We know that in the past, Swords definitely had stone walls surrounding it.Queen Elizabeth 1 in 1575 called Swerdes (Swords) ‘…our good and walled town of Swerdes.’

But just where are these walls? Lacking physical evidence, the patterns of footfall around the village give us a good indication of how things looked back in medieval days. The passage shown in both pictures is called locally the ‘gut’, presumably because of it’s constricted width.

In fact,this old alleyway was the site of the postern(secondary) gate for Sword’s walls.The main gate of the medieval town had to be located where the main roads meet, ie just down from Witherspoons on main street.This particular gate was rarely opened, being heavy and cumbersome, with folk generally entering the town via this smaller ,postern one.

The earlier picture reveals that the outside wall of the present-day pizza shop, was in fact part of the original town walls of Sword. The complex of buildings jutting out from main street here were part of the defensive medieval main gate complex of Swords.

This upper, southern section of Swords was for centuries the heart of the English garrison here, with St Columbas ,the Vicarage (Glebe) , RIC barracks (Church street) and toll booth, all nearby .Older inhabitants of Swords have told me they felt that this area was the more ‘protestant’ part of the village, the later developing main street being mainly Irish and nationalistic in their outlook.