Here it is, from 1811, a map of the city of Dublin, in the County of Dublin, on the Emerald Isle. This grabs my attention because I was recently granted Irish citizenship, and now have passport in hand. This gift comes by way of the people of Ireland (by their policies), and by my grandmother Hannah Nora, who had the good sense to be born in Donegal, yet land in Brooklyn, New York where she met my grandfather. He was of Irish ancestry as well, but born in St. Johns, Newfoundland. That’s a story for another day.

If you look at the map closely there are some clear landmarks and large features of the city that inspire curiosity. Knowing that Dublin is certainly a much older city than Toronto, Ontario, I wanted to learn how long “The College” had been there (founded in 1592 as it goes), and who chose this particular location, (Vikings…really?). I suppose plopping a civilization on a river with a port was a well-established practice in most old societies. Of course there’s a castle, there’s always a castle. Anyway, this is what I learned in the short course.

For 5000 years or so, most of them BC, then to the 900s AD Ireland belonged to prehistoric characters and then the Celts. While Rome was never heavily involved, Christianity became a strong formative factor in the formation of Ireland’s history. Saint Patrick came along somewhere around the mid fifth century and Celtic Christianity emerged, with the Celtic cross as a feature. I took this picture myself.

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Related to religious construction, there were a large number of monasteries and abbeys constructed around the countryside, and later a large number of churches. There was a large level of literacy in and around those places. However, let’s talk about the Vikings.

The snippet below, from the Wikipedia article about Dublin describes a version of its history, there’s a lot more to it I’m sure…”Dublin was established as a Viking settlement in the 9th century and, despite a number of rebellions by the native Irish, it remained largely under Viking control until the Norman invasion of Ireland was launched from Wales in 1169.[13] The King of Leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada, enlisted the help of Strongbow, the Earl of Pembroke, to conquer Dublin. Following Mac Murrough’s death, Strongbow declared himself King of Leinster after gaining control of the city. In response to Strongbow’s successful invasion, King Henry II of England reaffirmed his sovereignty by mounting a larger invasion in 1171 and pronounced himself Lord of Ireland.[14] Around this time, the county of the City of Dublin was established along with certain liberties adjacent to the city proper. This continued down to 1840 when the barony of Dublin City was separated from the barony of Dublin. Since 2001, both baronies have been redesignated the City of Dublin.” The rest of the Dublin Wikipedia entry can be found at this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin

Here’s a print of a map of Dublin in 1610 (even earlier). More churches, castles and colleges. James VI of Scotland, renamed James I of England, was technically in charge at the time, not long after the death of Elizabeth I. There’s some history to be told about the relationship of the Irish with the British, but that is a better conversation for a pint and a friend on a visit to this lovely, old and historic city. http://www.dublin.ie