DK Travel : Dublin : History & Culture

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Celts Arrive

Powerful tribes of warriors became established in Central Europe around 600 BC. With their ability to produce iron weapons and implements, the Celts were able to progress across the continent to Ireland. Earlier inhabitants remained, but the Celts (or Gaels) imposed their authority, culture and language.
Charles Haughey

Prime minister for various terms from 1979 to 1992, Haughey (b.1925) remains a controversial figure.
Charles Stewart Parnell

Leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1880, Parnell (1846–91) secured Gladstone’s conversion to Home Rule.
Christ Church Cathedral

One of the city’s two great cathedrals, illustrating the importance religion has always played in Dublin life, Christ Church was the first to be built, in 1038. Although nothing of the original wooden church now stands, there are plenty of beautiful medieval features and decorations to appreciate, including floor tiles and stone carvings. The “Treasures of Christ Church” exhibition, housed in the 12th-century crypt, includes a gilt plate donated by William III in 1697.
Christianity Comes to Ireland

Although the Romans never settled in Ireland it was through them that Christianity reached Irish shores. The first bishop was appointed in AD 431 but it is St Patrick who is credited with the conversion of the pagan Celts and the establishment of the Church between 432 and 461.
City Hall

Thomas Cooley built this stately building between 1769 and 1779. He had won the commission as a result of a competition, beating his better-known contemporary James Gandon who designed the Four Courts and Custom House. Cooley made a fine job of City Hall, which was originally built as the city’s Royal Exchange. City bureaucrats latterly used it for various purposes but, having undergone extensive restoration, it is now open to the public. There is an excellent permanent exhibition in the reconstructed vaults entitled “The Story of the Capital”, covering 1,000 years of Dublin’s fascinating history.
City Hall

A competition was held in 1768 to select the designer of what was then to be the Royal Exchange, and Thomas Cooley’s plans were the preferred choice. One of Dublin’s most sophisticated Georgian buildings, it marked the introduction to Ireland of the Neo-Classical style of architecture, with its lofty dome supported by 12 columns and its 12 elegant circular windows.
Colm Toibin

Toibin (b.1955) was short-listed for the 2000 Booker Prize with his novel Blackwater Lightship (1999).
Craic

The lively, witty, relaxed conviviality, gossip and talk that makes life worth living.
Cuchulainn

The boy Setanta had miraculous strength and loved the game of hurling. Invited to a feast by the legendary blacksmith Culain, Setanta arrived late and was met by the smith’s ferocious guard dog. He killed the hound with his hurley stick and offered himself as a guard instead. He was renamed Cuchulainn, “hound of Culain”.