Editing Finglas (section)

===Early modern period===
{{further|History of Ireland#Early modern Ireland (1536–1691)}}
The Finglas or Finglass family,  who were prominent in the legal profession and in politics in the sixteenth century, took their name from the district. The family were recorded in Termonfeckin and Dublin but many of them had by the mid-1700s taken up residence in Drogheda (where they participated in the 1798 Rebellion); newspaper accounts report their opening up the Boyne River for salmon fishing.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

In 1649, the [[James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond|Duke of Ormonde]] used Finglas as a staging post for his army before launching an unsuccessful [[Siege of Dublin (1649)|Siege of Dublin]].

Following the [[Battle of the Boyne]] in 1690, Finglas was used as a camp for four days by [[William III of England|William of Orange]] en route to Dublin city. While there he issued the [[Declaration of Finglas]], offering a pardon for many of [[James II of Ireland|James II]]'s defeated supporters.

For almost two centuries, Finglas was well known for its "[[May Day|May Games]]" to celebrate May Day and the coming of spring, and its [[maypole]] "was one of the last to survive in Dublin", according to historian Michael J. Tutty.{{sfn|Tutty|1973|page=70}}
Throughout the eighteenth century, the Finglas
maypole was at the centre of a week of festivity which included "the playing of games, various competitions, and, according to one
account the crowning of 'Queen of the May'."{{sfn|Tutty|1973|page=70}} In a letter written by [[Henry Charles Sirr (town major)|Major Sirr]] dated 2 May 1803, he writes:
:'' "Godfrey and I went to Finglass and found everything in order. Major Wilkinson, who resides, there, waited upon me... and told me there was not the smallest occasion for military aid nor was there the least possibility of any disturbance... I ordered the guard to return to Dublin and these gentlemen and their families seemed quite rejoiced that the old custom of Maying was not to be interrupted in Finglass where that amusement has been kept up for a century past without ever being curbed before".''{{sfn|Tutty|1973|page=70}}