Qualla: Swords

Swords: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rossyxan, CC BY-SA 4.0. Brian Boru's body passed through Swords in 1014. The High King of Ireland had been killed in his tent at the Battle of Clontarf on Good Friday, 23 April, after his Irish forces had broken the power of the Vikings of Dublin. His body was carried north toward Armagh for burial, and along the way it stopped at the small monastic settlement on Spittal Hill in Swords. A requiem mass was said in the church beside the round tower that still stands at the centre of town. Spittal Hill takes its name from a medieval hospital that once stood there. The round tower, 26 metres tall, is the only structure in Swords that Brian Boru's mourners would still recognise.

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Image: Rossyxan | CC BY-SA 4.0

Swords: The Pure Well

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rossyxan, CC BY-SA 4.0. Swords was founded, by tradition, in 560 AD by St Colmcille - Columba - the Irish prince-turned-missionary who would later sail north to found the monastery of Iona on the Scottish island of the same name. Colmcille is said to have blessed a well of clear water on what is now Wel...

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Image: Rossyxan | CC BY-SA 4.0

Swords: The Archbishop's Castle

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BaronNethercross, CC BY-SA 4.0. The medieval manor of Swords was Crown property, but it was traditionally granted to the Archbishop of Dublin for his lifetime. Swords Castle - 200 metres northeast of the old ecclesiastical site, at the northern end of Main Street - was built in the early 13th century as the arc...

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Image: BaronNethercross | CC BY-SA 4.0

Swords: The County Town That Was Not

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert Linsdell from St. Andrews, Canada, CC BY 2.0. Swords sent two MPs to the Irish House of Commons until the Acts of Union of 1801 disenfranchised it. The population in 1841 was 1,788. For the next century and a half it remained a quiet market village on the Dublin road. The change came in the 1970s with the construction of the...

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Image: Robert Linsdell from St. Andrews, Canada | CC BY 2.0

Swords: Beside the Airport

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathan Billinger, CC BY-SA 2.0. Dublin Airport sits a few kilometres south of Swords, and the relationship between the two has shaped both. The airport prevents the town from sprawling southward; the Broadmeadow Estuary blocks expansion to the east. Many residents work at the airport or in the business parks al...

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Image: Jonathan Billinger | CC BY-SA 2.0

Swords: Wells Beneath the Car Park

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Paterson, CC BY-SA 2.0. When enabling work on the new Cultural Centre began at Swords Castle in April 2023, archaeologists found two medieval wells beneath the existing car park. The wells were carefully excavated, recorded, and removed for potential display in the finished building. The find was a usef...

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Image: Ian Paterson | CC BY-SA 2.0