Dublin is the largest city (being a primate city) and capital of Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the center of the Dublin Region. Originally founded as a Viking settlement, it evolved into the Kingdom of Dublin and became the island's primary city following the Norman invasion. Today, it is ranked 23rd (down from 10th in 2008) in the Global Financial Centres Index, has one of the fastest growing populations of any European capital city, and is listed by the GaWC as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha - which places Dublin amongst the top 25 cities in the world. Dublin is a historical and contemporary cultural center for the island of Ireland as well as a modern center of education, the arts, administrative function, economy and industry.

The name Dublin is derived from the Irish name Dubh Linn (meaning "black pool"). The common name for the city in Modern Irish is Baile Átha Cliath (meaning "town of the hurdled ford"). Áth Cliath is a place-name referring to a fording point of the Liffey in the vicinity of Heuston Station. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery which is believed to have been situated in the area of Aungier Street currently occupied by Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church.

The subsequent Scandinavian settlement was on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey, to the East of Christ church, in the area now known as Wood Quay. The Dubh Linn was a lake used by the Scandinavians to moor their ships and was connected to the Liffey by the Poddle. The Dubh Linn and Poddle were covered during the early 1700s, and as the city expanded they were largely forgotten about. The Dubh Linn was situated where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle.

Táin Bó Cuailgne also known as The Cattle Raid of Cooley refers to Dublind rissa ratter Áth Cliath, meaning Dublin, which is called Ath Cliath. In the Irish language, Dubh is correctly pronounced as Duv or Duf. The city's original pronunciation is preserved in Old Norse as Dyflin, Old English as Difelin, and modern Manx as Divlyn. Historically, in the traditional Gaelic script used for the Irish language, bh was written with a dot over the b. Those without any knowledge of Irish omitted the dot and spelled the name as Dublin.

The writings of the Greek astronomer and cartographer Ptolemy provide perhaps the earliest reference to human habitation in the area now known as Dublin. In around A.D. 140 he referred to a settlement he called Eblana Civitas. The settlement 'Dubh Linn' dates perhaps as far back as the first century BC and later a monastery was built there, though the town was established in about 841 by the Norse. The modern city retains the Anglicised Irish name of the former and the original Irish name of the latter.

Dublin was ruled by the Norse for most of the time between 841 and 999, when it was sacked by Brian Boru, the King of Cashel. Although Dublin still had a Norse king after the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, Norse influence waned under a growing Celtic supremacy until the conquest of Ireland which was launched from Britain in 1169-1172.

Dublin Castle

Dublin also had local city administration via its Corporation from the Middle Ages. This represented the city's guild-based oligarchy until it was reformed in the 1840s on increasingly democratic lines.

From the 17th century the city expanded rapidly, helped by the Wide Streets Commission. Georgian Dublin was, for a short time, the second city of the British Empire after London and the fifth largest European city. Much of Dublin's most notable architecture dates from this time. In 1759, the founding of the Guinness brewery at St. James's Gate resulted in a considerable economic impact for the city. For much of the time since its foundation, the Guinness brewery was the largest employer in the city but Catholics were confined to the lower echelons of employment at Guinness and only entered management level in the 1960s. After Irish independence the Guinness Corporate headquarters were moved to London in the 1930s to avoid Irish taxation and a rival brewery to Dublin was opened in London at Park Royal to supply the UK. In 1742 Handel's "Messiah" was performed for the first time in New Musick Hall in Fishamble Street with 26 boys and five men from the combined choirs of St.Patrick's and Christ Church cathedrals participating.

After the Act of Union, 1800, Belfast developed much faster than Dublin during this period on a mixture of international trade, factory-based linen cloth production and shipbuilding.

The Easter Rising of 1916 took place in several parts of the city, bringing much physical destruction to the city center. The Anglo-Irish War and Irish Civil War contributed even more destruction, leaving some of its finest buildings in ruins. The Irish Free State government rebuilt the city center and located the Dáil (parliament) in Leinster House.

The formation of the new state resulted in changed fortunes for Dublin. It benefitted more from independence than any Irish city, though it took a long time to become obvious. Through The Emergency (World War II), until the 1960s, Dublin remained a capital out of time: the city center in particular remained at an architectural standstill, even nicknamed the last 19th Century City of Europe. This made the city ideal for historical film production, with many productions including The Blue Max and My Left Foot capturing the cityscape in this period. This became the foundation of later successes in cinematography and film-making. With increasing prosperity, modern architecture was introduced to the city, though a vigorous campaign started in parallel to restore the Georgian greatness of Dublin's streets, rather than lose the grandeur forever. Since 1997, the landscape of Dublin has changed immensely, with enormous private sector and state development of housing, transport, and business. (See the Development and Preservation in Dublin ). Some well-known Dublin street corners are still named for the pub or business which used to occupy the site before closure or redevelopment.

Since the beginning of Anglo-Norman rule in the 12th century, the city has functioned as the capital of the island of Ireland in the varying geopolitical entities:

  ▪  the Lordship of Ireland (1171–1541)
  ▪  the Kingdom of Ireland (1541–1800)
  ▪  the island as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
  ▪  the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1919–1922)

From 1922, following the partition of Ireland, it became the capital of the Irish Free State (1922–1949) and now is the capital of the Republic of Ireland. One of the memorials to commemorate that time is the Garden of Remembrance.

In a 2003 European-wide survey by the BBC, questioning 11,200 residents of 112 urban and rural areas, Dublin was the best capital city in Europe to live in.

The city has a world-famous literary history, having produced many prominent literary figures, including Nobel laureates William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett. Other influential writers and playwrights from Dublin include Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift and the creator of Dracula, Bram Stoker. It is arguably most famous, however, as the location of the greatest works of James Joyce. His most celebrated work, Ulysses, is set in Dublin and full of topical detail. Dubliners is a collection of short stories by Joyce about incidents and characters typical of residents of the city in the early part of the 20th century. Additional widely celebrated writers from the city include J.M. Synge, Seán O'Casey, Brendan Behan, Maeve Binchy, and Roddy Doyle. Ireland's biggest libraries and literary museums are found in Dublin, including the National Print Museum of Ireland and National Library of Ireland.

There are several theatres within the city center, and various world famous actors have emerged from the Dublin theatrical scene, including Noel Purcell, Brendan Gleeson, Stephen Rea, Colin Farrell, Colm Meaney and Gabriel Byrne. The best known theatres include the Gaiety, the Abbey, the Olympia and the Gate. The Gaiety specialises in musical and operatic productions, and is popular for opening its doors after the evening theatre production to host a variety of live music, dancing, and films. The Abbey was founded in 1904 by a group that included Yeats with the aim of promoting indigenous literary talent. It went on to provide a breakthrough for some of the city's most famous writers, such as Synge, Yeats himself and George Bernard Shaw. The Gate was founded in 1928 to promote European and American Avant Garde works. The largest theatre is the Mahony Hall in The Helix at Dublin City University in Glasnevin.

There are several theatres within the city center, and various world famous actors have emerged from the Dublin theatrical scene, including Noel Purcell, Brendan Gleeson, Stephen Rea, Colin Farrell, Colm Meaney and Gabriel Byrne. The best known theatres include the Gaiety, the Abbey, the Olympia and the Gate. The Gaiety specialises in musical and operatic productions, and is popular for opening its doors after the evening theatre production to host a variety of live music, dancing, and films. The Abbey was founded in 1904 by a group that included Yeats with the aim of promoting indigenous literary talent. It went on to provide a breakthrough for some of the city's most famous writers, such as Synge, Yeats himself and George Bernard Shaw. The Gate was founded in 1928 to promote European and American Avant Garde works. The largest theatre is the Mahony Hall in The Helix at Dublin City University in Glasnevin.

Three branches of the National Museum of Ireland are located in Dublin: Archaeology in Kildare Street, Decorative Arts and History in Collins Barracks and Natural History in Merrion Street.

There is a vibrant nightlife in Dublin and it is reputedly one of the most youthful cities in Europe - with estimates of 50% of inhabitants being younger than 25. Furthermore in 2007, and again in 2009, Dublin was voted the friendliest city in Europe. Like the rest of Ireland, there are pubs right across the city center. The area around St. Stephen's Green - especially Harcourt Street, Camden Street, Wexford Street and Leeson Street - is a center for some of the most popular nightclubs and pubs in Dublin.

The internationally best-known area for nightlife is the Temple Bar area just south of the River Liffey. To some extent, the area has become a hot spot for tourists, including stag and hen parties from Britain. It was developed as Dublin's cultural quarter (an idea proposed by local politician Charlie Haughey), and does retain this spirit as a center for small arts productions, photographic and artists' studios, and in the form of street performers and intimate small music venues.

Dublin is a popular shopping spot for both Irish people and tourists. Dublin city center has several shopping districts, including Grafton Street, Henry Street, Stephen's Green Shopping Center, Jervis Shopping Center, and the newly refurbished Ilac Shopping Center. On Grafton Street, the most famous shops include Brown Thomas and its sister shop BT2. Brown Thomas also contains "mini-stores" such as Hermès, Chanel and Louis Vuitton on its Wicklow Street frontage.

Dublin city is the location of large department stores, such as Clerys on O'Connell Street, Arnotts on Henry Street, Brown Thomas on Grafton Street and Debenhams (formerly Roches Stores) on Henry Street. Grafton Street is nearly as renowned for its buskers and street-performers as for its fine shopping.

A major €750m development for Dublin city center has been given the green light. The development of the so-called Northern Quarter will see the construction of 47 new shops, 175 apartments and a four-star hotel. Dublin City Council gave Arnotts planning permission for the plans to change the area bounded by Henry Street, O'Connell Street, Abbey Street and Liffey Street. Following appeals to An Bord Pleanála, the scale of the development, which was to have included a sixteen-storey tower, was reduced. The redevelopment will also include 14 new cafes along with a 149-bed hotel. Prince's Street, which runs off O'Connell Street, will become a full urban street and pedestrian thoroughfare. Construction, which began in November 2008, led to the loss of 580 retail jobs. It is hoped that the Northern Quarter will open for business in 2013.

Since the mid 1990s, suburban Dublin has seen the completion of several modern retail centers. These include Dundrum Town Center, the largest commercial center in Europe (on the Luas Green Line), Blanchardstown Center, The Square, which has recently undergone a major refurbishment, in Tallaght (on the Luas Red Line), Liffey Valley Shopping Center in Clondalkin, Northside Shopping Center in Coolock, and Pavilions Shopping Center in Swords.

Dublin at Night




The Custom House

Dublin is also the main hub of the country's road network. The M50 motorway (the busiest road in Ireland), a semi-ring road runs around the south, west and north of the city, connecting the most important national primary routes in the state that fan out from the capital to the regions. As of 2008, a toll of €2 applies on what is called the West-Link, two adjacent concrete bridges that tower high above the River Liffey near the village of Lucan. The West-Link Toll Bridge was replaced by the eFlow barrier-free tolling system in August 2008, with a three-tiered charge system based on electronic tags and car pre-registration.

To complete the ring road, an eastern bypass is also proposed for the city of Dublin. The first half of this project is the Dublin Port Tunnel which opened in late 2006 and mainly caters to heavy vehicles. The plan to build the eastern bypass around Dublin has been effectively shelved by the Department of Transport as there are no funds available for the expected €1 billion project. The capital is also surrounded by an inner and outer orbital route. The inner orbital route runs roughly around the heart of the Georgian city and the outer orbital route runs largely along the natural circle formed by Dublin's two canals, the Grand Canal and the Royal Canal, as well as the North and South Circular Roads.

Dublin is served by an extensive network of nearly 200 bus routes which serve all areas of the city and suburbs. The majority of these are controlled by Dublin Bus (Bus Átha Cliath) which was established in 1987, but a number of smaller companies have begun operating in recent years. Dublin Bus had 3408 staff and 1067 buses providing over half a million journeys per weekday in 2004. Fares are generally calculated on a stage system based on distance travelled. There are several different levels of fares, which apply on most services. Certain routes (particularly Xpresso) use a different fare system.

The Dublin Suburban Rail network is a system of five rail lines serving mainly commuters in the Greater Dublin Area, though some trains go even further to commuter towns such as Drogheda and Dundalk. One of these is an electrified line that runs along Dublin Bay and is known as the Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) line. A two-line light rail/tram network called the Luas opened in 2004 and has proved popular in the (limited) areas it serves, although the lack of a link between the two lines is widely criticised. Five new luas lines are planned, the last of which will be opened in 2014, with the two existing lines set to be joined up by 2012.

There are plans to begin building work on the Dublin Metro (subway / underground) system set out in the Irish government's 2005 Transport 21 plan within the next few years. Although not confirmed, it is believed that the metro will be fully segregated from all traffic which will mean it will not disrupt traffic when in operation, unlike an on-street Luas Tram or the DART. The Metro North will bring rail access to areas and institutions currently lacking it, such as the Mater Hospital, Drumcondra (Croke Park, inter-city and suburban rail stop), Dublin City University, Ballymun, Swords and Dublin Airport. The Metro West will serve the large suburbs of Tallaght, Clondalkin and Blanchardstown.

Dublin is at the center of Ireland's transport system. Dublin Port is the country's busiest sea port and Dublin Airport is the busiest airport on the island.