Father Matthew Bridge

There are many bridges over the Liffey and the site of what is believed to have been the first one – Ford of the Hurdles – is where the Father Matthew Bridge now stands. After the Norsemen arrived along the river and fought with the locals, a bridge was built on a shallow ford that lasted until the 11^th century. It was probably built of wood, ropes and stones and no doubt would have been repaired after flood damage. King John had a new bridge built in its place in 1214 and this lasted until it was washed away in the 1380s.

No replacement was built until the local Dominicans friars had a stone bridge erected in 1428, and this was known as Bridge of Dublin, and later as the Old Bridge. This bigger bridge had four arches, and towers at either end. There were numerous shops and housing on it, and there was also a chapel (still in use in 1762), an inn and a bakery. And as it was the only crossing point on the river all pedestrian, livestock and horse-drawn traffic used it.

Father Matthew Bridge

After almost four centuries use the northern end of the bridge collapsed and it was decided to replace it, and the version that we see and use today was completed in 1818. This new bridge was called the Whitworth Bridge in honour of the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Charles Whitworth.   This addition to the Liffey history is a masonry arch bridge which is 145 ft (44 m) long, with three elliptical arches. It was built for the Port of Dublin between 1816-1818 and was designed by George Knowles and James Savage, who had teamed-up for the nearby O’Donovan Rossa Bridge the previous year, and cost £26,000. . It was renamed as Dublin Bridge in 1922 before being retitled the Father Matthew Bridge in 1938, in honour of the founder of the Irish Total Abstinence Society who was inspired to save ‘one poor soul from intemperance and destruction’.

Father Matthew

Aras an Uachtarain

Aras an Uachtarain (The President’s Residence), in the Phoenix Park, is one of city’s most attractive buildings and a favourite with both locals and tourists. It was designed by amateur architect and park ranger Nathaniel Clements in 1751 and completed in 1757. The building was bought by the British Crown in the 1780s as the summer residence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, while his official residence was in the Viceregal Apartments in Dublin Castle. Soon the building became known as the Viceregal Lodge, which was occupied for most of the time from the 1820s onwards. 

Aras an Uachtarain

The road in front of the building, Chesterfield Avenue, is named after Philip Stanhope, 4^th Earl of Chesterfield, who was appointed Lord Lieutenant in 1745. During his short tenure in Ireland he opened The Park to the public, made improvements on the property and erected the Phoenix monument.

During visits by Queen Victoria in the 1850s and 1860s she planted trees in the garden, and thus began the practice of guests planting a tree when they visited the president. This was carried on by Douglas Hyde, the first Irish President, and continues to this day.

It seems fairly obvious that the building is where the President should reside, but there was a time when other places were considered. In 1922 Glenstal Castle in Limerick, with its history of medieval Irish and English architecture, was a popular choice. However, due to the difficult economic position of the new state, and its distance from Dublin, it was decided to look elsewhere.  

Apart from not considering the Aras as the President’s Residence, we are lucky to have the place at all. Eamon De Valera suggested that the building should be demolished to get rid of the colonial association, and replaced with something more suitable. However, the outbreak of World War II put an end to that plan, and by 1945 with the war over, the building had become very much associated with Douglas Hyde (from 1938) and the presidency.

Douglas Hyde

National Gallery of Ireland

After his visit to the successful Great Exhibition in London in 1851, William Dargan, the Father of Railways in Ireland, agreed to underwrite the costs of a similar event on Leinster Lawn in 1853. It was a huge success and the art pavilion particularly popular. This enthusiastic response was noted and a committee was formed to promote the creation of a national gallery. The land was purchased from the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) and the gallery as we know it today (on Merrion Square), was opened by the Earl of Carlisle on 30^th January 1864.

The National Gallery of Ireland

Back then the entire collection of paintings numbered around 120. However, due to the generosity of a few collectors, namely Henry Vaughan (31 watercolours by JMW Turner), the Countess of Milltown, and Sir Hugh Lane, the Director of the gallery who died when the Lusitania was sank in 1915. The Lane Fund continues to fund the purchase of paintings to this day. And George Bernard Shaw, the famous playwright, made a significant bequest where the gallery receives a third of royalties of his estate. As a young man he often visited the gallery, happy times that he never forgot.

The gallery made international news when it discovered Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ that until then thought lost or destroyed. The painting was restored and is now one of the gallery’s real gems. And the recently acquired La Vie des Champs (Life in the Fields) by the French post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne will no doubt prove to be a popular addition.

So much to see….

The addition of the Millennium Wing in 2002 provided a much-needed second entrance (on Clare Street), and it is where you will find the Gallery Shop, restaurant and new exhibition space. The gallery has much to offer, and its ethos ‘to provide a place where the people could learn about art’ is alive and well and eagerly encouraged.

It’s a ‘must see!

O’Donovan Rossa Bridge

It was the first of a pair of bridges designed by James Savage and constructed by George Knowles, both of which are still looking good after more than two hundred years. It was opened on the 17^th March 1816, and two years later they once again teamed up and the result was the Father Matthew Bridge which opened in 1818.  

O’Donovan Rossa Bridge

The bridge, the second oldest over the Liffey, was originally a timber construction and built by the developer Humphrey Jervis and called Ormonde Bridge in honour of the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Being a man who was not given to decoration the bridge had no railings, something that caused many an accident to pedestrians and animals alike!

A later version was badly damaged by floods in 1802 before it was decided to build a new stone bridge. A competition was held and James Savage’s design won in 1805, although the foundation stone was not laid until 1813. When it  was completed in 1816 (for a cost of £29,950) is was called the Richmond Bridge after the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Duke of Richmond.

The bridge is made from granite quarried in Wicklow, and it has a span of 45 metres. It is 15 metres in width, and this made it wider, when completed, than any bridge over the Thames in London. It’s a three-arch construction and the three keystones that face east represent Plenty, Anna Livia and Industry, while those facing west show Commerce, Hibernia and Peace.

Like many other bridges it had another name change, this time in 1922, to O’Donovan Rossa Bridge. This was in honour of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, the Fenian leader who was born in Rosscarbery, County Cork, in 1831. Having seen the terrible damage done by the Famine he got involved in politics, and became a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1865 but was released in 1871 and went to America where he died on 29^th June 1915.

O’Donovan Rossa Memorial, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin

Atmospheric Railway

Following a patent in 1839 Samuel Clegg and the Samuda brothers set up a demonstration of an atmospheric railway at Wormwood Scrubs in England. The directors of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway were impressed by the system and determined it would be a suitable means to extend their existing line from Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) to Dalkey. James Pim (Junior), the treasurer of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, became an enthusiastic supporter of the atmospheric system and began preparations to extend the service to Dalkey using it.

In 1841 he sent a letter to Viscount Morpeth indicating the expected cost of the work to be £15,000, with William Dargan as contractor and Charles Vignoles as engineer. The Harbour Commissioners granted land for the project which adjoined the line known as The Metals. It got its name from the haulage of granite from the Dalkey quarries down the steep hill for the building of the Dun Laoghaire piers. The line was opened in July 1844, with trains leaving every thirty minutes from 8am to 6pm.

Atmospheric traction was only used for the climb to Dalkey where there were no buffer stops, and trains sometimes ran right through the station and off the rails! Gravity, however, took charge of the downhill journey, and when the train slowed before the station the unfortunate third-class passengers had to push while the others walked.

In August 1844 the line was visited by the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and other representatives of the Great Western Railway. They subsequently constructed the 20 mile (32 km) South Devon Railway which operated with atmospheric propulsion.

However, maintaining proper atmospheric conditions was no easy task. The leather flaps, which were an integral part of keeping the system air-tight and operating at its best, were covered in grease and this became a problem. The smell attracted rats that gnawed at them, rendering them not only expensive to repair but hindering performance. The last Atmospheric Train ran on Wednesday 12^th April 1854.

The Quays – Dublin

Dublin is a city defined by the river Liffey – Northside and Southside – and its boundaries are the quays which developed over the centuries. From the time when the Vikings arrived in their longboats (evidence of their habitation and artefacts were found at Wood Quay in the 1970s) to the development of the modern quays in the 17^th century, much water has indeed passed under various bridges, and still the work continues.

The Quays from Liberty Hall

In the early 1680s the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, First Duke of Ormond, wanted to enrich the city and suggested that the river should be narrowed by building stone quays with houses and shops facing the river, thus breaking with the medieval tradition. Ormond Quay was the first such quay built and named in honour of the Lord Lieutenant, by the developer Sir Humphrey Davis. Ormond also established a royal hunting park in the Phoenix Park and built the wall that cost £31,000 in 1669.

The quays now stretch from the Sean Heuston Bridge in the west to the Tom Clarke Bridge (formerly the East Toll Link Bridge) in the east, a distance of nearly 4.3 kilometres. There are 17 bridges over the Liffey, with the oldest being Mellows Bridge (1768) and the latest is the Rosie Hackett Bridge (2014).

Some of the city’s most celebrated building are on the quays, namely, The Custom House (1781) and The Four Courts (1786-1802). There is also the old Corn Exchange (on Burgh Quay), the Convention Centre Dublin and the massive Guinness Brewery at Kingsbridge.

James Gandon’s wonderful Custom House

Only Usher’s Island and Bachelors Walk do not have the ‘Quay’ designation.

The quays, not surprisingly, often feature in art and literature. James Joyce’s famous work The Dead (from his book Dubliners) is set in a house on Usher’s Island. The Liffey Swim by Jack B Yeats shows the quays crowded with people excitedly cheering on the swimmers. This painting won a Silver Medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics, with Yeats becoming the Free State’s first Olympic medal winner.

The Royal Canal

The Royal Canal is the second of the canals that reach the Shannon River from Dublin, and was opened in 1817 some thirteen years after the Grand Canal. Work began in 1790 and the total cost of construction was £1,421,954.

It is 90 miles long and there are 46 locks to navigate. On its way from Dublin it passes through Maynooth, Enfield, Mullingar and Ballymahon. At the Dublin end it passes by Croke Park, where the terrace close to it is called the ‘Canal End’ before it reaches Spencer Dock then the Liffey, and the Dublin Bay beyond.

Brendan Behan memorial at Whitworth Road

The canal was constructed for the dual purpose of freight movement and passenger transport to-and-from the centre of the country. It was very popular and profitable for many years before being slowly undermined by the introduction of the railway, and later by road haulage. And by the 1970s it had fallen into disuse and plans were considered to fill in sections of it and construct a road. These, thankfully, were challenged, and work by the Royal Canal Amenity Group and Waterways Ireland saw the canal fully reopened in 2010.

Broome Bridge, near Castleknock, has a special place in Irish and scientific history. For it was here, on the 16^th October 1843, that mathematician William Rowan Hamilton, who lived in Dunsink Observatory, in a moment of inspiration, realised the solution for quaternions, a problem he had been working on for some time. Excited by what he had discovered, he scratched the solution on the bridge with his penknife. This moment is celebrated annually at the bridge on the 16^th October, now known as Broome’s Day.

The canal has featured in a famous song from the play The Quare Fellow by Brendan Behan. It is set in Mountjoy Gaol where Behan had spent some time, and refers to the metal triangle that was beaten to waken inmates.

And the auld triangle went jingle-jangle

All along the banks of the Royal Canal

(Photo: Dennis Fisk)

St Helen’s

It was a place that I had passed many times but had not visited until recently, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. The old, Georgian-era house – now the Radisson Blu Hotel – has a wonderful history and it is a real treat.

St Helen’s front elevation

Built on land owned by Viscount Fitzwilliam in 1750 its first occupant was Thomas Cooley who was a barrister and Member of Parliament. And, due to the fact that it was built on a gentle slope and had a great view of Dublin Bay, it was known as Seamount.

The property has changed hands many times and was bought in 1851 by Lord Hugh Gough (born in Limerick 1779) who changed its name to St Helen’s, and lived there until he died in 1869. He had fought with distinction under the Duke of Wellington (born in Dublin 1769) in the Peninsular War and was wounded at the Battle of Talavera in 1808. In 1815 he was knighted, and later made a field marshal in a ceremony held in St Helen’s.

In 1899 Sir John Nutting bought the property and spent a lot of money extending and improving it. He had it faced with the distinctive Portland Stone, and inside Carrara marble is to be seen in the floor and fabulous pillars. In the Dining Room there is a beautiful copper border around the walls and a magnificently decorated fireplace. Apart from the house he also spent heavily on landscape gardening, lawns and stables. Later, he was given the title of Nutting Baronetcy of St. Helens. He died in 1918 and the house was bought by the Christian Brothers who used it as their headquarters until 1988. It was again on the market before its current operators, Radisson Blu Hotels, arrived in 1998.

St Helen’s gardens

Listed as a National Monument in 1994, and often referred to as ‘one of the most beautiful houses in the country’, there is plenty to see and enjoy here.

Dundrum – Corner of the Pale

Like many small villages in and around Dublin, Dundrum grew slowly and quietly until the introduction of the Dublin South East Railway in 1854. This was constructed by William Dargan, Ireland’s first ‘railway mogul’. The line was operated until 1958 when it closed amid much controversy, only to be reopened with the introduction of the LUAS in 2004. The elegant, new bridge, named after the line’s creator, reflects the nature of change and rebirth that the area has seen.

William Dargan Bridge, Dundrum, Dublin

In 1971 a modern shopping centre opened across the road from the Dundrum train station. It was the second of its kind in the country (Stillorgan S/C being the first) and dominated the neighbourhood for years.

In response to the recent level of construction in the area new roads were built which bypass the old village. Holy Cross church is still a refuge of peace, and along with the red-brick terraces, standing for over a century, give the main street a quiet, almost timeless air. The 17^th century St Nahi’s Church is an interesting place where you can see the baptismal font used for the christening of Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, and the grave of George Johnstone Stoney, the Irish physicist who introduced the term electron as the ‘fundamental unit quantity of electricity’.

St. Nahi’s Church

The library, which now almost sits under the new bridge was opened in 1914. It was one of many libraries funded by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, and it is still a busy place even in the expanding digital age. The contrast between the old building beneath the towering new bridge conjures up a sense of progress with an acknowledgement to the past. For a village that was once at the corner of the Pale – the area established by Henry II between 1171-72 and where English rule was established – Dundrum is now very much at the centre of things and moving forward.

William Dargan

William Dargan, one of Ireland’s most important engineers of the 19^th century, was born on the 28^th February 1799 in County Carlow. He attended local school where he excelled at mathematics, before getting a position in a surveyor’s office in Carlow. By 1819, and with the help of local MP Henry Purcell, he was working with the renowned engineer Thomas Telford on the important Holyhead to London road. In 1824, and back in Ireland, he assisted Telford on extending the Howth Road from Raheny to Sutton, leading Parnell to describe the road as “a model for other roads in the vicinity of Dublin”. He also was assistant manager for three years on the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal, as well as adding more roads in Dublin, Carlow and Louth.

William Dargan

Busy as he was he did find time to marry Jane Arkinstall on the 13^th October 1828 in the Church of St Michael & All Angels, Adbaston, Staffordshire, but they had no children.

In 1825 when the Irish parliament decided to construct a railway from Dublin to Kingstown – DKR (now Dun Laoghaire) he became committed to setting it up, and along with the engineer, Charles Vignoles, they designed the route and the line was opened on the 17^th December 1834. It was very successful, and it was the earliest dedicated commuter in the world. Other lines were completed: Dublin to Drogheda, and the Great Southern and Western Railway. He contributed nearly eight hundred miles of track to the rail network and was rightly called the ‘Founder of Railways in Ireland’. He also designed the Ulster Canal, connecting Lough Erne and Belfast, which was a difficult but brilliantly handled project.

Dargan Bridge, Dundrum, Dublin

In 1853 he was the lead promoter for the Great Exhibition that was held on the lawns of Leinster House. Afterwards, he was involved in the creation of the National Gallery of Ireland on the same site, and a statue to him stands outside the main entrance.

He died on the 7^th February 1867, and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery.