Long absorbed into the sprawl of the city, the site retains a layered history that stretches back at least to the sixteenth century, when it served as a burial place for one of the most powerful Anglo-Norman families in the region.

The Fitzwilliams, who held considerable lands in south County Dublin during the sixteenth century, chose this church as their family burial ground, a detail recorded by the historian F. E. Ball in 1903. The practice of a prominent family claiming a particular church or chapel as their funerary site was common in medieval and early modern Ireland, cementing a connection between dynastic identity and sacred space. By 1748, the church was significant enough to be referenced in a legal deed, a document noted in a 1920 publication by H. Bantry, suggesting the site remained a recognised landmark well into the eighteenth century.

Donnybrook is easily reached from central Dublin, lying roughly three kilometres to the south-east along the River Dodder. The area is best explored on foot or by public transport, and those with an interest in the site should be prepared for the contrast between its historical weight and its present urban context. The church itself is not a grand ruin demanding attention from a distance; rather, it rewards those who come already knowing something of its past, looking for the details that speak to its former role as a place of worship and commemoration for the Fitzwilliam family.