•  Coolock, County Dublin

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In 1837, Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland described Coolock like this:

COOLOCK, a parish, in the barony of COOLOCK, county of DUBLIN, and province of LEINSTER, 3 ¾ miles (N. N. E.) from Dublin, on the road to Malahide; containing 914 inhabitants, of which number, 190 are in the village, which contains 26 houses, and is a constabulary police station. ...

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The parish comprises 1691 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act: the soil is fertile, and well adapted for corn. Limestone abounds, and a quarry near the glebe-house is worked for agricultural and other purposes.

There are numerous handsome seats and pleasant villas, from most of which are fine views of the bay and city of Dublin, with the adjacent country. Of these the principal are Beaumont, the residence of A. Guinness, Esq.; Newbrook, of E. H. Casey, Esq.; Belcamp, of Sir H. M. J. W. Jervis, Bart.; Brookeville, of R. Law, Esq.; Coolock House, of H. Brooke, Esq.; Coolock Lodge, of T. Sherrard, Esq.; Shrubs, of W. White, Esq.; Bonnybrook, of T. W. White, Esq.; Newbery Hill, of A. Ong, Esq.; Priors Wood, of T. Cos-grave, Esq.; Gracefield, of R. Eames, Esq.; Lark Hill, of E. Hickson, Esq.; Moatfield, of M. Staunton, Esq.; Darendale, of F. Gogarty, Esq.; Clare Grove, of General A. Cuppage; Airfield, of Alderman Sir E. Nugent, Knt.; and Cameron Lodge, of H. Jones, Esq.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Dublin, and in the patronage of the Marquess of Drogheda, in whom the rectory is impropriate: the vicarial tithes amount to £249. 4. 7 ½. There is a glebe-house, with a glebe comprising 17a. 2r. 25p. The church, dedicated to St. Brandon, a neat edifice, was partly rebuilt and enlarged, by aid of a loan of £500 from the late Board of First Fruits, in 1818. In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Clontarf. The chapel was erected in 1831, at an expense of £800, raised by subscription: it is a very neat edifice, in the later English style, with a belfry over the principal entrance; the interior is very well arranged and neatly decorated. The parochial school, for which a house was built at an expense of £300, the gift of Sir Compton Domville, Bart., is supported by subscription, and, attended by 30 or 40 children.

A school of 30 children, for which a handsome cottage has been built in the grounds of Beaumont, and an infants' school in connection with it, are wholly supported by Mrs. Guinness; and in connection with the R. C. chapel is a school to which W. Sweetman, Esq., gives £20 per annum. On a common near the church, which is now enclosed, a great concourse of persons connected with Emmet's insurrection was assembled, ready to march into Dublin at the appointed signal. In the grounds of Newbrook, through which flows a small stream, are the walls of a holy well, dedicated to St. Donagh; the spot is much resorted to, on St. John's Eve, by poor sick people, who, after rubbing themselves against the walls, wash in a well in the adjoining grounds of Donaghmede. In the grounds of Shrubs was anciently a nunnery, and human bones are frequently dug up there. There are ancient raths in the grounds of Bonnybrook and Moatfield.

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