Douglas is a outlying area in Cork City and the name given to the Roman Catholic parish in which it lies. In the later part of the 18th and the 19th century, a number of ‘big houses’ were built in the area, homes for Cork City’s merchant princes. These included Donnybrook House, Castle treasure House, Grange House, Maryborough House, Douglas Hall and Mount Vernon, which had one of the earliest examples of a domestic central-heating system in Ireland.
Douglas has two golf courses – Douglas Golf Club at Maryborough Hill and Frankfield Golf Club, where there is also a range. There’s also a pitch and putt club, and GAA clubs in the area include the Douglas GAA and Nemo Rangers hurling and football clubs. Nemo Rangers were historically associated with Turners Cross, but moved to a new location in the Trabeg area of Douglas in the 1990s.
There’s a division of sorts between east and west Douglas, with the east village being the focus of much new development. Commercially, Douglas is now based around two large shopping centres – which have taken some of the life from the old centre, but also serve to draw people and jobs into the area from neighbouring suburbs.