Chapelizod

Northside village suburb of Dublin city, Ireland

Chapelizod is a village preserved within the city of Dublin, Ireland. It lies in the wooded valley of the River Liffey, near the Strawberry Beds and the Phoenix Park. The village is associated with Iseult of Ireland and the location of Iseult's chapel. Chapelizod is under the administration of Dublin City Council.

The civil parish of Chapelizod is part of the barony of Castleknock. The parish consists of a single townland of the same name. However, 465 acres are within the walls of the Phoenix Park while the village proper, outside the walls, contains only 67 acres. It is the only parish of the barony that lies outside the territory of the modern county of Fingal.

The origins of Chapelizod are obscure. There is evidence of Neolithic settlement between the southern ridge of the Phoenix Park and the Liffey and several burial mounds exist to the north of the village. Aerial photography has also revealed several prehistoric and early medieval settlements in the vicinity of the modern village. Aside from these archaeological remains, the etymology of the village indicates an association with Princess Iseult or Isolde from the Arthurian legend of Tristan and Isolde; the village derives its name from a chapel consecrated in her honour. The historical record details the establishment of a manor by Hugh Tyrell after the Anglo Norman invasion of 1169. In 1177, Tyrell, Baron of Castleknock, granted lands at Kilmainham to the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem (Knights Hospitallers). The grant included a portion of the land that now makes up Phoenix Park and Chapelizod. In 1200, the land in Chapelizod was leased by King John to Richard De La Field, and was leased by the family for 200 years. During the 1500s, crown yeoman and chief sergeant of County Dublin, Robert Savage, lived in Chapelizod. In the 1600s, Sir John Davies, Attorney General for Ireland, and Sir Henry Power lived in the area. The south western portion of Chapelizod is served by Go Ahead Ireland route L55 which runs hourly. There are no train or Luas stations in Chapelizod.

Chapelizod is a parish in the Blanchardstown deanery of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin. In the 19th century, the parish of Blanchardstown in the Catholic Church encompassed much of the area now within the Dublin 15 postal district. Following the relaxation of the Penal Laws, it became possible for Catholics to consider the construction of additional churches and to repair the existing stock of religious buildings. St Brigid's Church Blanchardstown, not to be confused with a church of the Church of Ireland in nearby Castleknock, was constructed in 1837 upon the foundation of a church that had been built prior to 1731. It is the mother church of 12 other churches constituted out of the parish over the following 156 years. Among these was the church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The parish separated from Blanchardstown in 1883. The eastern part of the new parish was, in turn, constituted out of Chapelizod in 1953 as the Navan Road parish of Our Lady Help of Christians.

In the Church of Ireland, the church of St Laurence, with its 14th century bell tower, is one of two churches that today form part of the parish of Crumlin, Dublin.

In elections to Dublin City Council, Chapelizod is part of the local electoral area of Ballyfermot–Drimnagh.

Interesting buildings in the village include the church of St Laurence (Church of Ireland) with its medieval bell tower. The well proportioned Georgian house, where Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu once resided in his early childhood, stands at the corner of Park Lane facing Main Street in front of the church. The renovated old Royal Irish Constabulary barracks on Main Street predates the old Constabulary, serving as an army barracks from the reign of William and Mary. Chapelizod Community Festival is held annually between the first and second Sundays in July. First held in 1994, the festival is run by volunteers and funded mainly by local business sponsors.

The village is the setting of Le Fanu's novel The House by the Churchyard and his short story "Ghost Stories of Chapelizod". In James Joyce's short story "A Painful Case", published in Dubliners, it is the home of the unsociable protagonist James Duffy, who "lived in Chapelizod because he wished to live as far as possible from the city of which he was a citizen and because he found all the other suburbs of Dublin mean, modern and pretentious." It is the setting—as well as the scene of the home and hostelry of the protagonist Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, his wife Anna Livia Plurabelle, and their family Shaun, Shem and Issy—in Joyce's final major work, Finnegans Wake.

Chapelizod is home to Chapelizod Cricket Club (CCC). CCC have previously won the Kumasi Cup. The Chapelizod Sports Stadium hosted greyhound racing from 1949 to 1961 and hosted speedway from 1950 to 1961. Chapelizod is also home to Chapelizod F. C., an association football club which won the United Churches 3B league in 2012. The club also won the Sydney Bellow cup and the league shield in 2013.