History of Kildare
The origin of the name Kildare (Holiday Apartments, Kildare, Ireland) is from the Gaelic, Cill Dara, meaning Church of the Oak Tree, referring to St. Brigids church beneath an oak tree. St. Brigid was one of the three patron saints of Ireland. St. Brigids church was built on the same location as a shrine to the Celtic goddess Brigda, with which the legend of St. Brigid is suspected to be tied.
Kildare was an important military strategic area in the time of the Anglo-Norman occupation. British military outposts came into being in Kildare in the 1700s. The Curragh, in Kildare, has been the training base for the national army since Ireland became an independant country in the early 20th century.
Kildare (Bed and Breakfasts, Kildare, Ireland), a county of Ireland, province of Leinster, 37 m. long and 20 broad; bounded E by Dublin and Wicklow, W by King’s county and Queen’s county, N be E. Meath, and S by Catherlough, and containing 593 English acres, divided into 100 parishes. It sends 2 members to parliament. Its principal rivers are the Liffey, Barrow, and Boyne. A unique plain called the Curragh stretches across County Kildare (Self Catering, Kildare, Ireland), which is famous for horseracing, breeding and it has been the main training base for the Irish Army. Naas which comes from the Irish N� na Riogh, the assembly of Kings 
was the seat of the Kings of Leinster. There is a butterfly farm in Straffan, County Kildare (Holiday Homes, Kildare, Ireland). Before the arrival of the Normans, the region was part of the territories of the O’Byrnes and O’Tooles. Following the granting of the county to the Norman Fitzgeralds, these were forced to migrate east, into the barren and impregnable Wicklow Mountains. The Fitzgeralds became earls of Kildare and, later, Dukes of Leinster, and were virtual rulers of Ireland up to the sixteenth century. The seat of the Irish Oireachtais (parliament), Leinster House in Kildare Street, Dublin is named for these Fitzgeralds. In recent years, the county has seen a large growth in its population, due almost entirely to the expansion of the suburbs of Dublin.