Kilnamanagh

This page is about the residential area of Dublin. Kilnamanagh may also refer to a barony in Tipperary or a civil parish (also known as Allihies) in Cork.

Kilnamanagh (Irish: Cill na Manach) is a suburban residential area in Tallaght, South Dublin, Ireland.

History

The name in Irish is Cill Na Manach, or 'church of the monks'. This refers to the church, well and castle established to house Saint Kevin and his followers. Present day Kilnamanagh has close ties to Glendalough, the other resting place of St Kevin.

The church and castle located in Kilnamanagh were destroyed when the building of the housing estate commenced. The well that was built by St. Kevin is now covered up, but there is still a small garden around the well for people to visit.The well and garden have been fenced in for fear of desecration. The gates that are locked and access is controlled by the local church. There are many references to St. Kevin and his followers in Kilnamanagh, the school, church and local sports teams are named after him.

Modern suburb

Kilnamanagh one of the largest housing estate in Europe at the time it was built and is still the largest private housing estate in Europe, consisting of 1,600 houses.^{[citation needed]} Kilnamanagh has a primary school (St. Kevin's), a shopping centre (Dunnes Stores), Credit Union and a well established community centre which also has a bar. Kilnamanagh is close to The Square shopping centre, the third largest shopping centre in Ireland, which is expanding with an extra 400 shops in 2010. The Luas red line and M50 are located between Kingswood and Kilnamanagh within walking distance of the entire estate.

Kilnamanagh is divided into smaller areas such as Treepark (first built in 1980), Redwood (first built in 1974), Pinetree (first built in 1981 and is the only county council public housing scheme), Elmcastle (first built in 1974), Parkhill (first built in 1977), Birchview (first built in 1972), and Tamarisk (first built in 1975).

The first houses built which were in Birchview were the only houses in Kilnamanagh that had wooden floorboards on the ground level with under floor heating, and was the only estate to have a street gas supply since its construction in 1972. All the other estates eventually had a street gas supply installed around 1990.

There is an active soccer club in Kilnamanagh, The community centre has built two 'astro parks' with floodlights and a grass pitch in August 2009.

There is an active Gaa club in Kilnamanagh which co-insides with the Gaa club in Kingswood called St. Kevin's Killians and kilnamanagh has Three GAA pithes in the middle of the estate.

Kilnamanagh also has a Fuel Filling Station (Now called Topaz) located on its primary access route (Mayberry Road).

Kilnamanagh was well known for its Summer Projects in the 1980s involving all ages of the community to participate in excursions out from the area, arts and crafts, organised kids discos, kids cinema and etc. This ran over a number of years mainly from Saint Kevin's Primary School during the month of July every year. It started in 1982 and ran successfully until 1989.