Brief History of Malahide

by the late Tom O'Shea.
Paddy's Hill, overlooking Malahide Estuary, is the earliest evidence we have of a habitation site in the area C.6000 B.C. The Fir Domhnainn are also reputed to have settled here, where they remained "fishing and fowling" for a few hundred years. Tradition has it that St. Patrick visited the locality in 432 A.D. The Vikings landed in 795 A.D. and the Danes were resident in 897 A.D. McTurkill the last Danish King of Dublin retired to Malahide in 1171, from whom the Normans took over in 1185. The modern name Malahide ( Mullagh h-Ide ) probably derives from this time, meaning the sand hills of the Hydes, a Norman family from the Donabate area.

From the 12th. Century onwards, Malahide developed around the Talbot Castle. In 1547, it was described as one of the chief haven towns of Ireland because of its very safe harbour. At the turn of the 19th. Century a small village had developed; coal, slate and timber was imported; Yellow Walls cotton mill and Killeen Terrace ribbon factory were in operation; the local Talbot Bank issued 25,000 bank notes and Malahide was justly proud of its coal yard, sawyers factory, steam bakery and saltworks. In 1831, the total population was 1223 of which 90 labourers were each earning 15 pence per day.

In the 1880's cod liver oil was being exported to England and the Scott's Emulsion trademark of a man with a huge cod on his shoulder is said to have been modeled on a Malahide fisherman. In the latter part of the 19th.Century with the advent of the railway, Malahide became a tourist resort and a residential town. In the 'twenties the buses came and croquet was played alongside the Band Garden on Sundays. In the 'thirties there was greyhound racing at Gaybrook while many Malahide men earned 11.5 pence an hour in the building of Dublin Airport. But the greatest change of all came in the 'sixties when Malahide became attractive to speculative builders and Malahide's first housing estate, Ard-Na-Mara came into being in 1964. Since then, though the population has mushroomed in a major way, Malahide Village has still managed to retain an old-world elegance about it.