PUBLIC TRANSPORT

All Photographs Supplied By William Murphy

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DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 42

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SMITHFIELD PLAZA OR SQUARE – CHOOSE WHICH YOU PREFER

Every time I research this specific location I am informed that Smithfield Square is an up-and-coming area on Dublin’s Northside and after almost twenty it becomes tedious.

Recent commercial, residential and cultural developments led to the area becoming newly fashionable in the first decade of the 21st century. However, most notably in the period 2008 to 2010, stagnation set in as developments stalled and the Irish economy/property market nose-dived once the post-Celtic Tiger economic recession struck. The significant issues of variable apartment occupancy rates, coupled with closed retail spaces and a number of unfinished and unoccupied commercial units at Smithfield Market have created a highly visible reminder of the economic and community challenges still to be addressed in this historic part of Dublin.

Several hotels are situated in Smithfield Square itself. The biggest is the 3-star Maldron Hotel Smithfield, with 92 rooms, from junior suites to family rooms. The well-known European accommodation chain Generator is adjacent to Jameson Distillery Bow St, and the newest addition is The Hendrick, which opened in 2019. All three hotels also have their own bars and restaurants.

ALL BIKES HAVE BEEN CHECKED OUT

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DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 28 AT MOUNTJOY SQUARE

There are usually plenty of bicycles available at this popular docking station at Mountjoy Square but today there was not one available … maybe they were being used by the students at the nearby schools.

Mountjoy Square is a Georgian garden square in Dublin, Ireland, on the north side of the city just under a kilometre from the River Liffey. One of five Georgian squares in Dublin, it was planned and developed in the late 18th century by Luke Gardiner, 1st Viscount Mountjoy. It was surrounded on all sides by terraced, red-brick Georgian houses. Construction began in the early 1790s and the work was completed in 1818.

Over the centuries, the square has been home to many of Dublin’s most prominent people: lawyers, churchmen, politicians, writers and visual artists. The writer James Joyce lived around the square during some of his formative years, playwright Seán O’Casey wrote and set some of his most famous plays on the square while living there, W.B. Yeats stayed there with his friend John O’Leary, and more recently, much of the Oscar-winning film Once was made in the square. Historic meetings have taken place there, including planning for the Easter Rising and some of the earliest Dáil meetings. Prominent Irish Unionists and Republicans have shared the square.

Mountjoy can boast being Dublin’s only true Georgian square, each of its sides being exactly 140 metres in length. While the North, East and West sides each have 18 houses, the South has 19, reflecting some variation in plot sizes.Though each side was originally numbered individually,the houses are now numbered continuously clockwise from no. 1 in the north-west corner. While its North and South sides are continuous from corner to corner, the East and West sides are in three terraces, interrupted by two side streets, Grenville Street and Gardiner Place to the West and Fitzgibbon and North Great Charles Street to the East. Gardiner Street passes through the West side of the square, while Belvedere Place and Gardiner Lane run off the North- and South-East corners.

Although some of the original buildings fell to ruin over the 20th century and were eventually demolished, the new infill buildings were fronted with reproduction façades, so each side of the square maintains its appearance as a consistent Georgian terrace.

DOCKING STATION 73 ON FRANCIS STREET

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THE STREET HAS BEEN RECONFIGURED TO BE PEDESTRIAN FRIENDLY

DublinBikes station 73 is located at the Iveagh Markets building on Francis Street in Dublin, Ireland. It is one of the 124 docking stations in the DublinBikes public bicycle scheme.

An urban regeneration plan was approved as long ago as 2017 but work was delayed until sometime in 2021 and was painfully slow much to the annoyance of with a business on the street but the end result is impressive.

With a strong emphasis on pedestrians, the plan included the widening of pavements and new threshold spaces to the front of the Iveagh Market and St Nicholas de Myra Church. The somewhat awkward widening and narrowing of the carriageway gave way to a consistent width and measures to reduce speeds and allow for more relaxed cycling and easier crossing. There were major changes to car parking and loading arrangements. 20 new street trees and landscaped areas, sustainable urban drainage measures (SUDs), new street lighting, street furniture and utilities all serve to create a much improved street and should establish Francis Street as a major destination.

DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 07

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HIGH STREET DUBLIN

DublinBikes, also known as NOW DublinBikes, is a self-service bike rental system open to everyone from fourteen years of age.

Stations are distributed throughout the city centre to enable easy access and optimal use for subscribers. Each station has a minimum of fifteen stands, making it easy to avail of this service.

The service is accessible twelve months a year, seven days a week between the hours of 5am and 12.30am.

High Street is a street in the medieval area of Dublin. The Street runs parallel to the River Liffey, on high ground about 200 metres to its south, with Christ Church Cathedral on its east side, in the heart of Medieval Dublin.

High Street was at the centre of Viking Dublin and Medieval Dublin (9th–13th centuries); Christ Church Cathedral is located immediately on its northeast end. It is south of the Viking settlement site at Wood Quay and east of Dublin Castle; it was the main street in the medieval period. Patrick FitzLeones, who was three times Mayor of Dublin in the late fifteenth century, bought a house on High Street in 1473.

St. Michael’s Church was first built in 1076 and St. Audoen’s Church was built on the north side of High Street in 1190. A marble cistern to contain the municipal water supply was built there in 1308. It was commonly called Le Decer’s Fountain, in memory of John Le Decer, four times Mayor of Dublin, who paid for the construction of the cistern.

The first General Post Office of Ireland opened on High Street in 1688; it moved to Fishamble Street in 1689.

From the 18th century onward the urban core shifted eastwards, and High Street is no longer a shopping street. St Audoen’s Church (Catholic) was built in the 1840s next to the ancient Protestant church.

An excavation took place in 1962–63; found were several Viking pieces of artwork: bone trial-pieces and a gilt bronze disc-brooch of the Borre Style design, a bronze needle case, and a soapstone ingot-mould. The trades practised in the Viking period (10th–11th century) included comb making, leather working and weaving.

The street was excavated again in 1968–71; finds included post and wattle houses, leather shoes and boots, bone objects, metalwork, pottery, coins, animal bones, a Rome pilgrim badge from the early 13th century, a lead seal of Pope Innocent III, a spoon bit, and wood-turning waste.

In the 1970s many of the street’s commercial buildings were demolished so that it could be widened to a dual carriageway. For a period of time following the road widening, the street was mostly derelict and vacant sites. In 1993, Christ Church’s synod hall was converted to Dublinia, a tourist attraction educating people about Viking Dublin.

DUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 40

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AT WOLFE TONE PARK 5 MAY 2023

VISIT WOLFE TONE PARK

The feel of the area has greatly improved as a result of the greening of Wolfe Tone Park. This is now a well located and maintained docking station … of course all are well maintained but some locations are better than others.