Qualla: Kilbride, County Wicklow

Kilbride, County Wicklow: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sarah777 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. On 5 February 1923, an IRA flying column burned Tinode House in Manor Kilbride to the ground. Eight days later, on 13 February, the same force returned and burned Kippure House in the same parish. In April that year, Free State troops arrived at Mooney's Public House looking for John Moore, a former British Army soldier turned member of an Irregular flying column; Moore ran out the back and was shot dead before he could reach cover. The Irish Civil War was unkind to Kilbride. Three of its principal houses went up in flames in a single year. The village sits on the western edge of the Wicklow Mountains, where the Brittas River meets the Liffey north of Poulaphouca Reservoir, and its valleys have been a land of war and uneasy peace for a thousand years.

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Image: Sarah777 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Kilbride, County Wicklow: Mountain Edge

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sarah777, Public domain. Manor Kilbride sits in a valley framed by Goldenhill and Cromwellstownhill to the west and Butterhill to the east. The civil parish covers 11,591 statute acres - mostly mountain and blanket bog - and runs up to the peaks of Seefin at 621 metres, Seefingan at 723 metres, and Kippu...

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Image: Sarah777 | Public domain

Kilbride, County Wicklow: Land of War, Inside the Pale and Out

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Murphy, CC BY-SA 2.0. The medieval lordship of Kilbride sat right on the boundary of the English Pale. The fortified settlements at Rathmore and Kilteel guarded its western edge, and beyond them the Wicklow uplands were terra guerre - land of war - controlled by the Gaelic O'Toole and O'Byrne families...

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Image: William Murphy | CC BY-SA 2.0

Kilbride, County Wicklow: Granite from Golden Hill

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sabrina Manfield, CC BY-SA 3.0. From the slopes of Golden Hill above Kilbride came granite that ended up in some of Dublin's most famous buildings. Nelson's Pillar - the great column with Admiral Nelson on top of it that stood on O'Connell Street from 1809 to 1966, when the IRA blew the upper half off it - was ...

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Image: Sabrina Manfield | CC BY-SA 3.0

Kilbride, County Wicklow: Civil War, Civil Peace

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonas Witdoek, CC BY 2.0. Kilbride army camp was established in 1894 when 1,552 acres in Shankill were taken under compulsory purchase. The Royal Irish Constabulary briefly used it; Black and Tan troops were quartered there during the War of Independence. The camp passed into the hands of Irish forces on ...

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Image: Jonas Witdoek | CC BY 2.0