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History of Dublin Ireland
Dublin can claim to be one of the most beautifully situated of the world's capitals, located in the wide plain overlooked by the legendary Wicklow Mountains and facing a broad sweeping bay that leads into the Irish Sea. The city has a population of a million people which is about a third of the total population of the country. Dublin is the centre of government, commerce and industry and it is also to seaport at the moment of the River Liffey.
The original small settlement was named Ath Cliath, which means a "ford of hurdles" or the "Hurdle ford" and was located near the mouth of the River Poddle on piles of stones. at the point where the Poddle met the Liffey a black pool (or "dubh-linn") emerged. It was with the coming of the Vikings in 841 that Dublin had start as a town.
Dublin is a city for walkers, talkers and a city where the people are as worth watching as the
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architecture. Moore Street is a thriving street market off Henry Street. The women here with their prams and battered baby carriages filled high with a variety of fruit, toys or bric-a-brac, are descendants of the infamous Molly Malone, a streeet trader of the 18th Century. The street traders today, as then, are renowned for the food humour, loud voices and sharp whited banter.
Music is never too far away in Dublin. The streets are full of talented buskers and Grafton Street on a Saturday afternoon is virtually impassable for the crowds surrounding the young musicians. One of the most attractive features of Dublin nightlife is the music and singing pubs.
Visitors will find that Dublin is a place of great cultural and historical interest. As the birthplace of Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and many other renowned writers, Dublin often featured in their books. However no city has been more criticised by her writers. Jonathan Swift felt himself " dropped in wretched Dublin" and George Bernard Shaw complained of " a certain flippant, futile derision and belittlement peculiar to Dublin". It was called "the blind and ignorant town" by W.B. Yeats, and James Joyce seems to have agreed. Yet, despite all the abuse, number of truly great writers became part of Dublin's heritage.
Places of note in Dublin
1. Bank of Ireland: formerly the Irish Parliament House, a striking windowless building constructed between 1729 and 1739.
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