History
The town's origins date back to 560 AD when it was founded by Saint Colmcille (521-567). Legend has it that the saint blessed a local well, giving the town its name, Sord, meaning "clear" or "pure". However, An Sord also means "the water source" and could indicate a large communal drinking well that existed in antiquity. St. Colmcille's Well is located on Well Road off Swords Main Street. Sord may also refer to a "sward", an 'expanse of grass'.
In 1994, Swords became the county seat of the new county of Fingal after the breakup of the former County Dublin; in 2001, it also became the administrative centre for Fingal, upon the completion of Fingal's County Hall.
In June 2006, the R.N.L.I. Ireland officially opened its new all-Ireland headquarters at Airside Business Park, within greater Swords. The new Irish H.Q. was officially opened by Her Excellency President Mary McAleese. In attendance at this Presidential ceremony was Admiral Sir Jock Slater, R.N., a former British First Sea Lord then serving as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the R.N.L.I..
Read more about this topic: Swords, Dublin
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)