Ballyboden

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Ballyboden
Baile Buadáin

Location

WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates:
53°16′55″N 6°17′24″W / 53.282, -6.29

Irish grid reference
O144289

Statistics

54 m

Population (2006)

5,193

Ballyboden (Baile Buadáin in Irish, meaning "Homestead of the Boden family") is a locality within the suburb of Rathfarnham in South Dublin. [reference?]

It is a suburban area at the foot of the Dublin mountains between Whitechurch, Ballyroan and Knocklyon.

According to the 2006 Census^[1], Ballyboden has a population of 5,193. Since 2002, the population has fallen slightly by 1.7%.

Damien Duff is one most famous person to come out of Ballyboden.

Ballyboden is best known for its Gaelic Athletic Association club, Ballyboden St. Enda's, although the club is today based in nearby Knocklyon.

[edit] The Parish of Ballyboden (RC)

The parish of Ballyboden was set up in 1973 and entrusted to the care of members of the Order of Augustine of Hippo.

The parish of Rathfarnham, which goes back to pre-Reformation times, is the parent of several other parishes in this part of south Dublin. Even after Terenure had been cut off from it in 1894, the parish still covered an enormous area until the middle 1960s. This is clear from a list of the parishes since carved out of its territories — a list which also shows how rapidly the city was expanding at that period: Churchtown (1965), Ballyroan (1968), Tallaght (1972) and Ballyboden (1973).

There had been an Augustinian house of studies in Ballyboden since 1955. It was the home of students of the Order following the two-year course in Philosophy prescribed for them. When the new church in Ballyroan was opened in 1966 with only one priest attached to it, the Augustinians began to take a more active part; in fact they had a contract to say four Masses there every Sunday.

When Ballyroan became an independent parish in 1968 with three priests assigned to it, the Augustinians continued to help, though to a lesser extent.

The Augustinians had been in the district since 1872 when they acquired Orlagh as their Novitiate.The outbreak of World War II in September 1939 made it impossible to send students to Rome from the Novitiate. The decision was made to transfer the university from Earlsfort Terrace to a new campus in Belfield in south Co. Dublin. It became clear that the students could not remain in Raheny. A search for an alternative site began, and several properties were inspected. The choice fell on St. Catherines, Ballyboden, which had been the residence of Mr. Justice O’Byrne and work on the new student residence, dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel, began in 1955.

The parish church was opened by Archbishop Ryan on 4th October 1981.