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

Dun Laoghaire’s Piers – Walk This Way!

East Pier

Generations of people have been taking a ‘walk on the pier’ and it is something that I have always enjoyed. Whether the day is warm and a gentle breeze blowing or you are wrapped up against a bracing wind, ‘taking the air’ is a real pleasure. The sharp, salty air never fails to clear a stuffy head, and the long walk is a favourite for thousands.

West Pier & Poolbeg’s Twin Towers

The waters in Dublin Bay often silted up making it difficult for ships to land and they would have to stay moored off-shore for days. A small pier was opened in 1767 (Coal Harbour Pier) but it soon became useless. After two disasters in November 1807 when the HMS Prince of Wales and The Rochdale sank with the loss of 400 people there was an outcry for ‘something to be done.’ In 1815 an Act of Parliament was passed for the construction of ‘a harbour for ships to the eastward of Dunleary’, and the foundation stone (East Pier) was laid in May 1817 by Earl Whitworth, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The granite was quarried in Dalkey and transported by a funicular railway that later became the Atmospheric Railway. By 1820 the original plan was amended by engineer John Rennie to add a second pier, and the West Pier was completed in 1827.

Early evening

The East Pier (red for port) is 2.6 K (out & back) while the West Pier (green for starboard) is slightly longer at 3.01 K. They enclose a 250 acre harbour and the gap between them is 232 metres. The East Pier is the more popular with walkers and has a bandstand (built 1890s) where, weather permitting, music concerts take place. There is also a memorial to Captain Boyd and his crew who drowned in 1861 during a rescue. And you can see a plaque in honour of Samuel Beckett who also liked to ‘walk the pier’ – Happy Days!

A picturesque Dun Laoghaire Harbour