Palmerstown (Irish: Baile Phámar; officially Palmerston, see spelling) is a civil parish and suburb in western Dublin on the banks of the River Liffey. It forms part of the South Dublin local authority and the Dublin Mid-West parliamentary constituency. The area is bordered to the north by the River Liffey and the Strawberry Beds, to the west by Lucan, to the south-west by Clondalkin, to the south by Ballyfermot and to the east by the village of Chapelizod. Palmerstown village is situated near the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre. The area is situated near the major junction of the M50 motorway and the N4. It lies approximately 7 km west of O’Connell Street in Dublin city centre. The Old Lucan Road, once the main route from the city to the west, passes through the centre of Palmerstown village.

A “palmer” in medieval times was a pilgrim who returned from the Holy Land with a palm branch or leaf.[2] Between 1185 and 1188 Ailred the Palmer and his wife took religious vows and founded a priory and monastic hospital of Crutched Friars outside the West Gate of Dublin, on the road to Kilmainham, which they endowed with all their property.[3] In 1188 Pope Clement III confirmed the priory’s grants, including both the parish of Palmerstown west of Kilmainham and the other parish of Palmerstown northwards in Fingal.[3] Gerard Lee notes an association of palmers with leper hospitals, of which there was one dedicated to Saint Laurence in the townland of the Saint Laurence in Palmerstown.[2][4]