Harold's Cross

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

1 Location
2 Name
3 Features
4 See also

[edit] Location

Harold's Cross is situated north of Terenure, west of Rathmines, east of Crumlin, 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.

[edit] Name

One explanation of the origin of the title 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 the execution ground for the city of Dublin during the 18^th century and earlier.

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.

[edit] 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 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. Another famous grave is that of William Rowan Hamilton, the famous Irish mathematician. 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.

Other religious presences include St. Clare's Convent and the adjacent Monastery of Mount Argus, part of whose lands has now been extensively developed.

Harolds Cross is also the site of one of only two greyhound racing tracks in Dublin (Harold's Cross Stadium), the other being Shelbourne Park in Ringsend.