With fewer than a dozen buildings taller than 50 metres, Dublin is definitely not a skyscraper city. It’s a city where looking around at street level or a couple of floors above can keep your eyes entertained all day long, with colorful storefronts, architectural details, historic plaques and more.
I enjoy rambling through cities, keeping my eyes open for the unexpected or unknown, even as we head to a destination, and that almost always means that after writing about those significant places, I end up with lots of photos that highlight the city at street level, rather than anything famous in itself.
That’s one of the taller buildings in the background, above, but the low bridge and its reflection are more interesting. And tall comes in other flavors, too. In the absence of skyscrapers, a tall narrow building such as Saint Audoen’s Catholic Church, an early 19th-century building with a late 19th-century portico pasted on. Its congregation today is mostly Polish Catholics.
If you relish confusion, here it comes. These pictures are also Saint Audoen’s Church. Saint Audoen’s Church of Ireland Church, next door to the Catholic one.
It’s the oldest active church in Dublin, built in the 12th century, on the site of a 7th-century church. Although the Church of Ireland took over nearly all the Catholic churches after Henry VIII’s time, there weren’t enough Protestants in the parish to keep the church in good repair. Over the 18th and 19th centuries, as the church crumbled, portions were unroofed and left to fate.
In the late 19th century plans were made to restore at least part of the church, but it was only a hundred years later that the tower and bells were restored, and one part of the remaining church remodeled into working space, seen above. You can see the same ‘bones’ as in the ruins, but there’s little beauty or majesty to the restored space.
Colorful pub facades abound in many areas of the city, especially in the tourist and hipster-heavy Temple Bar area, which can be incredibly crowded at prime drinking times.
This is NOT Dublin’s primary public transport, though the operators claim it’s the most fun and certainly a good way to get some exercise… perhaps while on your way to the National Leprechaun Museum. Dublin has an amazing variety of small museums, by the way. Including one whose name is, exactly, the Little Museum of Dublin.
You can’t long escape knowing about this building: it’s the General Post Office, center of the 1916 Easter rebellion against British rule. While it still gets many visits because of its history, it’s still the main post office.
And Dublin’s buildings bear many small and beautiful details. Here’s the Dolphin Hotel, south of the river, and the Central Hotel’s marquee.
Near St. Stephen’s Green, a bank building’s decoration and doorway, and a nearby office building.
Below, another church: Christ Church Cathedral, home to the Church of Ireland, though still formally claimed by the Catholic Church as its cathedral. No one takes the claim too seriously, though. Below it, two views of Dublin Castle, until 1922 the seat of British government in Ireland, and still a major Irish government center as well as having museums and gardens open to the public.
No, that’s not a theatre poster. The city’s arts administration has a program that allows artists to decorate utility cabinets along city streets, turning blank grey boxes into amusing artworks. Some are quite elaborate.
Molly Malone, the famous cryer of “Alive, Alive-Oh!) now wheels her wheelbarrow in front of a church on Suffolk Street. Like a number of other Dublin statues, Molly can tell her story if you scan the QR code nearby and wait for her to call your smartphone. It’s part of the city’s Talking Statues program.
A short walk takes us to the campus of Trinity College, the city’s main and most famous university; Although parts of the campus are increasingly crowded with undistinguished new buildings, the central core retains its beauty.
A little trickery: The two arches flanking the building are actually twins, but one is hidden behind a false front while construction takes place. Elsewhere on the campus, sculpture in front of the new Library, and a quiet corner in the old Library, home to the Book of Kells.
Not all the historic sights in Dublin are serious, but who’s to say that the oldest chip shop isn’t as important as the oldest church? Below it, a view of the old port, an emigrant ship, and the city’s newest bridge, said to resemble the harp that is Ireland’s symbol.
And, saved for last, two unusual stores. One, in the historic Powerscourt Townhouse mall, once an immense mansion, is called This is Knit. The other, called Knobs and Knockers, features an amazing assortment of decorative objects, including a set of light switches to die for. If you have the right house!
