river Dodder runs through Donnybrook and at one time there was a ford here. It is subject to periodic serious flooding and in 1628 one of the Usshers of Donnybrook Castle drowned while trying to cross. Civil parish Donnybrook is a civil parish consisting of sixteen townlands. All but four of these townlands are situated in the Barony of Dublin. Donnybrook is the single biggest parish in that barony. The most southerly townlands, Annefield, Simmonscourt and Priesthouse, belong to the barony of Rathdown. The smallest of these, Annefield, is itself an enclave of Simmonscourt which gives its name to a pavilion of the Royal Dublin Society. Today, the majority of Priesthouse is occupied by Elm Park Golf Club and the studios of RTÉ. The remaining townland of Sallymount - the parish's most westerly point - is in the barony of Uppercross. Donnybrook today The television and radio studios of the national broadcaster, RTÉ, are located in Priesthouse, Donnybrook. There is also a large Dublin Bus garage located in the area. Politics Donnybrook is in the Dáil Éireann constituency of Dublin Bay South and the Pembroke local electoral area of Dublin City Council. Education Donnybrook is home to the all-girls Muckross Park College. St. Mary's mixed primary school is located on Belmont Avenue. People Writers Patrick Kavanagh Anthony Trollope Flann O'Brien aka Myles na gCopaleen aka Brian O'Nolan, lived on Belmont Avenue Benedict Kiely Padraic Colum Brendan Behan Denis Johnston and his wife, the actress/director Shelah Richards Others Jack B. Yeats Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton John Boyd Dunlop (pneumatic tyre inventor) Guglielmo Marconi (wireless radio - lived in Montrose House, the family home of his mother's family the Jamesons of whiskey fame, now on the grounds of the national broadcaster RTÉ) Éamon de Valera (President of Ireland) Pádraig Pearse (a leader of the 1916 Easter Rising) The O'Rahilly (also a senior figure in the 1916 Easter Rising) Michael Collins (Chairman of the Provisional Government and commander-in-chief of the National Army. killed during the Irish Civil War in 1922) George E. H. McElroy (WWI fighter ace RFC/RAF) Garret FitzGerald (former Taoiseach of Ireland) Albert Reynolds (former Taoiseach of Ireland) Shane MacGowan (singer/lyricist for the Pogues) Méav Ní Mhaolchatha (Singer, former Celtic Woman) Frederick May (composer) William Downes, 1st Baron Downes (eminent nineteenth-century judge) Richard Gibson - Actor - Played part of Herr Otto Flick in sitcom series 'Allo 'Allo! Beatrice Doran, librarian,