December 9, 2016
On this overcast Friday at 11:00, Grant and I met our tour group by the Spire (a recent Dublin landmark that’s a lance piercing the sky), the tip is lit so you really can’t miss it, day or night. This tour came recommended by our apartment host as a great way to learn about Dublin. It is free, although the tour guides earn their living on tips which is completely optional. We went with Dublin Free Walking Tours for this 3-hour stroll through the city.
Because we met at the Spire, this was the first stop on the tour. The Spire was planned as a celebration of the arrival of the millennium, but it got delayed in the construction process and wasn’t completed until 2003. It is solely there for looks, it’s not even a communications antenna.
The city not only missed their millennium deadline but, according to our guide, this landmark is also controversial among the locals. They either love it or they hate it with the argument against it being that the money could have been better spent elsewhere and it’s not that good-looking (to me, it looks like a giant asparagus). This sentiment has given birth to all sorts of colorful nicknames for the Spire. I won’t go into any of them, but you get the idea. As a visitor, I don’t mind it as it lets me know exactly where I am in Dublin at any time… it’s that good of a landmark.
Next, we stopped on a bridge but the real purpose of this stop was to glance up the river to Ha’ Penny Bridge. This bridge was constructed in the spring of 1816 and happened to be structurally upgraded by the same engineering company that designed the Titanic. Our guide Richie was funny in that he said the reason why he didn’t want to take his tour group on it is because he didn’t want to chance us falling into the river since the iron in the bridge stands as the original and hasn’t been replaced since.
Ha’ Penny got its name early on; the price to cross it was a half-penny. So, the name stuck. The original name was The Wellington Bridge and the city council changed the name to the Liffey Bridge in order to give it a more official presence. This bridge is one of the main symbols of the city and is often depicted in photographs. But Dubliners ignore the official name and still call it the Ha’ Penny Bridge.
The next intimidating-looking building is a bank but wasn’t always so. It used to be Ireland’s parliament. Before Ireland gained her independence in 1922, the English allowed Ireland to administer certain government dictates – collecting taxes, build pretty buildings, and preventing uprisings. But because the Irish Parliament was good at the first two but not the last item, their parliamentary powers were taken away and transferred back to London.
An Irish bank, called the Bank of Ireland, bought the building in 1803.
Then we go through a stone gate, away from the bustle of the city, into the stone courtyard of Trinity College. This college is one of the oldest in Ireland and one of the most prestigious. Founded as an English Protestant college where wealthy and powerful families could educate their young instead of sending them off to Oxford or Cambridge and thus preventing a brain drain to England, Trinity College was set up with the hope of keeping the academic-minded young adults in Ireland.
At first, there was a problem attracting students to the college because the institution was so new and hadn’t established a reputation. So, the founders put in a lot of money to buy one. They hired the top professionals and professors in various fields of specialty and in that way, attracted the first group of students to Trinity. Now, Trinity College has an excellent reputation.
We got lucky as there was a graduation procession happening. The woman pictured is Ireland’s former president:
Afterwards, we walked through the streets of Temple Bar. And even though this is famous as a drinking area, full of pubs and bars, the streets were busy at noon nonetheless. Restaurants and pubs were open for business. Our guide recommended enjoying the pubs outside of Temple Bar as this area has gotten very touristy and the prices reflect this. Basically, he said, “avoid anywhere that has a guy dressed-up in a leprechaun costume handing out flyers, etc”. You get the drift.
We also stopped at Brick Alley Cafe for a break.
The 2nd half of our tour commenced as we made our way out of Temple Bar and up a hill. The streets became less bustling with the business of pedestrians and a little more quiet.
We soon reached Dublin Castle. This isn’t what most people imagine castles to look like. For one thing, it’s not very old and no royal family ever lived here, although it once housed the Viceroy of Ireland. There was an older castle that had been here since the days of Norman rule, but the structure that stands today dates back to the 18th century. This is where the city’s affairs were carried out and administered. Even today, it is still used for administrative purposes and to house visitors of heads of state. But there were a few key moments in history that took place here also.
For example, an event much celebrated is when Queen Elizabeth visited here in 2011, the first time that a member of the British royal family visited the country after Ireland gained independence. She read a speech that began with “A Uachtaráin agus a chairde (President and friends)” in what was supposedly perfect gaelic. That marked off a momentous occasion according to our guide.
This portion of the castle on the outside of the walls is a church called Chapel Royal, and was consecrated in 1815. The tower is called The Record Tower. The bottom half of the tower was originally built in 1226. The upper half was made to look like a watch tower, but isn’t very functional, and was added in 1814. You can tell where the new addition to the tower is by the difference in the gradient of the rock facade halfway up.
The next place we stopped at is a nondescript little park where most people wouldn’t give a second thought had it not had the honor of being the very reason Dublin is called Dublin today. Dublin was settled by Vikings who came here and set up a port. It was already a small town consisting of Celtic people, whose language was very different to Old Norse. When the Vikings asked some locals what the area was called, no one could understand what was being asked. The Vikings, probably very intimidating, kept pointing at the ground. They were in the area of this park which used to be a small pond. The locals thought they were being asked what the pond was called. They responded by saying, “Dubh Linn” which translates to “Black Pool”. So Dubh Linn became Dublin. The actual name of the city in Gaelic is Baile Átha Cliath, which does not sound like it’s spelt and means something completely different (The Town of the Ford of the Reed Hurdles).
Later, the Vikings married and mingled with locals and they both learned each other’s languages and the question came up, probably from a local to a Viking, “Why do you call this city ‘black pool’?”. The name “Dublin” is probably a good thing since Baile Átha Cliath is really hard to pronounce.
Next, we move on to Christ Church Cathedral. This was originally a mediaeval church but was later expanded and rebuilt between 1871 to 1878. This new renovation was done up in the Victorian style near the end of the Victorian period in Dublin by Georg Edmund Street, using the money from Henry Roe of Mount Anville. Henry Roe was a whiskey distiller who ran the Jameson Whiskey Distillery. This church is known to some cheeky locals as the “Whiskey Church”.
The final stop on our walking tour was Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. This stately church sits on a beautiful, expansive lawn and is very picturesque. It was founded in 1191 and is the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland. The spire stands at 141 feet (43 meters) and makes this church the tallest and largest in Ireland.
Like Christ Church Cathedral, this church was originally built in the mediaeval period but major renovations were done in the Victorian style. Some of the money for the renovations came from the brewers of Guiness, so this church is known tongue-in-cheekly as the “Guiness Church”.
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