placenamesNewtownpark
Páirc an Bhaile Nua
Newtownpark’s surviving country house and Church of the Guardian Angels mark successive phases in the development of this part of south County Dublin.
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
- Páirc an Bhaile Nua · Irish · main form · validated name
- Newtownpark · English · main form
Place & story
Newtownpark House
Newtownpark House was standing by 1788 and was altered in 1805. Its compact, two-storey form includes a columned Corinthian entrance portico and curved rooms towards the rear. The architectural inventory records oval entrance halls and surviving decorative plasterwork. These features preserve something of the house’s earlier domestic character through its later use as a nursing home. [2]
Ward and the later owners
The inventory associates the house’s construction with Ralph Ward, Surveyor General of Ordnance in Ireland. Later connections include John Armit, Secretary of the Board of Ordnance, the banking Close family and Senator Edward Augustine McGuire. The sequence links the property with military administration, finance and public life across several generations. [2]
A church for the growing suburb
Housing development in the early 1960s increased the need for a church serving Newtownpark. The Daughters of Charity provided land for the church and adjoining school. The Church of the Guardian Angels opened on 5 November 1967, blessed by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid. Its establishment formed part of the district’s transition from estate land to a densely settled suburb. [3]
Charles Ellison’s design
Architect Charles D. Ellison used reinforced-concrete framing, a copper roof and alternating panels of concrete and stained glass. The parish history records that the design was revised in response to the Second Vatican Council, placing the altar at the crossing of the cruciform plan so that Mass could be celebrated facing the congregation. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Dublin
- Barony
- Rathdown
- Civil parish
- Kill
- Within
- Newtownpark
- Coordinates
- 53.27952, -6.18572 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1412150 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Newtownpark. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Newtownpark House, registration 60230093 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Our Roots: history and design of the Church of the Guardian Angels · Newtownpark Parish
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2011-11-10. How this page was prepared.