The Pictures of Dublin: Seán O'Casey Bridge

The Seán O’Casey Bridge is in the Docklands, near the Famine Memorial and the Jeanie Johnston Ship.

It is named after the Dublin-born playwright and I was looking forward to see the bridge up close, because I enjoyed his writing: his plays and more specially his autobiography. An incredible account of personal hardship and of the political confusion that was taking place in Dublin during the time of the 1916 Easter Rising and the Irish Civil War that followed. The roots of patriotism and people’s motives not always as clear cut as we would imagine, there is no idealism in the books except for the betrayed ideals, and yet, always that Irish resilience running through. He was an autodidact and that makes his style of writing even more impressive.

Well, can I say I was disappointed? I shouldn’t compare the bridges and I know that Beckett is an international figure in literature… but why did he get the big harp whenever he wrote in French?

Although, I may have been quick to judge: I must say that when looking at it from the side, it looks like there are two giant seagulls gliding over the surface of the water; the cable is not held by vertical pylons, but by some grey curved frames – and they are hardly any bigger than the actual herring gulls encountered in Dublin!

The Seán O’Casey Bridge is a 100-metre long pedestrian swing bridge that opened in 2005. Irish designer: Cyril O’Neill of Brian O’Halloran and Associates. The two sections of the bridge, sitting on granite piers, can swing through 90° and rest parallel with the river to let boats pass. Indeed, it seems to span quite low.

With the cable on the sides stretching over the water, it reminded me a little of the London Millennium Footbridge. Except this is a very understated structure. It doesn’t help that it is a bit dirty, with some uncalled-for graffiti, like the whole of Dublin city centre in fact…

The swing bridge does vibrate a lot and one bounces if there are only even a couple of other people walking on it. This makes it quite a noisy place and there is nothing but metal - it does not make one feels like hanging around.