Harold's Cross

Harold's Cross (Irish: Baile Arúil) is an urban village and inner suburb on the southside of Dublin, Ireland.

Location

Harold's Cross is situated north of Terenure and Rathgar, west of Rathmines, east of Crumlin and Kimmage, and directly south from the Grand Canal at Clanbrassil Street. It lies within the jurisdiction of Dublin City Council, and is in the postal district Dublin 6w.

Name

One explanation of the origin of the name Harold's Cross is that it is derived from the name given to a gallows, which had been placed where the current Harold's Cross Park is situated. Harold's Cross was an execution ground for the city of Dublin during the 18th century and earlier. In the 14th century the gallows there was maintained by the Archbishop.

Another explanation is that it is derived from a stone cross that marked the boundary of lands held by the Danish Harold family of Rathfarnham in early medieval times, reputedly located at what is now the five-road Kenilworth junction on Harold's Cross Road.

In any event, the area has been recorded since at least the 1100s.

Features

Harold's Cross has a number of shops and businesses and an active credit union. Harold's Cross Park, a small city park, occupies the site of the original village green.

At one side of Harold's Cross is Mount Jerome Cemetery, as mentioned in Joyce's Ulysses, originally a residence of a family named Shaw. It is considered Dublin's most gothic cemetery and there lie such lumunaries as Thomas Davis, George William Russell, and Oscar Wilde's father, William Wilde, in addition to former members of the Guinness family, deceased members of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and the remains of the French Huguenots once buried in the St. Stephen's Green Cemetery. Other famous graves include those of mathematician William Rowan Hamilton and playwright John Millington Synge. The cemetery was operated from 1837 to 1984 by a private company and now belongs to the Massey family.

The suburb is also home to Dublin's first hospice, Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross (the organisation also runs a hospice at Blackrock). This palliative care facility was founded in 1879 in a house called Our Lady's Mount (formerly Greenmount), which was previously the Mother House of the Religious Sisters of Charity, by that order. A new Hospice building was commenced in 1886, and many more buildings have followed.

Religion

The area holds Saint Clare's Convent and Primary School, as well as Mount Argus Monastery and its church. Mount Argus was the official home of Saint Charles of Mount Argus who was a well known Passionist priest in 19th century Ireland. It also has long-established links with the An Garda Síochána - it was also officially the church of the Dublin Metropolitan Police.

The former Church of Ireland parish church in Harold's Cross has been leased to the Moscow Patriarchate as Ss Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church. A substantial congregation made up of Orthodox immigrants to Ireland (mostly from the former Soviet Union, Eastern Slovakia and Poland)) along with native (mostly convert) Irish Orthodox attend services here. Services are conducted both in Church Slavonic and English with a smattering of Irish.

Historical notes

Irish Nationalist leader Robert Emmet was captured near Harold's Cross. He led an abortive rebellion against British rule in 1803 and was captured, tried and executed. The Grand Canal bridge linking Harold's Cross Road and Clanbrassil Street was named in his honour, where a plaque commemorates him.

The father of Pádraig Pearse, James, was a stonemason for Mount Argus Church. The 1916 Volunteers, who had a training ground in nearby Kimmage, are said to have paid a visit to Mount Argus Church to pray just before the 1916 Easter Rising.

O'Connor's Jewellers on Harold's Cross Road is noted for being one of the two famous robberies carried out by the notorious Dublin criminal Martin Cahill (who is also buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery).

Honour Bright, prostitute (real name Elizabeth (Lily) O'Neill), who lived in Harold's Cross, was murdered in June 1925, and her body found in the mountains. Dr Patrick Purcell, a medical doctor in County Wicklow, and Leopold J. Dillon, a Garda, were put on trial charged with the murder, but were acquitted. The murderer was never traced.

Notable people associated with Harold's Cross

• John Keogh, was a leading Irish campaigner who struggled to get Irish Roman Catholics the right to vote and the repeal of the Penal Laws. He had a large mansion in the Mount Jerome area of Harold's Cross, it was often visited by leading members of the Society of United Irishmen.

Sport

• Harold's Cross Stadium is one of two main greyhound racing stadia south Dublin city, the other being Shelbourne Park in Ringsend, both owned and operated by the Irish Greyhound Board

• Shelbourne FC, the League of Ireland side, played at the Greyhound Stadium during the period 1975-77 and again from 1983 to 1989 before moving to the refurbished Home ground of Tolka park.

• St Patrick's Athletic were the last League of Ireland club to play regularly at the Greyhound Stadium from 1989/90 up to November 1993, while work was being done to its Richmond Park home. Due to the upgrade of facilities in Harold's Cross, it is highly unlikely that football will be played there again. Brian Kerr managed the team during this period at the Greyhound Stadium.

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland

External links

• Mount Argus Church
• Greyhound Stadium
• Pope to canonise new Saint for Ireland
• [1], John Keogh