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City In Neighbouring Republic Of Ireland
Dublin City
(Baile Atha Cliath)
Co Dublin
Dublin the capital of Ireland is built around the banks of the River Liffey. Dublin Port straddles the estuary on the shores of Dublin Bay. In the 18C this fair city enjoyed a period of prosperity from which it has preserved many of its neo-classical buildings and elegant Georgian terraces. Several garden parks and greens provide an oases of tranquillity of which Pheonix Park (1.752 acres) is the Queen of them all. The residential suburbs extend north to the Bun of Howth and south to Dalkey Headland. Sandy beaches are only a short distance south of the city as are the lush green valleys of the Wicklow Mountains( Kippure 2,473 ft higest peak) that sweep down to meet the Irish Sea.
Viking Settlement.
Dublin derived it's name from Dubh Linn, the dark pool at the confluence
of the Poddle and the Liffey;the Irish name,Baile Atha Cliath,
means the city of the hurdle ford. The Vikings established the
first permanent settlement beside the Liffey in the 9C at Wood Quay;
at the Battle of Clontarf on the north shore of Dublin Bay in 1014 Brian
Boru curbed their power.
The Old Town
The heart of old Dublin occupies the ridge between the Liffey and its southern tributary, the Poddle River, which is now an under-ground stream. Modern Civic Offices of Dublin Corporation now stand on the Viking settlement, Wood Quay (4 acres), this site was excavated in 1974-1981 revealing the remains of 150 Viking buildings at 13 different levels (AD920-1100). Dublin castle was built on the south side of the ridge overlooking the River Poddle. The town gradually expanded westwards along High Street into Corn Market, where vast quantities of grain were sold for export during the middle ages. Little remains of the old buildings in Fishamble Street, where Molly Malone was born and is said that Handel conducted the first preformance of Messiah to raise funds for the Rotunda Hospital. The Liberties was the name given to the area further south and west, which lay outside the jurisdiction of the mediaeval city; here the buildings vary from 17C high gable houses built by French Huguenot refugees to 19C mansion flats as well as 20C modern housing estates.
Literary Dublin.
Several Noble Prize winners figure in the long roll of Dublin-born writers
who have achieved international fame-Swift, Mangan,Wilde, Shaw, Yeats, Synge,
O'Casey, Joyce, Behan, Beckett. Their places of residence are marked with
plaques and the major figures are named together with their work in a literary
parade in St Patrick's Park.
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