Make Liffey Beautiful

Make Liffey Beautiful

18 Feb 1938

As the volume of water for the Liffey scheme at Poulaphouca was controlled, why not use it to make the Liffey always an ornament, said Mr. Stephen Gwynn, the well-known author, in a broadcast from Radio Eireann. He suggested the placing of a sluice gate across the river with a passage for barges and a bridge at the Custom House through which traffic from the North Strand could flow direct to Westland Row. The effect, he said, would be to bring the life of Dublin further seawards towards the clear airs of the Bay, as Beresford had done in Grattan’s time. The men who built the Four Courts and the Custom House, he said, might be accused of extravagance, as Grattan accused Beresford but Beresford and the rest were right. The best tribute Dublin could pay them was to imitate their feeling for noble structures and a splendid capital.

VIEWS OF BAY.

Dublin was on a bay whose beauty was a proverb. It was not easy to arrange for a view of Dublin Bay because they were on flat ground. The authorities_, however, have done a good deal. From Dun Laoghaire a fine roadway commanded a perfect view of the Bay: and. on the North side. Dollymount had a fine esplanade in the _making from which one could see the culmination of water and mountains which made up the scenery of Dublin. Referring to Grattan’s time. Mr. Gwynn said that when Beresford began his work there was no place nearer the sea than Grattan (then Essex Bridge). Beresford moved the Custom House nearly half a mile down the river. At the same time Westmoreland St. was cleared from College Green to the Quays and Upr. O’Connell St. (then Gardiner’s Mall) was carried down to Bachelor’s Walk. Carlisle Bridge was built to connect the two.

OLD-TIME FLOODS.

In 1795 Henry Grattan as a member of the Committee of Dublin, said Mr. Gwynn introduced a measure to deal with the floods at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where people went about in boats when the river overflowed. Grattan called it the Dodder: he did not think the Poddle a euphonious name. He knew that the Poddle was merely a lead carried from the Dodder about Templeogue. That was a piece of engineering done about to give the city a supply of running water

In 1795, more than one person had been drowned near St. Patrick’s. Some years earlier, a man was drowned in the same watercourse just outside the castle walls, where the stream was held up by a dam. which gave its name to Dame Street.

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