placenamesKilmore
An Choill Mhór
The Dublin district’s modern development can be traced through its housing allocation, parish formation and acts of remembrance after the Stardust fire.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- An Choill Mhór · Irish · main form · validated name
- Kilmore · English · main form
Place & story
Buying a home in the new estate
Dublin Corporation developed the Kilmore estate west of Coolock during the late 1960s. The documented street history of Kilmore Close records houses offered under the tenant purchase scheme, allowing Corporation tenants and people on the housing list to buy through repayments to the local authority. Houses were reported ready in February 1967 and advertised that September. Demand greatly exceeded supply: 1,616 applicants paid ten-pound deposits to enter a draw for 288 homes. The figures give a concrete measure of the pressure for housing as this district developed. [2]
Keeping the Kilmore name
The estate’s streets took their name from the existing townland of Kilmore. An early-1980s proposal sought to replace their Kilmore names with Woodville, after nearby Woodville House. A name stone was erected, but the attempt failed because most residents opposed the change. Local institutions also developed their own identities as the population grew: the Archdiocese of Dublin records Kilmore West parish as established in 1972 from Ardlea, with Saint Luke the Evangelist Church on Kilbarron Road. [2] [3]
Stardust Memory roses
The Stardust fire on Kilmore Road in the early hours of 14 February 1981 killed forty-eight people and deeply affected the surrounding communities. On the eve of its twenty-first anniversary in 2002, families gathered at the Stardust Memorial Park in Coolock to plant twenty-four bushes of a specially commissioned rose called Stardust Memory. Christine Keegan, who lost two daughters, attended, and her daughter Lorraine planted one of the roses. Representatives of the fire service, Gardaí and politicians joined the families in this act of public remembrance. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kilmore. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Kilmore Close, with cited contemporary housing reports · Streets broad and narrow
- Kilmore West parish history · Archdiocese of Dublin
- Stardust fire victims remembered, 14 February 2002 · Christine Newman, The Irish Times
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2024-06-28. How this page was prepared.