Lord James Talbot of Malahide Castle donated the club's land and was the first President. Lawn tennis was a very new sport then; the Wimbledon Championship having started only two years earlier. There were three grass courts, roughly where courts 7,8 and 9 are now and shortly afterwards a croquet lawn was added at the road end of the three courts. A small pavilion stood roughly where the car park barrier is located today.
Membership was small in the early years, slowly rising to about 60 by the 1920s. Like many tennis clubs in those times, MLTCC was elitist; people had to be invited to join and many non-professional people received letters politely explaining that the Club had sufficient members. In 1929, the Club colours, royal blue, rose and silver, were registered with the Irish Lawn Tennis Association, and these are still the colours on our flag today.
By 1953, when membership stood at about 75 our first Ladies' Captain, Mrs. Dorothy Browne was elected and for the first time the Club entered a team in class 3 of the Dublin Tennis League. A men’s team was not entered into the league until 1961, when Mr. John Sheridan was appointed as the first Men’s Captain.
Children of members had been allowed to play tennis at certain times when the courts were not required by adults, but even by 1960 junior membership was still limited to 30. The Club was slowly becoming less elitist and the number of adult and junior members gradually rose during the decade. Towards the end of the decade, the playing of croquet ceased and a fourth grass court was constructed.
In 1965 in response to the growing membership, two further grass courts were constructed. The old clubhouse was far too small and a new clubhouse was opened in 1972. To pay for all this work, membership was opened up to everybody and in 1973 stood at 196 seniors, 58 students, 49 juniors and 89 pavilion members.
During the later 70s and early 80s, the grass courts were all converted to hard asphalt courts and later to savannah. Work then began on the present clubhouse which was opened by An Taoiseach Charles Haughey in 1992. However, the upstairs bar was much smaller and lacked a view over the sea; this was rectified by substantial modifications carried out in 2010. In 2023, when membership was about 900 playing adults and 650 juniors, the Club was proud to upgrade courts 3,4 and 5 to Tiger Clay.
