Ireland Trip Part 5: Dublin's River Liffey, White House, Temple Bar

Ornamentation on Crattan Bridge over Liffey

This is the second half of our "Hop On / Hop Off Bus" tour of Dublin's highlights. Since we have pictures of these, we'll highlight the River Liffey, Dublin's Mini White House, Temple Bar.


THE RIVER LIFFEY -  The River Liffey is the river that flows from west to east through Downtown Dublin.  According to Britannica.com,  it flows in a generally northwesterly direction from its source to the Lackan Reservoir,. It then flows eastward through the city of Dublin, in which it is extensively canalized and bordered with quays. It empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea,  Because it separates north Dublin from the rest of Dublin, you get great views from the various bridges that span it.


LOTS OF GAY FLAGS FLYING - With the Marriage Referendum that happened on May 22, there were a lot of flags flying rainbow colors to show support for passing it and allowing gay marriages to be legally recognized. It was nice to see, and it surprised us.


THE DUBLIN MINI WHITE HOUSE -  This is located in Phoenix Park (see yesterday's blog) . The miniature White House is also known as "The Aras." According to Ireland.com:  “The Áras was built by the banker and architect Nathaniel ‘Nat’ Clements. In April 1751, Nat Phoenix Park, overseeing the deer sanctuary established by the Great Duke of Ormonde nearly a century earlier.”

The Mini White House

was appointed Chief Ranger and Master of Game for
   It was under this title that Clements built what was then known as Ranger’s Lodge. This, as Turtle tells us, “became home to the British Viceroy and is now Áras an Uachtaráin – the residence of the President of Ireland.”

THE TEMPLE BAR AND NEIGHBORHOOD-
Temple Bar is an area on the south bank of the River Liffey in central Dublin. It's a big area for nightlife. In fact, there's actually a bar named "Temple Bar" there and we took a selfie in front of it. (You can See a LIVE WEBCAM of the outside of the bar here: http://www.earthcam.com/world/ireland/dublin/?cam=templebar) 
TYING IN THE LIFFEY AND THE TEMPLE BAR AREA: 
Back when Dublin was young, the Liffey was necessary for commerce. A sandbar jutted out into the river and was used as a pier for unloading the ships. This sandbar was owned by a guy whose last name was "Temple" and thus became known as "Temple's Bar." Later, the sandbar disappeared, the banks of the Liffey were walled, the "s" was dropped and the area of pubs frequented by tourists became known as Temple Bar.

THE HISTORY OF THE TEMPLE BAR AREA:
The historic name of the district was not Temple Bar but St. Andrews Parish. It was a suburb of medieval (Anglo-saxon) Dublin, located outside the city walls, but it fell into disuse beginning in the 1300s because the land was exposed to attacks by the native Irish. The land was redeveloped again in the 1600s, to create gardens for the houses of wealthy English families.  Today, there's a lot of businesses in the "Temple Bar" area (which was most likely named after an area in London). The   Irish Photography Centre  Irish Film Institute, Gaiety School of Acting, IBAT College Dublin, Irish Stock Exchange and the Central Bank of Ireland are all there, too.

painting in the restaurant

DINNER - As we mentioned in a previous blog, dinners were expensive. However, we stopped in a restaurant for a sandwich that had a "vote for gay marriage" sign on it. The food was okay, lots of green stuff (maybe spinach?) I didn't recognize, though. We did like the painting as we walked through the front door, though, and the owner and cook (a one man place) was a big muscular guy, so the scenery was good. :)

Restaurant where we dined

NEXT: (on May 30th's blog): ROAD TRIP TO A 5,000 YEAR OLD HISTORIC SITE!