Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland and sits on the eastern coast, on the Irish sea, which separates Ireland from Great Britain. The Liffey is the main river running through the city, traditionally splitting it into the north and the southside.
Evidence of civilisation dates back to 750BC with the Celts then arriving around 700BC. St Patrick arrived around 430AD and brought Christianity with him. The city's name in Gaelic, Baile Atha Claith (ball-ya aww-ha cle-ah) derives from a settlement which was on the north side of the city, with Atha Cliath meaning 'the ford over the hurdles'. Dublin took form as a city around the 9th century when the Vikings founded one of their largest settlements outside Scandinavia on the site of the present city. Theyfflin or Vikings stronghold was built between the present Dublin Castle and Wood Quay, where the river Liffey and the river Poddle met at a location where the Vikings called Dyfflin or 'Dubh Linn' . The name Dublin is an Anglicism of Dubh Linn (Irish, meaning "black pool"), though some doubt this derivation. Historically, in the old script used for the Irish language, 'bh' was written with a dot placed over the 'b' — thus appearing to be Dub Linn or Dublinn. The Norman speaking English who arrived in Old Irish-speaking Ireland starting in 1169 omitted the "dot" (or séimhiú in Irish), and spelled the town's name as 'Dublin'.
The Battle of Dublin between the kings of Tara and the Vikings was in 919, after which the vikings began to intermarry with the celts. The vikings were then defeated at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 by Brian Boru, the Irish High King. Dublin became a Christian estate and at this time, Christchurch was built (originally a wooden structure). The Kings of Leinster asked Henry II of England to send an army to aid him, which resulted in the arrival of Richard de Clare (known as Strongbow), who took control of Dublin. Dublin grew under Anglo Norman control, however in the early 1550's, Silken Thomas (Earl of Kildare) staged a revolt against London, which was defeated and was counter reacted by the appointment of Henry VIII as King of Ireland and all land became the property of the English crown. The reign of Elizabeth I witnessed the development of Ireland as a British colony with plantations set up throughout the country. She also made her mark with the development of Trinity College in 1592 as a seat of Protestant learning. London's grip was strengthened when William Prince of Orange (King William III) defeated the deposed Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. From the 14th century until the late 16th century, Dublin and the surrounding area - known as the Pale - was the only area of Ireland under English government control.
From the 17th century the city expanded rapidly, & Dublin was, for a time, the second city of the British Empire after London. Much of Dublin's best architecture dates from this time. During this period, the Dublin Parliament pushed for increased independence from London. Under Henry Grattan, the Dublin Parliament experienced a period which must surely be its belle epoque. The parliament however remained largely unrepresentational, being composed of entirely Anglo-Irish mainly wealthy and wholly Anglican members many of whom routinely accepted bribes in the form of peerages in order to forward legislation. These members of the Commons and Lords lived in Dublin during the Sittings of Parliament and as a result the city was transformed into a metropolis of red brick boulevards and squares by the Wide Streets Commission in order to accommodate the wealthy parliamentarians. Literature, music, science and commerce thrived. As wealth increased, popular support for the independence movement gained great momentum until in 1798, a rebellion against English rule exploded mainly in Wexford. It was hoped that an independent parliament could be established at Dublin with French help and that the influence of England could be removed. The rebellion failed mainly due to a lack of international support (in particular from France) and the Dublin Parliament was abolished by the Act of Union in 1800. This measure had the support of Irish Catholics who were led to believe that they would be given voting rights in Westminster as a result. In the event, George III vetoed this move and Catholics remained disenfranchised until 1829.
Following the abolition of the Dublin Parliament, the city went into an almost terminal decline. In the new industrial age, Belfast became the hub of Irish Industry and at one point became larger in size than Dublin. The seat of government remained at Dublin Castle under the Lord Lieutenant but his role was now purely ceremonial and the governance of Ireland was conducted from London. Dublin Castle was the hub of Irish Society.
The Great Famine of the 1840's had little impact on the city save a great influx of unskilled agricultural workers most of whom could not find work in a city which had reached its pinnacle and was now very much in decline. With the departure of the Parliamentarians, their former grand townhouses were abandoned and most became tenements, each occupied by tens of families many sharing the formerly spectacular rooms. By the time Queen Victoria visited in 1901, moves for greater independence had again gone into motion. This new independence movement owed its origins to the Land Reform movement which sought to enable Irish tenant farmers to buy out their leaseholds with the help of government loans. At this time, great swathes of Ireland were controlled by landlords who had no interest in the country and who lived in England. From this movement sprang the Irish Parliamentary Party who sought to secure Home Rule for Ireland through the re-establishment of the Irish Parliament. This movement was combined with an Irish cultural renaissance and many sought greater and greater freedom from English rule. In Dublin itself, the comfortable middle classes of both Catholic and Protestant extraction were to a greater or lesser extent happy with the status quo and the London government felt secure in the knowledge that through the Catholic bourgeoise, Home Rule would be killed with kindness. At the same time however, the Dublin working classes were becoming increasingly militant as a result of the seeming lack of interest in their welfare displayed both at Dublin Castle and in London.
The Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone became heavily dependent on the support of the IPP at Westminster and as a result of pressure from Parnell twice tried to introduce Home Rule in Ireland and was twice defeated by the House of Lords. It was only in 1912 when the Liberal Party (now under H Asquith) again found themselves dependent on the IPP that a Home Rule Bill was introduced and passed. By now, militant elements had begun to emerge in Ireland with Irish-American support and groups such as the IRB began to countenance rebellion. The Great War delayed the implementation of the Home Rule Bill. The IPP supported the war effort and as it became increasingly obvious that the War was going to drag on for many years, the Party suffered greatly from unpopularity. The more militant Sinn Fein movement used this opportunity to unite the Dublin proletariat with the rural nationalists and in April 1916, the united forces of Irish Nationalism staged the most significant rebellion yet seen in Ireland. In Dublin, the rebels seized strategic buildings such as the GPO, Dublin Castle and The Royal College of Surgeons and set in for a long siege. The Irish Republic was declared from the steps of the GPO. The response from London was ruthless. The Battleship HMS Helga was sent up the Liffey where she shelled all of lower Sackville (now O'Connell) Street and decimated the GPO. Many hundreds were killed and great swathes of Dublin's commercial heart lay in ruins. The rebels surrendered soon afterwards but the effects of the Rebellion were astonishing. In a ruthless backlash, Dublin Castle was ordered to round up all associates of the rebels and have them shot. The people of Dublin, who had been outraged at the rebellion, now began to sympathise with them, especially after the continued implementation of Martial Law and the threat of conscription. The government desperately sought to limit the damage by pushing on with the Home Rule Bill but it was too late - the people of Ireland were now demanding a greater degree of independence than even that envisaged in the Bill.
In the general election of 1918, Sinn Fein utterly destroyed the IPP. Its members, now elected, claimed to have a mandate for the recognition of the Irish Republic and refused to sit at Westminster. Unable to move beyond the impasse, Prime Minister Lloyd George decided that two Home Rule Parliaments should be established in Ireland under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 - one for the 6 most staunchly unionist of the 9 Ulster Counties and one for the remainder of the island sitting at Dublin. The Belfast Parliament was opened by George V at Belfast City Hall and was a great success. Only 6 unionist members turned up for the opening of the Dublin parliament. Instead, the members of Sinn Fein met in 1919 at the Mansion House and declared that they were the new Dail Eireann. London refused to recognise this and the Dail began a concerted campaign of guerrilla warfare against the British administration at Dublin Castle. In order to end the fighting, Lloyd George agreed to a draft Anglo-Irish Treaty establishing an Irish Free State which gave Ireland substantial independence but kept it within the British Empire under the governance of George V. The treaty was signed on behalf of the Dail by Michael Collins and the Irish Free State was established thereby on 6th December 1922.
The Treaty split Sinn Fein in two. The anti-treaty faction who demanded nothing less than a Republic turned on their former colleagues and launched Ireland into a Civil War. The anti-treaty faction seized the Four Courts as their Headquarters and set about trying to emulate 1916. With support from Churchill, Collins had Gandon's spectacular building shelled and destroyed.
The pro-Treaty faction won and government once again sat in Dublin in 1923. Throughout the 1920's and 1930's, the government of the Irish Free State used its powers to increasingly limit the influence of London. In 1937, Eamon DeValera scrapped the 1922 Constitution and enacted a new Constitution creating in theory at least an Irish Presidential Republic, though this did not become a legal fact until 1948. Dublin throughout this period continued to languish. No longer the second city of the Empire, it had an impoverished population and little investment. In 1929, the restored GPO opened and by this time, reconstruction of much of the 1916 damage had been completed creating the city still seen today. The Four Courts was also restored although its interiors were cheaply finished with no flair whatsoever. Similarly the Customs House was superficially restored but its Great Hall was not reinstated it its dome constructed of less expensive dark Irish stone so that the harmony of the building was ruined.
Parts of Dublin received bomb damage during the Second World War but the impact of the war on the city was minimal. Of far more significance was the Corporation's solution of the city's housing problems. During the 1950's and 1960's great swathes of Georgian Dublin were demolished to make way for social housing. This was an architectural holocaust unparalleled in Irish history and it has left an indelible and black mark on the city scape ever since. The city continued to suffer from depopulation until the mid 1990's when the Irish economy suddenly and stunningly took off. Inward investment was at an all time high and Dublin suddenly became one of the most desirable places to live in Ireland. Following several protracted battles with the government about the preservation of the city's history (the most famous of which was the battle to save the Viking remains at Wood Quay), moves were made to secure the city's architectural heritage. Today the main threat to the city is overdevelopment as every square inch of spare land is snapped up for development. Dublin has undergone a complete metamorphosis since the 1980's and has truly been reborn with a new tram system and some very exciting development in the former derelict Docks area.
Please browse this History of Dublin
