Dublin Docklands

LOCATED ON CITY QUAY – DUBLIN DOCKLANDS

This bronze sculpture, by Irish artist Dony MacManus, commemorates the tradition of docking in the area, which disappeared with the containerisation of shipping cargo. Located on City Quay, it was the winning entry in a public art competition organised by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority to celebrate the new life of the quayside or campshires, along the River Liffey., which disappeared with the containerisation of shipping cargo. Located on City Quay, it was the winning entry in a public art competition organised by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority to celebrate the new life of the quayside or campshires, along the River Liffey.

I worked for a shipping company back in the late 1960s and we employed people to do this sort of work but I not sure that we referred to them as linesmen and it may surprise many to learn that some were better paid than other dockers.

At the time we were in the process of switching to containerisation and reducing the number of casual workers which was bad news for many living in the area and it was especially difficult as nearly all the dockers employed by the company were, to some degree.family members [I was the only exception].

The campshires are the stretches of land between the quay and road on both the north and south quays in Dublin. They are so named because various British military regiments, such as the Gloucestershires or Leicestershires, would camp there before setting off or returning from overseas, making ‘campshire’ a portmanteau of ‘camp’ and ‘-shire’.

It is not clear when the word was first used, but it must date to the First World War or earlier. The term appears in a 1957 issue of The Irish Times.

Before the Dublin Port facilities moved down river, this was the area of the Dublin quays where ships were loaded and unloaded. As a result, the area had a number of storage warehouses and travelling cranes. The campshires were renewed and renovated by the now-defunct Dublin Docklands Development Authority between 2000 and 2005, adding walkways and cycleways on both sides of the river Liffey, including parts of the Sutton to Sandycove project. A number of buildings on the campshires were also subject to renovations during the first decade of the 21st century.