South Dublin - Legal Status and Terminology

Legal Status and Terminology

In Ireland, the usage of the word county nearly always comes before rather than after the county name; thus "County Clare" in Ireland as opposed to "Clare County" in Michigan, US. In the case of those counties created after 1994, they often drop the word county entirely, or use it after the name; thus for example internet search engines show many more uses (on Irish sites) of "South Dublin" than of either "County South Dublin" or "South Dublin County". There appears to be no official guidance in the matter, as even the local authority uses all three forms.

Following the enactment of the Local Government Act 2001, South Dublin became part of the Dublin Region within the remit of the Dublin Regional Authority.

Local government in the region is further regulated by the Local Government Act 1994. This provided for the legal establishment of the following local government administrative areas:

• Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown
• Fingal
• South Dublin

and also recognised the extant Dublin Corporation area, vesting its powers in a renamed entity - Dublin City Council. The statutory instrument giving effect to the Act came into force on 1 January 1994 The instrument also provided for the abolition of Dublin County Council - the entity that had proviously had responsibility for Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. The four entities collectively comprise the former entity known as County Dublin. This entity, which had been created during the Norman invasion of Ireland, was abolished under the Acts.

South Dublin was based on an existing electoral division, Belgard (An Bealach Ard), whose boundaries were only finalized in 1993, to accommodate the M50 motorway, and then used when it was made an Administrative County in 1994 (Fingal and Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown's boundaries and names were both set in 1985). The name of Belgard did have a historical association with the area, being the designation of one of the border fortresses of the Pale that existed in that area. It was altered however due to a view that the name Belgard might create associations with areas of modern development in Tallaght that now also use that name. Various organs of state use alternative subdivisions of the Dublin region for administrative reasons, for example the Dublin postal codes.