Blanchardstown

Blanchardstown is a large suburb of Dublin in Fingal, Ireland, located 10 km north-west of the city centre. It is within the historical barony of Castleknock, the Dublin 15 postal area and the Dublin West electoral constituency, and the largest urban area in the county. The 2011 Census recorded a population of 68,156 in Blanchardstown and its immediate environs. In 2016, the population increased to 120,000, It is within Ireland's fastest growing local authority area of Fingal and is larger than Galway and Limerick Cities. Blanchardstown is also a parish in the Blanchardstown deanery of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin. One of Ireland's largest shopping and leisure centres, the Blanchardstown Centre, is located in the parish.HistoryBlanchardstown has grown up alongside its smaller, neighbouring town, Castleknock. Both towns shared a common history until well into the 19th century, when their development diverged. The name Blanchardstown comes from the Blanchard family, who were granted their estate some time between 1250 and 1260. The name 'Blanchard' is thought to come from the old French word blanch, meaning white, and could refer to white or fair hair. The townland has an area of over 454 acres. Blanchardstown was a rural village in western County Dublin until the late 1960s, when the first housing estates began to be developed. It developed in tandem with neighbouring settlement Castleknock, both of which grew rapidly from the early 1970s to the present. During the 1970s/80s, the village became subsumed into the suburban fabric of Dublin. The Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown (ITB) was established in 1999.