St Stephen’s Green (Irish: Faiche Stiabhna) is a garden square and public park located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current landscape of the park was designed by William Sheppard. It was officially re-opened to the public on Tuesday, 27 July 1880 by Lord Ardilaun. The square is adjacent to one of Dublin’s main shopping streets, Grafton Street, and to a shopping centre named after it, while on its surrounding streets are the offices of a number of public bodies as well as a stop on one of Dublin’s Luas tram lines. It is often informally called Stephen’s Green. At 22 acres (8.9 ha), it is the largest of the parks in Dublin’s main Georgian garden squares. Others include nearby Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square. read more…
Dublin Docklands (Irish: Ceantar Dugaí Átha Cliath) is an area of the city of Dublin, Ireland, on both sides of the River Liffey, roughly from Talbot Memorial Bridge eastwards to the 3Arena. It mainly falls within the city’s D01 and D02 postal districts but includes some of the urban fringes of the D04 district on its southernmost side. read more…
The Grand Canal (Irish: An Chanáil Mhór) is the southernmost of a pair of canals that connect Dublin, in the east of Ireland, with the River Shannon in the west, via Tullamore and a number of other villages and towns, the two canals nearly encircling Dublin’s inner city. Its sister canal on the Northside of Dublin is the Royal Canal. The last working cargo barge passed through the Grand Canal in 1960. read more…
The Liberties is an area in central Dublin, located in the southwest of the inner city. One of Dublin’s most historic working-class neighbourhoods, the area is traditionally associated with the River Poddle, market traders and local family-owned businesses, as well as whiskey distilling, and, historically, the textiles industry and tenement housing. Many places in The Liberties still have connections with a turbulent past in which political upheaval or dire poverty were the order of the day. In the 17th century, parts of them became wealthy districts, when the weaving crafts of the immigrant Huguenots had a ready market around the present day Meath Street Market, and a healthy export trade. read more…
Temple Bar is an area on the south bank of the River Liffey in central Dublin. The area is bounded by the Liffey to the north, Dame Street to the south, Westmoreland Street to the east and Fishamble Street to the west. Unlike other parts of Dublin’s city centre, it is promoted as Dublin’s cultural quarter and has a lively nightlife that is popular with tourists. After dark, the area is a major centre for nightlife, with many tourist-focused nightclubs, restaurants and bars. Pubs in the area include The Temple Bar Pub, The Porterhouse, the Oliver St. John Gogarty, the Turk’s Head, Czech Inn (in the former Isolde’s Tower), the Quays Bar, the Foggy Dew, The Auld Dubliner and Bad Bobs. The historic name of the district was not Temple Bar but St. Andrews Parish. It was a suburb of medieval (Anglo-Norman) Dublin, located outside the city walls, but it fell into disuse beginning in the 14th century because the land was exposed to attacks by the native Irish. The land was redeveloped again in the 17th century, to create gardens for the houses of wealthy English families. Many sources agree that Temple Bar Street got its name from the Temple family, and specifically Sir William Temple (provost of Trinity College from 1609-1627), whose house and gardens were located there in the early 17th century. However, given the existence of a storied district of the same name in London, it seems that the new Temple Bar street of Dublin must have been a nod to its older and more famous cousin. read more…
The Trinity College Library, located at Trinity College, Dublin, is the largest library in Ireland. As a “copyright library”, it has legal deposit rights for material published in the Republic of Ireland; it is also the only Irish library to hold such rights for the United Kingdom. read more…
The Creative Cities Network is a project under the patronage of UNESCO. With the aim of celebrating and maintaining cultural diversity, the alliance formed by member cities share their experiences in promoting the local heritage, as well as discuss plans on how to cope with the influx of globalization. The Creative Cities Network aims to find and enrich a member city’s cultural identity in the midst of a growing trend towards internationalism. read more…
Dublin is the largest and capital city of Ireland. The English name is derived from the Irish name Dubh Linn, meaning “black pool”. It is a primate city with an urban population of over 1 million, containing almost 25% of the country’s population. Dublin is situated near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey, and at the centre of the Dublin Region. Originally founded as a Viking settlement, it evolved into the Kingdom of Dublin and became the island’s primary city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century, and for a brief period was the second largest city within the British Empire and the fifth largest in Europe. After the Act of Union in 1800, Dublin entered a period of stagnation, but remained the economic centre for most of the island. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, the new parliament, the Oireachtas, was located in Leinster House. Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State and later of the Republic of Ireland. read more…
