The Dublin tramways system was extended into the South Circular Road in February 1896 when a line was built from Leonard's Corner to Dolphins Barn.

[6] The first Jews fleeing conditions in Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire) arrived in the early 1870s and eventually settled off Lower Clanbrassil Street.

On 1 July 1943, the South Circular Road was the scene of a robbery by the IRA, then hard-pressed by the Irish Government of Éamon de Valera due to the ongoing war.

Charlie Kerins, IRA Chief of Staff at the time, and his fellow militants Archie Doyle and Jackie Griffith arrived on bikes at the gates of Player Wills factory on the South Circular Road.

In the "Ithaca" chapter of Joyce's Ulysses, the question is posed:"Had Bloom discussed similar subjects during nocturnal perambulations in the past?"