History of Dublin

The Gaelic settlement, Áth Cliath ("ford of hurdles") was further upriver, at the site of the present day Father Mathew Bridge at the bottom of Church Street.

[2] The Vikings, or Ostmen (East-men) as they called themselves, ruled Dublin for almost three centuries, although they were expelled in 902 only to return in 917 and notwithstanding their defeat by the Irish High King Brian Boru at the Battle of Clontarf on 23 April 1014.

On 15 May 1192 Dublin's first written Charter of Liberties was granted by John, Lord of Ireland, and was addressed to all his "French, English, Irish and Welsh subjects and friends".

[6] By 1400, however, many of the Anglo-Norman conquerors were absorbed into the Gaelic culture, adopting the Irish language and customs, leaving only a small area of Leinster around Dublin, known as the Pale, under direct English control.

The siege mentality of medieval Dubliners is best illustrated by their annual pilgrimage to the area called Fiodh Chuilinn, or Holly Wood (rendered in English as Cullenswood) in Ranelagh, where, in 1209, five hundred recent settlers from Bristol had been massacred by the O'Toole clan during an outing outside the city limits.

Medieval Dublin was a tightly knit place of around 5,000 to 10,000 people, intimate enough for every newly married citizen to be escorted by the mayor to the city bullring to kiss the enclosure for good luck.

While the Old English community of Dublin and the Pale were satisfied with the conquest and disarmament of the native Irish, they were deeply alienated by the Protestant reformation that had taken place in England, being almost all Roman Catholics.

In 1649, on the second of these occasions, a mixed force of Irish Confederates and Anglo-Irish Royalists were routed by Dublin's English Parliamentarian garrison in the Battle of Rathmines, fought on the city's southern outskirts.

[9] For all its Enlightenment sophistication in fields such as architecture and music (Handel's "Messiah" was first performed there in Fishamble street), 18th century Dublin remained decidedly rough around the edges.

(See Ireland 1691-1801) However, under the influence of the American and French revolutions, some Irish radicals went a step further and formed the United Irishmen to create an independent, non-sectarian and democratic republic.

The United Irishmen planned to take Dublin in a street rising in 1798, but their leaders were arrested and the city occupied by a large British military presence shortly before the rebels could assemble.

He organised mass rallies known as "Monster Meetings" to pressure the British government to concede the return of the Irish Parliament, abolished in 1801 under the Act of Union, to Dublin.

Increasing wealth prompted many of Dublin's Protestant and Unionist middle classes to move out of the city proper to new suburbs such as Ballsbridge, Rathmines and Rathgar – which are still distinguished by their graceful Victorian architecture.

Dublin, unlike Belfast in the north, did not experience the full effect of the Industrial Revolution and as a result, the number of unskilled unemployed was always high in the city.

[16] In 1882, an offshoot of the Fenians, who called themselves the Irish National Invincibles, assassinated two prominent members of the British administration with surgical knives in the Phoenix Park, in reprisal for the introduction of Coercion Acts against the Land League and the RIC killing of two demonstrators in County Mayo.

Greater powers of administration were also devolved to local government, as part of a political strategy by the Conservative party of "killing Home Rule with kindness", or placating Irish nationalist grievances.

The rising saw rebel forces take over strongpoints in the city, including the Four Courts, Stephen's Green, Boland's mill, the South Dublin Union, and Jacobs Biscuit Factory and establishing their headquarters at the General Post Office building in O'Connell Street.

The British deployed artillery to bombard the rebels into submission, sailing a gunboat named the Helga up the Liffey and stationing field guns at Cabra, Phibsborough and Prussia street.

The bloodiest single day of these "troubles" (as they were known at the time) in Dublin was Bloody Sunday on 21 November 1920, when the Michael Collins' "Squad" assassinated 18 British agents (see Cairo gang) around the city in the early hours of the morning.

The Civil war began in Dublin, where Anti-Treaty forces under Rory O'Connor took over the Four Courts and several other buildings in April 1922, hoping to provoke the British into restarting the fighting.

This put the Free State, led by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith into the dilemma of facing British military re-occupation or fighting their own former comrades in the Four Courts.

On 6 December 1922, the IRA assassinated Seán Hales, a member of the Dáil, as he was leaving Leinster House in Dublin city centre, in reprisal for the executions of their prisoners by the Free State.

As part of the building programme that also cleared the inner city slums, from the 1950s onwards, historic Georgian Dublin came under concerted attack by the Irish Government's development policies.

It has been proven that many buildings were approved by government ministers personally connected with the developers involved, often to the detriment of the taxpayer and the proper planning and preservation of Dublin city.

In the early 1970s the Irish government cancelled the hitherto annual Easter parade commemorating the Rising of 1916 and in 1976 banned it, fearing it was serving as a recruiting tool for illegal republican paramilitaries.

However the risks the Provisional IRA posed to the state were highlighted several months later when the organisation assassinated the British Ambassador to Ireland Christopher Ewart-Biggs near his home at Sandyford in south Dublin.

On 25 February 2006 rioting broke out between Gardaí and a group of hardline Irish Republicans protesting the march of a "Love Ulster", loyalist parade in O'Connell Street.

The small group of political activists were joined by hundreds of local youths and running battles continued on O'Connell Street for almost three hours, where three shops were looted.

[38] Unlike the previous wave of migration, the majority of the late 2010s and 2020s migrants were from outside of Europe, the largest groups of foreign citizens now being Brazilians and Indians, followed by Poles and Romanians.

[40] By the 2020s, some antagonism had begun to develop against immigrants, particularly asylum seekers in Dublin, with numerous protests against the placement of migrants in places such as the East Wall, Finglas, Coolock and elsewhere.