Dublin is the capital of and largest city in Ireland.
The city is located in the province of Leinster on the east coast of Ireland, at the mouth of the River Liffey and bordered on the South by the Wicklow Mountains.
It is bordered by a low mountain range to the south and surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west.
As of June 2018, the population of Dublin is about 1.2 million people.
The city of Dublin covers a total area of 115 square kilometers (44 square miles).
The first documented history of Dublin begins with the Viking raids in the 8th and 9th century. These led to the establishment of a settlement on the southside of the mouth of the Liffey, named Dubh Linn (Black Pool) after the lake where the Danes first moored their boats.
Later expanded, the Kingdom of Dublin became Ireland’s principal city following the Norman invasion.
The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800.
Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.
Dublin is a historical and contemporary center for education, the arts, administration, economy and industry.
It is also a city of contrasts, maintaining an uneasy relationship between reminders of earlier political and economic conditions and symbols of present-day life and prosperity.
Dublin Castle off Dame Street is a major Irish government complex, conference centre, and tourist attraction. Most of the current construction dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland.
There are many green-spaces around the city, and Dublin City Council manages over 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of parks. Public parks include the Phoenix Park, Herbert Park and St Stephen’s Green.
Phoenix Park is an urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying 2–4 km (1.2-2.5 mi) west of the city center, north of the River Liffey. Its 11 km perimeter wall encloses 707 hectares (1,750 acres); it is one of the largest enclosed recreational spaces within any European capital city. The Irish Government is lobbying UNESCO to have the park designated as a world heritage site.
Guinness Storehouse is a tourist attraction at St. James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin. The Storehouse covers seven floors surrounding a glass atrium shaped in the form of a pint of Guinness. The ground floor introduces the beer’s four ingredients (water, barley, hops and yeast), and the brewery’s founder, Arthur Guinness. Other floors feature the history of Guinness advertising and include an interactive exhibit on responsible drinking.
Kilmainham Gaol is a former prison in Kilmainham, Dublin. It is now a museum run by the Office of Public Works, an agency of the Government of Ireland. Many Irish revolutionaries, including the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, were imprisoned and executed in the prison by the British.
Trinity College is the sole constituent college of the University of Dublin, a research university located in Dublin. The college was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I as the “mother” of a new university, modelled after the collegiate universities of Oxford and Cambridge, but unlike these other ancient universities, only one college was ever established; as such, the designations “Trinity College” and “University of Dublin” are usually synonymous for practical purposes.
Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, founded in 1191, is the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland. With its 43-metre (141 ft) spire, St. Patrick’s is the tallest church (not Cathedral) in Ireland and the largest. Christ Church Cathedral, also a Church of Ireland cathedral in Dublin, is designated as the local Cathedral of the diocese of Dublin and Glendalough.
The name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, from dubh meaning “black, dark”, and lind “pool”, referring to a dark tidal pool. This tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn.
Dublin is the fourth UNESCO City of Literature, one of 28 UNESCO Cities of Literature worldwide.
With four Nobel prize winners (Yeats, Beckett, Shaw and Heaney), a brace of universities of global distinction in Trinity and UCD, over half a dozen books festivals, the internationally prestigious Dublin Literary Award and a world class new city library in the planning, it is without doubt that Ireland’s capital has literature in its blood.
Dublin was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of “Alpha-“, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.