Ringsend is named from the Gaelic Roinn Aun, meaning Sea Point. In the 17th century it took over from Dalkey as Dublin's main port, and it was in Ringsend that Oliver Cromwell landed in 1649 with over ten thousand soldiers.

Irishtown, beside Ringsend, was founded in the mid 1400s when Dublin Corporation ordered all people of Irish blood to leave the city within a month. The area outside the city walls that they moved to became known as Irishtown.