The population of Swords has continually altered down the years, from its beginning as a prosperous and important medieval settlement (1300 ) , to a bastion of the pale (1600), a colonised ascendancy town (1700) , and then finally to a somewhat rural backwater , (1900), a place you passed through going somewhere else !.The 1940 aerial picture above shows Swords still fixed within it’s 1200 ad medieval boundaries, it’s burgages ( long narrow medieval plots) still very prominent on the eastern side , and with little further development in evidence..In contrast ,the modern expansion of Swords shown in this 1970 aerial shot shows the building of St Columchille’s, an estate located directly on the hill behind the monastic site. Along with River Valley, these two particular housing estates began a process of population growth and resettlement that has made the Swords of today among the fastest growing places in Ireland. Can we successfully manage the change?