dublin
HISTORY
Situated behind Dublin Castle is a pintsized park. Dubh Linn Gardens is plum for a picnic or a pause after visiting the Chester Beatty museum and library. It’ s also the historical heart of the city—‘ Dubh Linn’ is Irish for‘ black pool’, a name harking back to a tidal basin that bulged here when Viking settlers moored their boats from the early ninth century. They weren’ t the first Dubliners; Celts had been here before( its Irish name, Baile Átha Cliath, means‘ town of the hurdle ford’). But the trading port flourished, and Dublin developed from there, laying down streets, lanes, districts and squares over the centuries.
Few traces remain of the city’ s Viking heritage today( a story colorfully told in the
Dublinia museum), but visitors can step into the medieval crypts of Christ Church Cathedral, search out chunks of Anglo- Norman city walls, gaze at glowing Georgian redbricks from the pathways of Merrion Square or find bullet holes from the 1916 Easter Rising on O’ Connell Street. Another era is always around the corner.
Sometimes, Dublin’ s most historical spaces feel like portals of time travel— standing beneath the barrel-vaulted ceilings of Trinity’ s Old Library( said to be an inspiration for the Jedi Archives in Star Wars) is just one standout example. Those tracing their own roots can visit EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, which covers the history of the diaspora, and its Irish Family History Centre. summer 2025 • 81