Dublin: From Boom to Busts

The two features that dominate the Dublin skyline are cranes and statues, and they say a great deal about both the present and the past of the Irish capital. Scores of bobbing cranes attest to an Irish economic boom that began in 1988 and continues today despite the collapse of stock markets around the world. Nearly every part of the city is under construction, from the crowded alleyways of Temple Bar with its pubs and eateries to blocks of apartments springing up on the outskirts to house a steady influx of young professionals.

The statues tell of less prosperous and peaceful times when Ireland was gripped by famine and revolution. A useful walking guide to Dublin might be defined by these monuments, beginning with the one to Daniel

O’Connell at the south end of the city’s broad main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street. The 19th century Catholic lawyer and politician was known as the Liberator for his leadership in the struggle for Catholic emancipation from the discriminatory laws of the British Parliament. A walk along the street takes you past more monuments to heroes of the struggle for independence, such as William Smith O’Brien, James Larkin and Charles Parnell. In their company is a more equivocal figure: Father Matthew, a crusading 19th century priest who campaigned against the consumption of alcohol as vigorously as the others campaigned for independence. The most significant monument on O’Connell Street is not a statue, but a building: the General Post Office where the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule was launched. Take a close took at the gpo portico, which still bears bullet marks from the fighting.

Near the middle of O’Connell Street stands, or lies, the Anna Livia fountain depicting the spirit of the River Liffey, built to mark Dublin’s millennium in 1988 and soon to be moved elsewhere. Dubliners scorn the scrawny reclining figure as Anna Rexia or the Floozie in the Jacuzzi. They have similar fun with another statue on nearby Grafton Street, a monument to seafood seller Molly Malone who gained 17th century fame hawking “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh!” She is better known to modern Dubliners as the Tart with the Cart.

A stroll up traffic-free Grafton Street, with a stop or two at shops selling coffee or fine Irish linen, takes a visitor to St. Stephen’s Green, an exquisite city park filled with — what else? — statues. Here you can find a monument to Theobald Wolfe Tone, famed both as a revolutionary and as one of the few Protestants committed to Irish independence. Here too is a superb Henry Moore sculpture dedicated to the poet William Butler Yeats, a poignant memorial to the 19th century potato famine, and a statue of Sir Arthur Guinness, known best for the thick black stout that bears his name. The Guinness family is honored here for its role in opening St. Stephen’s Green to the public in 1880.

The great enterprise founded by Guinness offers a fine way to end a tour of Dublin. The Guinness Storehouse in the heart of the vast brewery, reached from the center by bus, taxi or a 20-minute walk, provides a fascinating look at the history of the brew, from its 18th century origins to its current world renown. The high point, literally, is a complimentary pint in the Sky Bar of the Storehouse with a glorious 360 view of the city (admission $10). Cheers.