Through Dublin to the Sea M50 T


Chapel Izod


M50


Phoenix Park


O’Connell Bridge


Dublin M50


he story of Dublin goes back at least eighteen hun- dred years. In the second century AD Ptolemy of Al-


exandria marked it as ‘Eblana’ on his map of the known world, so there must have been some sort of significant set- tlement there at the time. According to Te Annals of the Four Masters the name Dubhlinn dates back to 291 AD and then referred generally to the estuary of the Liffey, it seems later to have been used more specifically to describe a black pool at the junction of the Liffey and the River Poddle. Te name Ath Cliath, referring to a ford, seems to be later – the first recorded reference to it is in 765 AD. But the tidal reaches of the Liffey were very different in ancient times, in fact it must have been quite a difficult site for a settlement that was eventually to become a capital city. Te river was subject to torrential and sometimes dev- astating floods and these persisted, to an extent, right up until the ESB constructed the three dams in the 1940 s. Te old shoreline is commemorated in some old Dublin street names. On the north bank it ran from Great Strand Street,


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