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A PLACE IN FOSTERSTOWN

Cremona House

A big house with two names, a townland name older than Napoleon’s Irish Legion, and a heritage venue in the making.

Illustrative image, not a verified photograph

The names

EstablishedCremona is a townland in the parish of Swords, in the barony of Nethercross. It sits beside Fosterstown North. The Placenames Database of Ireland lists it as a validated name and gives no meaning for it.

EstablishedThe name is old in the record. Logainm gives it as “Cremona” on Taylor and Skinner’s road maps, surveyed in 1777, on Duncan’s map of County Dublin in 1821, and in the Ordnance Survey records of about 1836. One 1836 entry in the OS Name Book reads “Mantua too near Cremona”, and does not say what it means. Logainm: Cremona

EstablishedCremona Heritage, which runs a heritage venue at the house and gardens, gives this account: “Cremona was so named in the 19th century by an officer returning from Napoleon’s Irish Legion, to honour a famous victory by La Brigade Irlandaise who liberated the city of Cremona in Italy from Austrian forces in 1702.” Cremona Heritage

EstablishedThat account does not fit the dates. Napoleon’s Irish Legion existed from 1803 to 1815, and the name is on a map surveyed in 1777. So the name cannot have been given by a returning Legion officer. Wikipedia: Irish Legion

Still to establishWho gave the name and when. The 1702 defence of Cremona by the Irish Brigade in French service is a natural reason for an Irish owner to choose it, and could still be the story with a different date and a different officer. Nothing we found shows it. Nor is it clear why a place nearby is called Mantua, another Lombard city, or what the OS note means.

The house

EstablishedIn 1837 Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland lists the residences of Swords parish, among them “Cremona, of Lieutenant Col: Gordon; and Mantua, of Mrs. Daly.” Topographical Dictionary, Swords

EstablishedCremona Heritage says the house and gate lodge were built in the late 18th century and were originally called Foxhall, on the road to a now-lost village called Furrows, which later became Forest Road. That is the venue’s own account.

ProbableOur earlier research notes record that a 2020 archaeological assessment for the nearby Fosterstown North scheme labels a building north of its site Cremona House on an earlier OS map and Fox Hall on the 1907 map, and dates it to the mid-18th century. If that is right, the order of names is the reverse of the venue’s: Cremona first, Fox Hall later. We could not re-open that document, because its project website is offline, so we have not checked it again.

Still to establishThe sequence of names, the build date (mid or late 18th century), who built it, and whether it is a protected structure. Search the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage at buildingsofireland.ie and Fingal’s Record of Protected Structures. We found no listing in our searches, which is not the same as there being none.

Who lived there

EstablishedThe census returns for the townland of Cremona, from the National Archives:

  • 1901: two households, five people. A retired lady’s maid, and a household headed by Emily Gore Cuthbert, a “land and house owner”, with a cook, a stable boy and a visitor.
  • 1911: two households, 14 people. Captain Richard D. O’Callaghan of the Royal Field Artillery Special Reserve, with his wife, two young children, a visitor and five servants (two nurses, a cook, a parlourmaid and a housemaid). And a gardener, Andrew O’Toole, with his wife, a son who was a motor driver and a daughter.
  • 1926: one household, 13 people, headed by James Dolan.

ProbableThe two larger households in 1901 and 1911, with servants, a stable boy and a gardener, were most likely in the big house. A census house number is not an address, and we have not seen the original returns, so we do not say so as fact.

Still to establishWho owned the house and when it passed out of gentry hands, how the Gordon of 1837 connects to what came later, and the link to the 1926 household. Griffith’s Valuation and the valuation books are the next records to read. If your family knew the house, tell us.

Today

EstablishedCremona Heritage describes the townland’s house and gardens as “an evolving venue” about Irish soldiers overseas, from the Tercio Irlandés of 1587 to the Irish Transvaal Brigade of 1899. Its website lists the house, gardens, a library, a shop, entertainment and private hire. The site is marked © 2023 and says “Events coming soon”.

Still to establishWhether it is open to visitors, when, and what planning permission covers its use. We found no planning record for it. Ask them through their website before you plan a visit.

EstablishedThe townland name now appears on development addresses: “Fosterstown North and Cremona, Forest Road”. See also the Boroimhe guide, which covers the lands next door.

What is planned

Cremona sits in the middle of the Fosterstown lands that Fingal wants built on. This list keeps the stages apart. Last checked 19 October 2026. For all of Fingal’s projects in Swords, see the plans page.

  1. 278 apartments at Fosterstown North and Cremona, Forest Road

    MKN Developments

    278 apartments and a childcare facility, the first of three phases. Residents brought a High Court challenge to the 2021 permission on grounds including over-development, splitting the project into phases, and building height.

    Awaiting decisionGranted 3 February 2021, quashed by the High Court on 29 July 2024, re-lodged on 13 September 2024 (case 320806) with a decision due by 10 January 2025. The case page shows no decision.

    An Coimisiún Pleanála, case 308366 · An Coimisiún Pleanála, case 320806 · Irish Times, 26 March 2021

  2. Large-scale residential application LRD0059/S3

    MKN Properties Limited

    741 homes (18 houses and 723 apartments) in blocks of three to eight storeys. Its address names Fosterstown North, Cremona, Forrestfields and Miltonsfields, between Forest Road and the Dublin Road, and includes the Fosterstown Link Road and the demolition of Kylemore House on Dublin Road.

    ApplicationReceived by Fingal on 8 June 2026. No decision was listed in the weekly list we read.

    Fingal planning list, week 24 of 2026 (Word file)

  3. Fosterstown Masterplan

    Fingal County Council

    Fingal’s 2019 plan for the lands between Forest Road and the R132 lists Cremona House among the existing places around them, beside Boroimhe, Rivervalley and Lidl. It asks for over 1,200 homes in total.

    PolicyAdopted May 2019. A planning framework, not a permission.

    Fingal, Fosterstown Masterplan (May 2019)

The Fingal Development Plan and the masterplan do not say what will happen to Cremona House itself, and none of the applications above states that we could see. Check the planning files if its future matters to you.

Sources

Cremona Heritage’s account is given as theirs, not as established fact, and nothing here is a criticism of the venue. People in the census are named only as they appear in the public returns.

Unofficial local summary, last checked 19 October 2026. All places · History of Fosterstown