Qualla: Fingal

Fingal: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CeltBrowne, CC BY-SA 4.0. The name is Norse. Fingal comes from Fine Gall - tribe of foreigners - the medieval Gaelic term for the Vikings who settled the coast north of Dublin starting in 841 AD. The locals here once spoke their own hybrid tongue, called Fingallian: a creole of Old English, Middle English, Old Norse, and Leinster Irish that survived in pockets until the mid-19th century. The county itself is much younger than its name; the modern Fingal was created on 1 January 1994, when the old County Dublin was broken up into three successor counties. But the territory has a continuous identity going back more than a thousand years. The coat of arms shows a Viking longboat above the motto Lan Mara is Tire - Abundance of Land and Sea.

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Image: CeltBrowne | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fingal: The Foreigners' Coast

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. The Vikings reached Dublin in 841 AD, abandoned the settlement in 902, then returned in 917 to build the city that would become the seat of the Norse Kingdom of Dublin. At its peak that kingdom stretched along the Irish Sea from Drogheda to Arklow, with its westernmost point at L...

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Fingal: King John's Grant

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sarah777 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. In 1208 King John of England granted Walter de Lacy the Lordship of Fingal in perpetuity. The grant - recorded in the Rotuli Chartarum, the chancery rolls of King John's reign - made Fingal a palatine lordship under the same terms as the larger Lordship of Meath, with the king re...

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Image: Sarah777 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Fingal: The Language That Disappeared

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Darrin Antrobus, CC BY-SA 2.0. Until the mid-19th century, people in pockets of north Dublin spoke a unique hybrid language called Fingallian, sometimes called Fingalian. It blended Old and Middle English with Old Norse and Leinster Irish, retaining medieval grammatical features long after standard English had...

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Image: Darrin Antrobus | CC BY-SA 2.0

Fingal: The Modern County

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sabrina Manfield, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 1 January 1994 the old County Dublin was abolished and replaced by three successor counties: Fingal to the north, South Dublin to the southwest, and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown to the southeast. The 1991 local election had already used the new electoral areas. Fingal's county hall ...

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Image: Sabrina Manfield | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fingal: Vegetables, Airports, and Pipes

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0. Fingal is Ireland's primary horticultural region. The county produces 50 percent of the national vegetable output and 75 percent of all glasshouse crops grown in Ireland. The rich soils between Lusk and Rush still grow the strawberries, leeks, and salad crops that supply much of ...

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Image: N Chadwick | CC BY-SA 2.0