About the Association

The Foxrock South Residents Association is a voluntary group representing households in the Cornelscourt Hill, Kerrymount Rise, Hainault Drive, Hainault Grove, Hainault Lawn, Kerrymount Mall, Kerrymount Green, Kerrymount Close and Gort na Mona Drive  areas of south Foxrock, covering some 230 homes.

Our mission is to to promote and enhance our local area and act as a voice for our community across a range of issues. 

Founded in the mid 1970's the association has along track record of working to improve our locality though events, community meetings, outreach, as well as liaising with local council departments, the Gardai, planning authorities, Irish water, telecom providers and other local community groups.

The association committee members are volunteers who give their time to help the group and the neighbourhood, particularly the elderly or those needing support. We actively welcome new members and have an active diversity and inclusion ethos. If you are interested in finding out more please contact us.

We have an annual (modest) subscription to support the activities of the association. These funds go back into the area through community events, landscape maintenance, planning application oversight and legal costs.


A very brief history of Cornelscourt, Foxrock and surrounding areas
Cornelscourt: Extensive neolithic remains have been found in the area but the earliest written record of the name Cornelscourt is from 1326. Variously known over the centuries as Cornellston, Cornerstown, Cornelyscourt, Cornettscourt, Cornerescourt and Villa Corner (or Cornere), Cornelscourt was associated with the family of Thomas de la Cornere from about 1250. A simple Norman fortified manner house became a stone castle around 1350, located behind the now unoccupied and overgrown house "Bridgemount". It had a moat and subsequently a tower. 
It is difficult to estimate the height but was probably 3-storey to give line of sight to other fortifications in the area.
Some historical pottery has been found in the gardens locally, and pottery was a significant industry due to the heavy clay nature of the soil (as gardeners will attest). The village that grew ​up beside the castle had group of 6-8 cottages located behind what is now the Indian restaurant. Strategically the castle was positioned to secure the approach from the south on the edge of the pale and possible as a tax gathering centre on passing traffic. It was also located conveniently to the stream that now flows underneath the green.  The da la Cornere's were an extensive and wealthy family, with members holding titles including Bishop of Meath, Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, heads of merchant guilds and Lord Mayor of Dublin. 

In 1850, there were ten households in the village, all on the southern side of the road. The ten houses consisted of the group of eight
cottages, and 2 more substantial houses, much smaller than the present structure on the site of the small Dunnes shop (previously the Magic Carpet) and one other on the site of the present Indian restaurant (which is the old village National School building, established in 1844.)

Nicholas Byrne opened a grocery business in what was the Magic Carpet in 1846 and this continued trading until the 1950s when it became a public house, but is now returned to the grocery trade under Dunnes. Foxrock mart was situated on Mart Lane.

Bridgemount was built in the early years of the twentieth century. One of the first occupants was Steve Donoghue, a famous English jockey, who lived in Ireland from 1907 to 1911. Many stories are associated with the house and its use as a safe house in the War of Independence.

Ramayo's (formally Aldo's) takeaway was originally a butcher's shop then became a bicycle repair shop and subsequently Foxrock Cycle and Motor Works. When Cabinteely village RIC Barracks was burnt down by the IRA during the Civil War, in July 1922, the barracks was relocated to the upper floor of the premises and also to the Foresters' Society Hall which was located between the old school and Bridgemount.

Foxrock is a much more recent development, and not to be confused with the long vanished Foxrock house which was some miles away (see the map above). ​The suburb of Foxrock was developed by William and John Bentley, and Edward and Anthony Fox who in 1859, leased the lands of the Foxrock Estate from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Richard Whately, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin. The aim was to create an affluent garden suburb within commuting distance of Dublin. The development was facilitated by the existence of the Harcourt Street railway line, built in 1854. The developers donated a site to the Dublin Wicklow and Wexford Railway ompany for Foxrock railway station, which opened in 1861.

Some famous locals include Samuel Beckett, writer (born in 1906 in Cooldrinagh, on Kerrymount Ave.), Joe Dolan (from Tresillian estate in Foxrock),  the broadcaster Miriam O'Callaghan and Horace Plunkett (agricultural reformer and senator, whose house Kilteragh was burnt down in 1923 by the Anti-Treaty IRA during the Irish Civil War.)