Dublin - O Connell Street and around Travel Guides | Dublin | Sub Regions | Dublin - O Connell Street and around

Most of Dublin’s much-touted visitor sights are located south of the river, but O’Connell Street on the north side has the genuine earthy feel of a working city to recommend it (not to mention fewer tour groups). The area has strong literary and historical associations, and the surrounding streets boast some of the city’s earliest Georgian buildings. Especially worth visiting are the Dublin City Gallery and the Dublin Writers’ Museum, and for Joyce aficionados there is also the James Joyce Centre.

Bus 7, 7A (from Ballsbridge), 121 (from Francis St), 746 (from St Stephen’s Green),10, 11, 13 (from Kildare St), 20, 20B (from Connolly Station) and other cross-city buses.

A broad boulevard stretching half a kilometre north from the river to Parnell Square, O’Connell Street is dominated at each end by large nationalist monuments: Daniel O’Connell presides over the bottom of the street by the river, and Charles Stewart Parnell watches over the top. Both sides of the street are flanked by some grand early 20th-century buildings, constructed to replace the original 18th-  and 19th-century ones that were destroyed by British artillery in 1916, while a tree-lined walkway stretches along the middle of the road, littered with more statuary. Look carefully at the O’Connell statue and you’ll see the bullet marks that went astray during the attack on the GPO by British troops firing from the river. Other figures in stone include the radical nationalist leader, William Smith O’Connell; Father Theobald Matthew, founder of the Total Abstinence Movement, who seems rather out of place in the booze-filled street around midnight; Sir John Grey, who put in Dublin’s drains and water supply; and James Larkin, a trade union leader who led resistance to the infamous Dublin lock-out by employers in 1913. Just off O’Connell Street in Earl Street is a statue of a dishevelled-looking James Joyce.

For over 150 years the space outside the General Post Office was occupied by a monumental pillar topped by a statue of Lord Nelson, till it was blown up by the IRA in1966. Nelson’s Pillar was replaced by a statue of Anna Livia, the depressed-looking spirit of the river Liffey, fondly known by one and all as ‘the whore in the sewer’ (you have to hear a working-class Dubliner say it to hear the rhyme). She’s now in storage and her prime site on O’Connell Street has been taken over by the towering Monument of Light (aka the ‘stiletto in the ghetto’). Tapering from 3 m in diameter at its base to a mere 10 cm in the sky, the Monument of Light is lit internally at the very top, and by projections of light from surrounding buildings for most of its height of 120 m. The final piece was finally lifted into place in January 2003 and now passers-by comment on the likelihood of the monument blowing down and killing someone.

O’Connell St, T 01 705 7000. Mon-Sat 0800-2000, Sun 1030-1830 (stamps only).  All buses to O’Connell St.

At the heart of the street, the GPO is much more than just the place to get your stamps. It was at the post office, rather than the City Hall or some other state building, that the rebels chose to make their stand against British forces during the 1916 Easter Rising, and where they made their declaration of independence. By the time the rebels surrendered, many of their number were dead, and the GPO was largely destroyed; only the façade of the original 1814 building survives today. Outside, check out the bullet marks on the columns of the portico, and inside admire a series of paintings depicting events of the battle. In a window stands a statue of Cúchulain, the mythical Irish hero whose determination and resistance has come to represent the heroic bravery of those who fought at the GPO in 1916.

Marlborough St, T 01 874 5441, procath@dublindiocese.ie Daily 0800-1830. Mass Mon-Sat 0830, 1000, 1100, 1245, 1745, Sun 1000, 1100, 1230, 1830. Bus 3 (from Pearse St DART), 10, 11 (from St Stephen’s Green) and all buses to O’Connell St.

Known as ‘the Pro’, this cathedral was built between 1815 and 1826 as part of the Catholic church-building spree that followed the relaxation of the Penal Laws, which had forbidden the practice of Catholicism. During the planning stages, Archbishop Troy had wanted the centre of Catholic worship in Ireland to be built on the O’Connell Street site that was to become the GPO, but in the event a more discreet location was decided upon, so as not to offend the city’s Protestant rulers. Built in the classical Greek style with Doric pillars and a central dome, the interior is notable for its simplicity of form and workaday functionality rather than any awe-inspiring atmosphere. The exterior portico is a later addition in keeping with the classical plainness of the original. The crypt, which contains the earthly remains of about 1,000 people, runs under Marlborough Road as far as the impressive Department of Education building, designed in the 1740s by Richard Castle.

Top of O’Connell St. All buses to O’Connell St.

At the north end of O’Connell Street, the statue of Parnell looms over the buildings of the Rotunda Hospital on the southern edge of Parnell Square. In 1748 the undeveloped land here was laid out as a pleasure garden by the barber-surgeon Dr Bartholomew Mosse and the Georgian gentry came in their horses and carriages to pay for the enjoyment of a stroll in the best area of the city. The profits from Mosse’s pleasure garden funded the construction of a free maternity hospital officially named the Dublin Lying-In Hospital, but universally known as the Rotunda. Mosse and his successors later built the Rotunda Room and the Assembly Rooms (part of which now form the Gate Theatre) as social venues to raise money to cover the hospital’s costs.

A stately city square gradually developed around the gardens, with each house separately commissioned by some local aristo, including Lord Wicklow (No 4) and the Earl of Ormonde (No 11). Number five was later inhabited by Oliver St John Gogarty, best known for being lampooned by James Joyce in Ulysses as Buck Mulligan. Most of the north part of the square is taken up by a grand house that was built for Lord Charlemont (owner of the Casino at Marino) and now contains the Dublin City Gallery.

At the centre of the square is the Garden of Remembrance, created in 1966 to commemorate the deaths of the Irish volunteers in the 1916 uprising. When they surrendered at the GPO, those who survived were marched to this spot and held in the gardens overnight before being taken to Kilmainham Gaol. A commemorative statue, The Children of Lir, by Oisin Kelly was added in 1971.

According to Irish legend, Lir was the god of the sea whose three children were turned into swans by their stepmother and doomed to swim the shores of Ireland for 900 years. When they finally staggered ashore as humans once more, they died of old age. In front of the statue, a pool full of broken spears represents the ancient custom of throwing weapons into a lake or river as an offering to the gods when a battle is over.

Visit the chapel on the first floor of the Rotunda Hospital, above the main entrance, to admire the amazing stucco work showing Faith blindfolded with Bible and cross, Hope holding an anchor and Charity feeding an infant. There is also a herd of cherubim and archangel Gabriel blowing a trumpet. The dull coats of arms represent the distinguished Dublin nobs who coughed up money for the hospital. Mass is held here at 0900 on Sundays.

Charlemont House, Parnell Sq North, T 01 874 1903, http://www.hughlane.ie Tue-Thu 0930-1800, Fri and Sat 0930-1700, Sun 1000-1700. Closed Mon. Permanent exhibition free. Francis Bacon Studio E7. Bus 3, 10, 11, 13, 16, 19.

This grand 18th-century town house holds one of the most important collections of modern Irish and international art in the country, including works by Corot, Monet, Degas, Burne Jones and Manet, among many others. It also has the world’s largest holding of work by 20th-century Irish painters such as Jack Yeats, Walter Osborne, Sarah Purser and Norman Garstin. In the entrance lobby look out for Seamus Murphy’s heroically proportioned homage to Michael Collins in marble. The stained glass room contains The Eve of St Agnes, the best known work of the artist Harry Clarke, whose strange style borders on the surreal. You can see more of Clarke’s work in the National Gallery (The Song of the Mad Prince), and, strangely, in Bewley’s Café on Grafton Street.

Upstairs is the faithfully reconstructed studio of Francis Bacon, probably Ireland’s greatest artist. Each of the 80,000 items from Bacon’s London studio was picked up one at a time, brought to Ireland and replaced in exactly the same position in the gallery: empty beer bottles, dried-up paintbrushes, plastic bags and all.

18 Parnell Sq North, T 01 872 2077, http://www.visitdublin.com Sep-May Mon-Sat 1000-1700, Sun and public holidays 1100-1700, Jun-Aug   Mon-Fri 1000-1800, Sat 1000-1700, Sun and public holidays 1100-1700. E6. Bus 10, 11, 13, 13A, 16, 16A, 19.

Two of the 18th-century houses in Parnell Square are now occupied by the Dublin Writers’ Museum, which displays rare books and memorabilia associated with famous Irish writers including Swift, Sheridan, Wilde, Shaw, O’Casey, Yeats, Joyce, Beckett, Behan and Heaney. There are some decent paintings too, including Jacques-Emile Blanche’s famous portrait of James Joyce. The buildings themselves are quite beautiful, with complex friezes surrounding the original Adam-esque ceilings. There’s also  a pleasant coffee shop on site, and a bookshop where you can buy the works of the museum’s featured authors.

35 North Great George St, T 01 878 8547, http://www.jamesjoyce.ie Mon-Sat 0930-1700, Sun and public holidays 1200-1500. Closed 24-27 and 31 Dec, 1 Jan. E4.50. Bus 3, 10, 11, 11A, 13, 16, 16A, 19, 19A,  22, 22A.

Dedicated to the life and work of Ireland’s most famous literary figure, the James Joyce Centre is unmissable for anyone with an interest in the writer. Most visits begin with an absorbing video of archive film about his life in early 20th-century Dublin. The building is filled with portraits and photographs of Joyce’s family and people associated with his writing. Of particular note is the series of photographs taken in the 1950s, showing Dublin venues that are mentioned in Joyce’s books, but no longer exist today. Upstairs in the library is an impressive collection of literature, plus tapes of Joyce reading from his works. As well as books, the shop sells videos of films based on Joyce’s fiction, such as John Huston’s memorable adaptation of The Dead. During the annual Bloomsday festival (9-17 June) lots of events are held at the centre.

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