43 Fun Facts About Dublin

The name Dublin comes from the Irish Dubhlinn, meaning what?

Black pool is what Dubhlinn means: a dark pool where the Poddle met the Liffey, which at first gave Dublin Castle a natural water defence.

What does Baile Atha Cliath, the Irish name for Dublin, mean?

Town of the hurdled ford recalls a wattle crossing near Father Mathew Bridge; it was a separate Gaelic settlement, so Dublin kept two unrelated names.

Which famous Irish whiskey was once distilled at Bow Street in Dublin's Smithfield?

Jameson moved out of Bow Street in the 1970s to a new distillery at Midleton in County Cork, so Dublin's famous whiskey is now made down south.

Viking Dublin grew into one of western Europe's biggest markets for what?

Slaves captured in raids passed through Viking Dublin's port and were traded onward to the north, some as far as Iceland.

Ptolemy's map of about 140 AD records a settlement possibly near Dublin under what name?

Eblana was long taken for Dublin itself, but more recent scholars doubt the link, and no proof ties the name to any site.

Which Norman lord, enlisted by the exiled King of Leinster, seized Dublin in 1170?

Strongbow, Richard de Clare, took Dublin as Diarmait Mac Murchada's ally and claimed Leinster when Diarmait died; Henry II landed in 1171, fearing Strongbow would build his own kingdom.

Dublin Castle was founded in 1204 on the orders of which English monarch?

King John ordered the castle built in 1204 as a stronghold, and it stayed the seat of British rule until handed to Michael Collins's Provisional Government in January 1922.

Dublin was the heart of which strip of English-controlled territory in medieval Ireland?

The Pale was the English-held land around Dublin; it is often credited with the phrase 'beyond the pale', though the Oxford English Dictionary doubts that origin.

Which monarch founded Trinity College in 1592 as a Protestant university?

Elizabeth I chartered Trinity in 1592; Catholics could take degrees from 1793, yet Ireland's Catholic bishops barred them from attending without permission until 1970.

In the Georgian era, Dublin briefly ranked as what?

Second-largest city of the British Empire, Dublin lost its parliament under the Act of Union, and many peers' mansions soon went up for sale.

Arthur Guinness famously signed a 9,000-year lease on a Dublin brewery at which site?

St James's Gate is no longer held on that lease: as the brewery outgrew its original site, Guinness bought the land outright.

At the top of the Guinness Storehouse, visitors drink their pint in which bar?

The Gravity Bar crowns a fermentation plant that shut in 1988, when fermentation moved to a new plant by the Liffey, so the empty building became the Storehouse.

The Ha'penny Bridge of 1816 got its name from what?

A halfpenny toll to cross it was set to match the fares of the ferries it replaced, which William Walsh had run across the Liffey.

Which building on O'Connell Street served as the rebels' headquarters during the Easter Rising?

The General Post Office caught fire under days of British shelling, and its garrison had to abandon the building before the surrender.

The leaders of the 1916 Rising were executed at which Dublin prison, now a museum?

Kilmainham Gaol's Stonebreakers' Yard is where the leaders were shot; after closing in 1924 the jail was rescued and restored by a committee in the 1960s.

Where did British forces open fire on a crowd on Bloody Sunday, 1920?

The GAA ground on Jones's Road, by then Croke Park, came under fire hours after IRA teams organised by Michael Collins killed British intelligence officers.

Which country star cancelled all five sold-out 2014 Croke Park concerts rather than play only three?

Garth Brooks refused to drop two of the five nights after local residents objected, so the licensing row ended with every show cancelled.

Croke Park is named after Thomas Croke, who held which office?

Archbishop of Cashel Thomas Croke was a strong nationalist who backed the land agitation, yet he objected to the Land League's No Rent Manifesto of 1881.

Where do both houses of the Irish parliament, the Oireachtas, meet?

Leinster House was built as the Earl of Kildare's mansion, and architect James Hoban used it as a model for the White House.

Which animals have roamed Phoenix Park since the 17th century?

A herd of fallow deer has lived there since the Duke of Ormond created the park as a royal hunting ground; the Papal Cross marks John Paul II's 1979 Mass.

The Spire of Dublin stands on the site of which earlier monument?

Nelson's Pillar was blown up by republican activists in 1966, shortly before the Rising's 50th anniversary, and the Spire went up on the site in 2003.

Which occasion was the Spire of Dublin built to mark, before objections delayed it?

The millennium passed while the Spire's plans were tied up in court, and it rose instead as the centrepiece of O'Connell Street's renewal.

Which medieval harp kept in Trinity's Long Room is the model for Ireland's national emblem?

The Brian Boru harp was made in the 14th or 15th century, long after Brian Boru died, and Guinness uses a mirror image as its trademark.

Which satirist was dean of St Patrick's Cathedral from 1713 to 1745?

Jonathan Swift is buried in his own cathedral, and he left most of his fortune to found St Patrick's Hospital for the mentally ill.

Christ Church, the elder of Dublin's two medieval cathedrals, was founded under which Viking king?

Sitric Silkenbeard, the Hiberno-Norse king of Dublin, probably founded Christ Church sometime after making a pilgrimage to Rome in 1028.

From the 1970s, a state company bought up much of Dublin's Temple Bar to build what?

A transport hub was CIÉ's plan, but it let the buildings cheaply to artists meanwhile, and the scheme was dropped as Temple Bar became Dublin's cultural quarter.

Where was Dublin's Molly Malone statue unveiled in 1988?

Grafton Street was the statue's home until 2014, when Luas tram works moved it to nearby Suffolk Street.

Bloomsday, celebrated in Dublin every 16 June, honours which novel set on that day?

Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom through Dublin on 16 June 1904, a date Joyce chose for its link to his romance with Nora Barnacle.

Which three Dublin-born writers won the Nobel Prize in Literature?

Yeats, Shaw and Beckett all won the prize, but Shaw accepted the honour and refused the money that came with it.

Which Dublin theatre, co-founded by Lady Gregory in 1904, became Ireland's national theatre?

The Abbey Theatre's 1907 premiere of The Playboy of the Western World set off riots, and the actors had to finish the play in dumbshow.

Dublin's twin Poolbeg chimneys were built for what?

A power station on the Poolbeg peninsula used them, and when the ESB warned in 2014 that it might demolish them, the council listed them as protected structures.

Which Northside thoroughfare is the city's main shopping strip north of the river?

Henry Street, running west from O'Connell Street beside the GPO, is the Northside's main shopping street; its Southside counterpart is Grafton Street.

Dublin's Luas tram network runs two lines named after which colours?

Red and Green are the Luas lines, and they ran unconnected for 13 years until the Cross City extension joined them in December 2017.

What is the name of Dublin's electrified coastal commuter rail line?

DART, Dublin Area Rapid Transit, began running in July 1984 and replaced the ageing diesel-hauled suburban trains on Dublin's coastal line.

Which airline flew Dublin Airport's first commercial flight, to Liverpool, in January 1940?

Aer Lingus had been flying from the Baldonnel military airfield since 1936, and moved to the new airport at Collinstown when it opened.

Dublin's tech cluster, home to Google and Meta's European offices, is nicknamed what?

Silicon Docks grew as regeneration of Dublin's run-down docklands drew the European headquarters of Google, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Which Dublin band formed at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in 1976?

U2 came together in 1976 after drummer Larry Mullen Jr pinned a notice at Mount Temple Comprehensive School; the band released its debut album Boy in 1980.

Which rebel led a failed rising in Dublin in 1803?

Robert Emmet's rising was put down easily, and he was then hanged for leading it.

The Dublin Mountains, south of Dublin, are part of which larger range?

The Wicklow Mountains were crossed by a military road built after the 1798 rebellion so British troops could hunt rebels hiding in the hills.

The historic city centre of Dublin is encircled by which two waterways?

The Royal Canal and the Grand Canal both run from Dublin to the Shannon because the Royal Canal was launched as a direct rival to the Grand Canal.

Dublin's Mini Marathon, first run in 1983, is billed as the world's largest what?

The world's largest all-female race drew Olympic medallist Sonia O'Sullivan in 2001, and after a runner-up finish she said she would skip that summer's track season.

Ireland's first Test cricket match, a women's game in 2000, was played at which Dublin ground?

College Park, Trinity's ground, saw Ireland's women beat Pakistan by an innings inside two days, and Ireland's men waited until 2018 for their first Test.

Which Dublin district records the lowest average annual rainfall in Ireland?

Ringsend is Ireland's driest weather station because prevailing Atlantic winds drop most of their rain on the western mountains before reaching Dublin.