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Voodoo Lounge (live music venue) on Arran Quay
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The James Joyce Bridge (2003) seen from the Liam Mellow’s
Bridge (1760s)
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Walking along the Liffey here, is not a very relaxing:
the pavement along the river is narrow and there is a lot of traffic - going in
a one-way system only, which makes drivers having to go around in circles in an
ever-ending cycle of traffic-lights and acceleration.
The James Joyce Bridge is a tied-arch bridge designed by
the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who also designed the Samuel Beckett
Bridge downriver, six years later (http://picturesofdubhlinn.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/samuel-beckett-bridge.html)
At this point, 3 km from the 120-metre-long Samuel
Beckett Bridge, the river is only 40 metres wide.
The steel sections of the James Joyce Bridge were
manufactured by Harland & Wolff in Belfast.
I can’t say I like it, but as one gets closer, it seems
to change shape: it made me think of a clam, opening up.
It is a busy bridge with 4 lanes for car traffic, plus 2
cycle lanes. On either side is a wide area for pedestrians, which is separated
from the vehicles by the arches themselves. There are even benches. The deck is
made of glass sections and the barrier along the water is a sheet of glass that
leans inwards, while the arches lean overhead. I didn’t find the space very
inviting, maybe because the weather was so grey, but a man was reading the
newspaper on the bench.
The bridge was inaugurated on Bloomsday: 16th
June – the annual date when James Joyce, and more specially his novel Ulysses
and the character Leopold Bloom, are celebrated with readings, walks and street
acting.
Here, the bridge also has a connection with Joyce’s
writing: the red brick house at the southern end of the bridge is where his
short story ‘The Dead’ is set, at number 15 Usher’s Island. It’s the last story
in the collection called Dubliners.
The house is currently for sale; it still has a nice
entrance with pilasters. It had been named James Joyce House of The Dead and
was available to rent for events. It looks like it was abandoned in 2014.
The statue of James Joyce is in a side street, just off the
main avenue called O’Connell Street (http://picturesofdubhlinn.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/oconnell-street.html)
It was the day before the Gay Pride parade and there were
rainbow-coloured flags everywhere.
Catholic church, now closed, on Arran Quay. The plaque
states St Paul’s Church @ Smithfield. Built in the 1830s.
Father Matthew Bridge (1818) which was built where the
very first bridge to span the Liffey stood – it was known as Dublin Bridge or
simply The Bridge as it remained the only crossing for nearly 400 years.
It was also nearby that there used to be a ford or
crossing point in more ancient times, which gave Dublin its official name in
Irish, Baile Átha Cliath (“town of the hurdled ford”).
The large dome of the Four Courts was unfortunately
hidden…
Here sit the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High
Court and the local Dublin Circuit Court.
The original building from 1802 was destroyed during the
civil war of 1922. It was rebuilt in 1932 (Neoclassical style) but with less
interior decoration due to lack of funds and lack of documents about the
architecture: all the documents had been destroyed at the same time as the
building (the Public Records Office was here too!)
