Harolda s Cross got its name from a cross which marked the boundary of the lands owned by the Archbishop of Dublin, and the lands of the Harold clan in the 1500s.

Today Harolda s Cross is a bustling thoroughfare, and although it is now a suburb on the south side of Dublin, it was once akin to the best little town in Ireland, being completely self-sufficient, with schools, churches, shops, pubs, hospital, orphanage, convents, monastery, cinema, a major cemetery, mills and factories, park, canal, large and small houses, dog track, barracks, and many farms and orchards.

For its residents, it has a rich and varied history, which is beautifully captured in this book of archive photographs.