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History of Dublin. The city of Dublin can trace its origin back more than 1,000 years, and for much of this time it has been Ireland's principal city and the cultural, educational and industrial centre of the island.
- Overview
- Character of the city
- City site
- Climate
- City layout
Dublin, city, capital of Ireland, located on the east coast in the province of Leinster. Situated at the head of Dublin Bay of the Irish Sea, Dublin is the country’s chief port, centre of financial and commercial power, and seat of culture. It is also a city of contrasts, maintaining an uneasy relationship between reminders of earlier political and...
Dublin is a warm and welcoming city, known for the friendliness of its people and famous for its craic (“crack”)—that mixture of repartee, humour, intelligence, and acerbic and deflating insight that has attracted writers, intellectuals, and visitors for centuries. It has faded grandeur and a comfortably worn sense. Some one-fourth of the residents...
Dublin’s geographic site is superb. Situated at the head of a beautiful bay, the city straddles the River Liffey where it breaks eastward through a hill-ringed plain to the shores of the Irish Sea. (The dark bog water draining into the river made the “black pool” that gave the city its name.) Almost certainly, this opening from the sea—leading thro...
Dublin enjoys a maritime temperate climate. The average temperature is lowest in January–February, 42 °F (6 °C), and highest in July–August, peaking at about 68 °F (20 °C). Most sunshine is in May and June and averages four hours a day. The mean annual rainfall is 30–40 inches (760–1,000 mm), although more falls in the surrounding mountains. There are fewer than 10 days of snow per year.
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Apart from the port area and the docks, Dublin is a low-built, steepled city, with few buildings dating from before the 17th century. The Roman Catholic churches are 19th- and 20th-century structures. The 17-story Liberty Hall (built 1961–65 as a trade-union headquarters), long Dublin’s tallest building, has been joined by a spate of new high-rise offices and apartments. Still, most of the buildings are no higher than 5 or 6 stories.
The three elements that constitute the architectural legacy of Dublin—Norse, Norman, and Georgian—all meet in Dublin Castle. In the first two decades of the 13th century, the Normans obliterated the Norse stronghold and raised a château-fort. When the Georgians built the present red-brick castle, they left two towers of the old structure standing. The castle—the seat of British authority in Ireland until 1922—is now used for ceremonial occasions, especially the inauguration of the republic’s presidents, who reside at Áras an Uachtaráin (“the President’s House,” formerly the Viceregal Lodge) in Phoenix Park, and for local and international conferences. The castle also is the home of a number of cultural organizations, notably the Chester Beatty Library.
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Close to the castle a Norse king of Dublin built Christ Church Cathedral (c. 1030), which was replaced about 140 years later by a more magnificent Norman structure. By the 19th century the edifice was in ramshackle condition; it was restored in the 1870s at enormous cost. Its neighbour, St. Patrick’s, erected just outside the city walls, was also originally a Norse church that may have been built on an earlier Celtic foundation. Rebuilt by the Normans in 1191, it was enlarged and partially rebuilt over the centuries. It was in a state of collapse when Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, the brewing magnate and a lord mayor of Dublin, financed its restoration in the mid-19th century. Christ Church is the cathedral for the diocese of Dublin and Glendalough, whereas St. Patrick’s, unusually, is not the seat of a bishop. Both have been Church of Ireland (Anglican) churches since the Reformation. In 1949 the funeral of Douglas Hyde, the first president of the Republic of Ireland, was held at St. Patrick’s. Because of the Roman Catholic Church’s prohibition of its members’ attending Protestant services, the whole Irish government, apart from its two Anglican members, attended in the foyer of the cathedral. The Pro (for Provisional) Cathedral on Marlborough Street, to the east of O’Connell Street on the north side, is the principal Roman Catholic church. It was completed in 1825 and is the seat of the archbishop of Dublin and primate of Ireland.
The area between St. Patrick’s and the Guinness Brewery on the Liffey is known as the Liberties, located outside the old city walls and so named because it was subject to private jurisdiction and not to the king or the town. In the years after World War II, large tracts of this district were cleared for low-cost housing.
- John O'beirne Ranelagh
Discover the history of the city of Dublin since its foundation as a Viking settlement called Dyflin, to the end of the British rule and the present day.
4 days ago · Dublin - Viking, Medieval, Capital: From prehistoric times people have dwelled in the area around Dublin Bay, and four of Ireland’s five great roads converged near the spot called Baile Átha Cliath, the name stamped by Dublin’s postmark.
- John O'beirne Ranelagh
History. The area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times; fish traps discovered from excavations during the construction of the Convention Centre Dublin indicate human habitation as far back as 6,000 years ago.
Dublin’s history stretches back over a millennium. Back in the fourth century, the first known settlement here was built in the Cornmarket area of the city centre. It was called Áth Cliath – which means ‘Hurdled Fort’ and continues to inspire the modern Irish translation today.
The first documented history of Dublin begins with the Viking raids in the 8th and 9th century. These led to the establishment of a settlement on the southside of the mouth of the Liffey, named Dubh Linn (Black Pool) after the lake where the Danes first moored their boats.
