The name of Taylor (Fr:Taileur=’Cutter’) began with the Norman invasion of 1170.Colonel James Fitzeustace Taylor (1834-1915), the last resident of Swords House had a distinguished British Army military career. In the Egypt campaign of 1882, Colonel Taylor was severely wounded in the thigh, for which bravery he won the Egypt medal.

Retiring to Swords house in Sept 1889, he became a Justice of the Peace (JP) as well as serving on many local committees. James Taylor never married, effectively extinguishing the Taylor family line in Swords House. The Taylors were a Catholic family, an unusual occurrence for landed folk of north Co Dublin.
The site of the earlier Swords House is now occupied by Fingal Co Co. Offices. For centuries this earlier site had beautiful gardens and a lodge-house, the Taylor Swords demesne extending right up to the Malahide Road and eastwards, 700 acres in all.

Having three stories over a basement, this house was the social centre of Swords for the ‘gintry’ of county Dublin. The fine Irish oak trees we see there today are the direct descendants of the original Swords House tree gardens.

James Taylor also provided the land to Fr Vincent Carey, a Dominican, to build St Columchille’s church in 1827. Fr Carey also had a special path through Sword’s house to attend his priestly duties. Being so prominent in the area, the Taylor family had their own personal entrance to the church, as well as their own family seating.

The carefully posed 1900 picture conveys the ordered, gentrified image of the great house typical of that day, maid, chauffeur, gardener and boy all posing in front of ‘their’ house.

Forsaking their city centre offices in 2000, Fingal Co Co established County Hall here, effectively making Swords the administrative capital of Fingal. Swords House was demolished in the 1980s, effectively ending the Swords connection of centuries with the influential Taylor dynasty.

For more information please contact Mike at: Mp9211198@gmail.com