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Blanchardstown (Baile Bhlainséir in Irish) is a sprawling outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The area is located 10km north-west of Dublin City. The area covers most of the An Post postal district Dublin 15. Unfortunately, it is mainly administered from local authority headquarters many miles away and suffers from a lack of active political representation.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Population 3 Amenities 4 Education and business 5 Transport 6 Clubs and Societies 7 See also 8 External links 9 References

The town's name means "estate of a family called Blanchard, an Anglo-Norman surname. The name was recorded in 1385 as villa de Blanchard.

The 2006 Census recorded a population of 90,952 in Blanchardstown and its immediate environs. However, if the greater area is included this figure is much larger and the area is on a par with cities like Galway and Limerick, although with much worse facilities.

The suburb is the location of Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown as well as some prominent multinational companies like IBM, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Symantec and eBay.

Blanchardstown suffers from ongoing traffic problems becaause of a severe lack of public transportation and from the use of the area by people from many miles away as a short cut or parking zone. The bus services is totally inadequate, resulting in long waits at bus stops and overcrowded buses. The train service is so bad that it can be difficult to get on trains as they pass the local Castleknock bridge station. The village itself is used by rat-running traffic routinely.

The area is located just beyond the M50, lying just past one of the main junctions on the orbital motorway, slightly to the north of the tolled crossing of the River Liffey. This junction is routinely clogged with traffic.

Most areas in Blanchardstown are still served by the same bus networks (routes 38 and 39) that have been in place since the 1970s, when its population was a fraction of what it is today. Although some concessions have been made with plans to electrify the current rail service (something that was suggested almost 15 years ago), and the extension of the METRO line (due sometime in 2012), it seems too little, too late. A proposal for a metro link to the Swords and Tallaght will fail to solve the area's problems as demand for transortation is radial (into Dublin city) and this will not be assisted.

The average journey time for the 6 mile trip to the city centre for most commuters from the greater Blanchardstown area peaks at up to 2 hours, which is disproportionately higher than the European average. This same journey took 30 minutes in 1970. Curiously, of the two more frequent services running to and from Blanchardstown, only one goes through the shopping centre. The buses that pass through the Blanchardstown centre are the 39, 39c, 39x, 236, 237, 239, 70, 76a, 220 and 270. The 38 bus comes into quite a close location without having to enter the actual centre. The privately owned URBus also travels through the centre going to and from Swords via Dublin Airport. The majority of delays in the area occur close to the village of Blanchardstown and the by-pass, perhaps due to low road capacity.

• St. Brigid's GAA Club
• Blanchardstown United & Hartstown United Football Club - Soccer in Dublin 15
• Blanchardstown Brass Band
• Karate in Blanchardstown- Corduff & Hartstown Shotokan Karate Clubs
• Corduff FC
• St Peregrine's GAA club
• Mountview Boys and Girls FC

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• Fingal County Council
• Map of Blanchardstown
• Blanchardstown Shopping Centre
• The National Sports Campus Development Authority
• Institute of Technology Blanchardstown
• Blanchardstown United & Hartstown United Football Club - Soccer in Dublin 15
• St.Brigids GAA Club
• St Brigids Boxing Club - Boxing Club in Dublin 15
• The Dublin 15 Community Council

Coordinates: 53°23′N, 6°23′W