Ireland live photos pt1

[luscaa]

Today is dun laoghaire harbour in south east dublin,about 15 mins from city centre.It`s well worth a visit if in Dublin.
These photos were taken today 22/06/2017

Dún Laoghaire is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland, about 12 km (7.5 miles) south of Dublin city centre. It is the county town of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown county. Formerly a major port of entry from Great Britain, from 1821 to 1920 it was named Kingstown.

Dún Laoghaire dates from the 1820s. An earlier Dún Laoghaire village was around the area where the Purty Kitchen pub is now (sometimes mapped as "Old Dunleary"). Dún Laoghaire had a coffee house and a small cove, both of which are shown on a number of old maps, and it may have had a salt mine (Salthill is close by). At that time, the area was a craggy, rocky pasture with some quarries.

Around 1800, some maps show a small town centre along what is now Cumberland Street, close to the junction with York Road. On the night of 18-19 November 1807, two troopships, the Prince of Wales, and the Rochdale, which had departed from Dublin, were driven on the rocks between Blackrock and Dún Laoghaire with the loss of over 400 lives. This disaster gave new impetus to an existing campaign for a harbour to be constructed near Dublin. By 1816, the legislation was passed authorising the construction of what is now called the "West Pier". The lines of the current town centre including George's Street and most adjoining streets are clearly shown on maps prepared for the development of the harbour, and in particular on a John Rennie plan of 1817, when construction of that town centre had barely commenced at the western end of George's Street. That street may originally have been laid out as a military road connecting the Dún Laoghaire Martello Towers—one at the Peoples Park, the other near the end of the West Pier—both of which have long disappeared. Whatever its origins, the street was clearly an engineer's design, being ruler-straight for all of its length (except the small western part which clearly pre-dates 1816). When King George IV came to visit the new port under construction in 1821, the name Dunleary was dropped in favour of "Kingstown"; the town returned to its former name in 1920, in the lead-up to the creation of the Irish Free State. By the time the Ordnance Survey was completed around 1845, the maps show buildings on much of the street and adjacent streets.

Ireland's first railway from Dublin to Kingstown, opened in 1834, terminated near the West Pier. It established Kingstown as a preferred suburb of Dublin, and led to the construction of elegant residential terraces. By 1844 the Atmospheric Train (designed by Robert Mallet) connected Kingstown to Dalkey, leading to further development. The Atmospheric Train ceased in 1854, but was replaced by the extension of the railway, which was subsequently extended to the ferry port of Rosslare. The opening of the railway from Dublin saw Kingstown become a Victorian era seaside resort.

In 1890, the Kingstown Town Commissioners established the People's Park on the site of a depleted quarry. By 1900, the centre of the town was congested and steps were taken to widen the street. These steps included the demolition of shop frontages on George's Street from Patrick Street to Mulgrave Street, and their replacement by new frontages stepped back about 5 yards (4.5m). Shops on the corner of Marine Road and George's Street were also demolished.

The main road to Dublin, through Monkstown village and Blackrock, was the sole road connection to the city of Dublin until 1932. In that year, the Eucharistic Congress brought thousands of visitors to Dublin, and plans indicated that most of them would come through Dún Laoghaire. The road was considered inadequate, and a new coast road was created by connecting some short segments of road and closing some gardens. This road is now Seapoint Avenue. An agreement with the local residents to restore the area to pre-Congress condition was never fulfilled.

The British 59th (2nd North Midland) Division disembarked at Kingstown in April 1916 and marched up the road to Dublin, to participate in the Easter Rising. Adjacent to the Carlisle Pier and overlooked by the National Maritime Museum of Ireland, there is an anchor, recovered from the wreck of the mailboat RMS Leinster which was torpedoed over the Kish Bank in 1918, with the loss of over 500 lives.

Dún Laoghaire was hit by stray German bombs during the Second World War, a couple of bombs landing near the People's Park at Rosmeen Gardens. Damage from the bombs was limited to buildings.

Thanks