Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Andy Steves (Rick's son) runs Weekend Student Adventures, offering active and ex-
periential three-day weekend tours for €199, designed for American students abroad
(
www.wsaeurope.com
for details on tours of Dublin and other great European cities).
(see “North Dublin” map,
here
.)
Dublin's grandest street leads from O'Connell Bridge through the heart of north Dublin.
Since the 1740s, it has been a 45-yard-wide promenade, and ever since the first O'Connell
Bridge connected it to the Trinity side of town in 1794, it's been Dublin's main drag. (It
wasonlynamedO'Connellafterindependencein1922.)Thesedays,thecityhasmadethe
street more pedestrian-friendly, and a new LUAS line extension will eventually run with-
in the median. Though lined with fast-food joints and souvenir shops, O'Connell Street
echoes with history.
• Start your walk on the...
O'Connell Bridge:
This bridge, worth
▲▲
, spans the River Liffey, which historically
has divided the wealthy, cultivated south side of town from the poorer, cruder north side.
While there's plenty of culture above the river, even today “the north” is considered rough-
er and less safe. Dubliners joke that north-side residents are known as “the accused,” while
residents on the south side are addressed as “your honor.”
From the bridge, look upriver (west) as far upstream as you can. On the left in the
distance, the
big concrete building
—nicknamed “the bunker” and considered an eyesore
by locals—houses the city planning commission. Ironically, it's in charge of new building
permits. It squats on the still-buried precious artifacts of the first Viking settlement, es-
tablished in Dublin in the ninth century. Archaeologists were given minimal time to study
the dig before officials paved paradise and put up a parking lot (actually the Dublin City
Council offices).
Acrosstheriverfromthatstandsthe
Four Courts
—theSupremeCourtbuilding.Itwas
shelled and burned in 1922 during the tragic civil war that followed Irish independence.
The national archives office burned, and irreplaceable birth records were lost, making it
more difficult today for those with Irish roots to trace their ancestry.
The closest bridge upstream—the elegant iron
Ha' Penny Bridge
(see photo on
century bridge is Dublin's pedestrian
Millennium Bridge,
inaugurated in 2000. (Note that
