Donnybrook Road in 1927, with the spire of Donnybrook Church visible in the distance.
Donnybrook Fair dates from a charter of King John of England in 1204 and was held annually until 1855. It began as a fair for livestock and agricultural produce but later declined, growing into more of a carnival and funfair. Drunkenness, fighting, and hasty marriages[1] became commonplace and the people of Donnybrook were anxious that it should cease. Eventually, the fair's reputation for tumult was its undoing. From the 1790s on, there were campaigns against the drunken brawl the fair had become. After a good deal of local fundraising, the patent was bought by a group of prominent residents and clergy, bringing about its demise. The Fair took place on lands now occupied by Donnybrook Rugby Ground and the Ever Ready Garage. The word donnybrook has since entered the English language to describe a rowdy brawl.[2]
Donnybrook Cemetery dates back to the 8th century and was once the location of a church founded by St Broc. It was also the site of Catholic and Church of Ireland churches, both called St Mary's. Those buried in it include Dr Bartholomew Mosse, the founder of the Rotunda Hospital, Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, architect of the Irish Houses of Parliament on College Green and Dr Richard Madden, biographer of the United Irishmen. It is possible that the wall on the south side of the cemetery is the oldest man-made structure still existing in Donnybrook. The brick chimney behind the cemetery was built on the site of a former marble works and later served as a Magdalene laundry. Two ancestors of Meghan Markle, Mary McCue and Thomas Bird, an English soldier, were married at St Mary's Church of Ireland church, Donnybrook, in 1860.[4]
Geography
The river Dodder runs through Donnybrook and at one time there was a ford here. It is subject to periodic serious flooding and in 1628 one of the Usshers of Donnybrook Castle drowned while trying to cross.[5]
Civil parish
Donnybrook is a civil parish consisting of sixteen townlands.[6] All but four of these townlands are situated in the Barony of Dublin. Donnybrook is the single biggest parish in that barony. The most southerly townlands, Annefield, Simmonscourt and Priesthouse, belong to the barony of Rathdown. The smallest of these, Annefield, is itself an enclave of Simmonscourt which gives its name to a pavilion of the Royal Dublin Society. Today, the majority of Priesthouse is occupied by Elm Park Golf Club and the studios of RTÉ. The remaining townland of Sallymount - the parish's most westerly point - is in the barony of Uppercross.
Donnybrook today
The television and radio studios of the State broadcaster, RTÉ, are located in Priesthouse, Donnybrook. There is also a large Dublin Bus garage located in the area.
Guglielmo Marconi (wireless radio - lived in Montrose House, the family home of his mother's family the Jamesons of whiskey fame, now on the grounds of the national broadcaster RTÉ)
