placenames Database of IrelandTemplate:Dead link - Palmerstown townlands</ref>
- Palmerston Lower
- Palmerston Upper
- Irishtown
- Saint Laurence
- Johnstown
- Palmerstown Manor
- Yellow Walls
- Fonthill
- Redcowfarm
- Woodfarm
- Quarryvale
- Brooklawn
- Liffey Valley
Palmerstown village
The townlands of Palmerstown Upper and Palmerstown Lower straddle the old Lucan Road, which was the ancient western highway. Many of Palmerstown's local amenities are located in a cluster along the road. Robin Villas and Hollyville were labourers' cottages built at the beginning of the last century. The old national school is now a community centre. Stewarts Hospital, (formerly the residence of the Hely-Hutchinson family, the Roman Catholic Church of St. Philomena, the National School and a variety of general enterprises, including a bank and convenience stores, are located here. Stewartscare is a health care facility at the Stewarts buildings and grounds, which overlook the meandering Liffey valley. The Stewarts complex houses the administration of the Irish Health Service Executive. Stewarts Sports and Leisure centre is open to the general public. It also hosts an annual summer camp.
Redcow Farm and Glenaulin Park
This area was the location of the first modern housing development in Palmerstown, constructed between 1955 and 1965. Centred on Manor road, this area contains several shops, the local credit union and a doctor's surgery. To the east of Redcow Farm, adjacent to the "California Hills" Park, is Glenaulin Park, a public park also home to St. Patricks GAA club. The park contains a short stretch of a local stream, the Glenaulin Stream, a Liffey tributary most of which runs in culvert.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The name 'California Hills' was given by the children of the areaTemplate:Citation needed to a small wasteland in Ballyfermot to the northeast of Glenaulin Park, which had been a builders' dump during the construction of the main Palmerstown Estate in the mid to late 1960s. The wasteland had a series of small hills, which were in fact mounds of rubble which had been buried under clay and eventually over grown with wild grass. The children of the area sometimes shortened the name to 'The Caliers'Template:Citation needed and this name is also still in use today. The hills or mounds were flattened some years ago,Template:When and the area was landscaped for communal/public use.
Palmerstown Lower
Mill Lane leads to the original Palmerstown settlement and the centre of industry, which once employed over 600 millhands, craftsmen, and labourers. This seventeenth-century low-lying waterside industrial village was complete with flax, seed, oil, flour and cloth mills.<ref>Registry of Deeds, Dublin. Memorial: 24-316-13903. "A Memoriall of a Deed of Mortgage Indented dated the fifteenth day of September One Thousand Seven hundred and Nineteen... Reciting that Joshua Willson of Palmerstown in the County of Dublin, Gent, by lease dated the 28/03/1717 did demise and sett unto John Byrne two stocks of mills for milling of cloath formerly in the possession of William Watson and James Watson and also an appartment in the house adjoyning unto the said Mills with part of a garden and stable formerly sett out and sett to the said William and James Watson, which premisses are scituate in the town of Palmerstown aforesaid and bounded on the river that runs under the lands belonging to the great house of Palmerstown" [1]</ref> The ruin of a pre-Norman church and the remains of the once prosperous thriving community are situated near the river. A small ferry crossed the Liffey here, to where the Wren's Nest pub was situated on the North side. A football ground opposite the river Liffey is home to Palmerstown F.C. Muhammad Ali visited Stewarts Hospital on 15 July 1972 when the hospital was hosting its annual sporting fete.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Palmerstown Manor
Palmerstown's largest housing estate was built in the early 1990s in the south east of the area. Adjacent to the Coldcut and Kennelsfort roads and the M50 motorway, the estate marks the 'border' between Palmerstown with Ballyfermot and Clondalkin.
Woodfarm Acres
The townland of Woodfarm Acres was mostly farmland, with a few council cottages that previously existed on the site. This housing development was built during the 1970s. The estate is bounded by the M50 motorway and N4. Adjacent to Woodfarm Acres is another shopping centre containing a grocery store, a gym, the youth centre, and other amenities. Access to the local cemetery is adjacent to this centre. Also located nearby is Pobalscoil Isolde, a secondary-level community school which opened in the 1980s.
Oakcourt
The Oakcourt housing estate lies in the western part of the 59-acre Johnstown townland, behind Pobalscoil Iosolde. It was originally developed in the 1970s, and expanded in the mid-1990s. The Johnstown townland extends due west from the Georgian Johnstown House (now St. John's College) on Le Fanu Rd. It runs west to Kennelsfort Road and lies between St. Laurence townland (the St. Laurence House is now the West County Hotel) from the River Liffey and Chapelizod in the north, to Ballyfermot Upper/Blackditch in the south.
Transport
Bus
Template:Unreferenced section Dublin Bus provides services east to Dublin city and west to Lucan, Celbridge, Leixlip, and Maynooth.
Route 80 operates from Liffey Valley to Palmerston Park in Rathmines via Kennelsfort Road Upper and Chapelizod.
Route L55, a local route, runs from the Old Lucan Road to Chapelizod via Ballyfermot.
Route G2 operates via the Coldcut road to Spencer Dock via Dublin city.
Routes C1, C2, C3 and C4 operate via the Chapelizod Bypass to Ringsend or Sandymount via Dublin City.
Former rail station
Palmerstown railway station on the Dublin and Lucan tramway, later part of the Dublin United Transport Company tram system, opened in November 1881 and closed on 13 April 1940.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Waterstown Park
Waterstown Park is a public park on the right bank of the River Liffey (Template:Coord). It was a farm until the 1980s.
The park consists of woodland, wet grassland, and mature hedgerows, and it contains 300 species of plants, animals, birds, and insects. Bird species include blackbirds, blackcaps, bullfinches, buzzards, chiffchaffs, dunnocks, jays, kingfishers, long-tailed tits, ravens, robins, siskins, sparrowhawks, and willow warblers.
There is a 5Template:Nbspkm track for walking, jogging, and cycling; a dog park; exercise equipment; a picnic area; and a children's playground was added in September 2019.<ref>
Palmerstown Cemetery
Palmerstown Cemetery on Kennelsfort Road opened in 1978. It is managed as part of the Dublin Cemeteries Trust.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>