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

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