Kilmainham's foundation dates to the early Christian period, with the monastery of Cell Maignenn (Cill Mhaighneann in modern Irish) established by the year 606.[1] By 795, the ecclesiastical site, located on the ridge of land at the confluence of the Liffey and the Camac, may still have been the only substantial structure along the Liffey's banks.[2]
The Kilmainham Brooch, a late 8th- or early 9th-century Celtic brooch of the "penannular" type (i.e. its ring does not fully close or is incomplete) was unearthed in the area.
In the wake of the Viking settlement of nearby Dublin from 841, Vikings were present in Kilmainham too, one of a number of villages that stretched up the river bank to Clondalkin.[3]
Viking cemeteries at the site of the monastery and at nearby Islandbridge were discovered during gravel quarrying, railroad works and the preparation of the War Memorial Gardens. Dozens of pagan burials with grave goods, dating to the 9th century, have been recorded.[4] The burial sites taken together constitute the largest known Viking cemetery in western Europe outside Scandinavia.[5]
The Battle of Islandbridge took place in the area in 919, with Viking forces under Sitric Cáech defeating Gaelic Irish forces under high king Niall Glúndub. In 1013, Murchad, the son of Brian Boru, is recorded by the annals as having raided into Leinster as far as Kilmainham.[6]
In the 12th century, in the wake of the Norman invasion of Ireland, the lands on the banks of the Liffey were granted to the Knights Hospitaller.[7]Strongbow erected for them a castle about 2 kilometres or 1 mile distant from the Danish wall of old Dublin; and Hugh Tyrrel, first Baron Castleknock, granted them part of the lands which now form the Phoenix Park. The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem remained in possession of the land until the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century.[8]
Until the time of Queen Elizabeth, when Dublin Castle became the centre of English power, the Lord Lieutenants often held court at the manor of Kilmainham. In 1559, Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, on being again appointed Lord Lieutenant, found that the building at Kilmainham had been damaged by a storm, and had to hold court at the palace of St. Sepulchre. The following year Elizabeth ordered that Dublin Castle be upgraded to enable the Lord Lieutenant to reside there, and Kilmainham fell out of favour.[8]
The Manor of Kilmainham formed a liberty outside the jurisdiction of the city of Dublin, with its own rights and privileges. The manor took in parts of James's Street and side streets and stretched as far as Lucan and Chapelizod.[9] After the Reformation, former lords (or chairmen, as they were later called) of this manor included Lord Cloncurry and Sir Edward Newenham. John "Bully" Egan, from Charleville, County Cork, was chairman from 1790 to 1800. These manorial rights were abolished after the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840, and much of the area was included within the city.
The portion still outside the city in the latter part of the nineteenth century was within the township of New Kilmainham, a municipality governed by town commissioners, first under the Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act 1854 and then under a local act, the New Kilmainham Township Act 1868.[10] From 1868, New Kilmainham comprised the townlands of Kilmainham, Goldenbridge North, Inchicore North, Inchicore South, and Butchers Arms. Its total area was 580 acres (230 ha) and the population was 5,391 in 1881 and 6,519 in 1891.[11] It became an urban district under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898.[12] In 1900, the urban district was abolished and the area was transferred from the county into the jurisdiction of the city of Dublin as the New Kilmainham ward.[13][14]
Kilmainham is home to an important Viking Age burial site, part of a complex of cemeteries which also includes finds at the War Memorial Gardens. The artefacts, mostly discovered in the 18th and 19th centuries, during industrial, transport and park works, are now part of the collection at the National Museum of Ireland.
The River Camac runs through Kilmainham and is crossed by bridges at the South Circular Road, Rowserstown Lane and Bow Lane.
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