Dublin's City Center

O’Connell Street

O’Connell Street is Dublin’s main thoroughfare, running through the heart of town. It is a wide street, lined with an assortment of buildings, some attractive, others not quite so. In fact, as capital cities go, this is not the prettiest main street in a capital; but still, it holds some interest, especially for first-time visitors to Dublin.

Of particular note on O'Connell Street is the General Post Office (GPO), where, on Easter Monday in 1916, a group of rebels led by Pádraig Pearse proclaimed the Irish Republic. British forces shelled both the building and a large part of the street from a gunboat moored in the Liffey. The rebels, nevertheless, held out for five days before succumbing to the British onslaught. Sixteen rebel leaders were summarily executed and 200 rebels imprisoned. You can still see bullet holes in the building. Inside, there’s a sculpture by Oliver Sheppard of the mythical Celtic warrior, Cúchullain, commemorating the heroes of the Easter Rising.

Also of interest, dominating the skyline is the Spire, seven times the height of the GPO, erected in 2003 to mark the Millennium, and standing on the site of Nelson’s Column which was blown up by the IRA in 1965..

College Green

Directly across from the grey stone O’Connell Bridge, to the right, is the historic pedestrian Halfpenny Bridge, named for the bridge toll levied on it from 1821 until the early 1900s. Also near at hand on College Green, opposite Trinity College, is the Bank of Ireland, housed in a lovely Neo-Classical building which was home to the Irish Parliament between 1783 and 1801. The Arts Center in Foster Place adjacent to it houses an interactive museum, as well as a venue for recitals, exhibitions, and theater.

Trinity College

Trinity College is the oldest university in Ireland, founded in 1591 by Queen Elizabeth of England. It's a university with character, with historic cobbled quadrangles surrounded by cream-colored stone buildings. The university counts among its famous students the likes of Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, Dean Swift, J.M. Synge, Samuel Beckett, and the author of Dracula, Bram Stoker.

Also at Trinity College you can search out the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the gospels, dating from about 806 AD. It was originally housed in the Long Room of the Old Library, but due to overwhelming visitor interest and accompanying visitor numbers, it is now the centerpiece of an exhibit on the third floor of the Main Library. There are, in all, 860 pages in the manuscript, and each day one is turned.

Another nugget at Trinity College is the Douglas Hyde Gallery, located adjacent to the Nassau Street entrance to the college. It hosts exhibitions of contemporary art for the most part.

St. Stephen’s Green

Sadly, many of the buildings around the Green were demolished to make way for ugly ones in the 1960s, but some older ones remain. Newman House on the south side of the green is actually two houses built around 1738 and now named after the cardinal who was the first Rector of the Catholic University of Ireland when it was founded in 1853. Gerald Manley Hopkins, the Jesuit priest and poet, was Professor of Classics
here from 1884-89 and his room has been restored. James Joyce was the university’s most famous student from 1899-1902.