With their wide, leafy roads, large houses, a canal, parks and pretty villages like Sandymount, the residential suburbs of Dublin 4 are among the most exclusive areas of the city to live in and include Donnybrook, Ballsbridge, Sandymount, Ringsend and Irishtown. Long popular with embassies and diplomatic offices – the American Embassy in Ballsbridge is a landmark – the area stretches from the Grand Canal to Ballsbridge and Merrion in the south, Sandymount in the east and Donnybrook in the west, home to UCD and to the national broadcaster, RTÉ. Dublin 4 also includes the traditionally working-class areas Ringsend and Irishtown, though with the economic boom and development in the nearby docklands at Grand Canal Quay, prices in these areas have long been catching up with their counterparts a couple of streets away.

Dublin 4 – or ‘D4’ as it is often known – along with other areas of south Dublin like Foxrock, Dalkey and Killiney, has historically been an area where the elite set up residence. Rich, influential people – lawyers, accountants, stockbrokers, doctors and senior managers – have traditionally preferred D4, which has resulted in some of the highest property prices in the country. The term Dublin 4 or ‘D4’ is used by people, often as an insult, to refer to people who are elitist upper middle class, and the area is also known for having its own ‘D4 accent’.