Harold'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, Harold'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, bars, a hospital, an orphanage, convents, a monastery, a cinema, a major cemetery, mills and factories, a park, a canal, large and small houses, a dog track, 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.