Guide to County Dublin in Ireland

County Dublin

The city of Dublin is the capital of the Republic and the county contains 28% of its population with nearly 1.2 million residents. As the third smallest on the island, the county area contains the highest population density by far with almost 1300 residents for every km². This is over 20 times the countrywide average.

Dublin is located in the East of the country in the province of Leinster, centred on the River Liffey. The city is arranged into 24 different postcodes with even numbers generally indicating residencies located south of the Liffey and odd numbers indicating the northern locations. The southern postcodes can boast some of the most desirable property locations (with high prices to match) but there are also some equally salubrious addresses in the northern suburbs by the coast, such as Howth and Malahide.

To be technically correct, we should point out that County Dublin has not officially existed since 1994. The correct reference term today is the Dublin Region. This is because Dublin was sub-divided into 4 administrative areas in 1994, somewhat confusingly referred to as the modern counties of South Dublin, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and Fingal with the most central area now known as Dublin City containing 0.5 million residents alone.

Further confusion is caused when the administrators refer to a larger local government region as the Greater Dublin Area which includes the neighbouring counties of Kildare, Meath, and Wicklow. The popular Dublin suburban towns such as Bray, Greystones, Maynooth, Naas, Leixlip, Clane and Clonee, are not actually in "county" Dublin at all and can be found in the aforementioned bordering counties.

A list of true and historic County Dublin towns would include Balbriggan, Ballyboghil, Donabate, Garristown, Kinsaley, Loughshinny, Lusk, Naul, Oldtown, Portmarnock, Portrane, Rush, Skerries, Swords, Newcastle, Brittas, Glencullen, Rathcoole and Saggart (the home of the Citywest Business Campus and adjoining Golf Resort & Hotel).