Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SIGHTS
Take in the sights on a historical tour of the River Liffey and Dublin Port with Sea Sa-
faris (
Click here
).
CUSTOM HOUSE
( 10am-5pm Mon-Fri, 2-5pm Sat-Sun; all city centre)
Georgian genius James Gandon
(1743-1823) announced his arrival on the Dublin scene with this magnificent building
(1781-91), constructed just past Eden Quay at a wide stretch in the River Liffey. It's a co-
lossal, neoclassical pile that stretches for 114m topped by a copper dome, beneath which
the visitor centre features a small museum on Gandon and the history of the building.
When it was being built, angry city merchants and dockers from the original Custom
House further upriver in Temple Bar were so menacing that Gandon often came to work
wielding a broadsword. He was supported by the era's foremost property developer, Luke
Gardiner, who saw the new Custom House as a major part of his scheme to shift the axis of
the city eastwards from medieval Capel St to what was then Gardiner's Mall (now
O'Connell St).
Best appreciated from the south side of the Liffey, its fine detail deserves closer inspec-
tion. Arcades, each with seven arches, join the centre to the end pavilions and the columns
along the front have harps carved in their capitals. Motifs alluding to transport and trade in-
clude the four rooftop statues of Neptune, Mercury, Plenty and Industry, destroyed when
the building was gutted in a five-day fire during the independence struggle in 1921, but re-
placed in 1991. The interior was extensively redesigned after 1921 and again in the 1980s.
Below the frieze are heads representing the gods of Ireland's 13 principal rivers, and the
sole female head, above the main door, represents the River Liffey. The cattle heads honour
Dublin's beef trade, and the statues behind the building represent Africa, America, Asia
and Europe. Set into the dome are four clocks and, above that, a 5m-high statue of Hope.
MUSEUM
FAMINE MEMORIAL
(Custom House Quay; all city centre)
Just east of Custom House is one of Dublin's most
thought-provoking examples of public art: the set of life-sized bronze figures (1997) by
Rowan Gillespie known simply as 'Famine'. Designed to commemorate the ravages of the
Great Hunger (1845-51): their haunted, harrowed look testifies to a journey that was both
hazardous and unwelcome.
MEMORIAL
