The National Basketball
Arena
The National Basketball
Arena
The National Basketball Arena was opened in
January 1993 by the Taoiseach of the time, Albert Reynolds; costing
£3.5 million. It is one of five identical buildings worldwide
designed by the American architect Dan Tully. It's unusual design and
look makes it stand out overlooking the Tallaght junction of the M 50
motorway.
The arena is Ireland's largest indoor sporting arena, with seating
for 2,500 spectators and was designed for all sporting activities,
not just basketball. It is also the home of the Irish Basketball
Association (IBA) and hosts all home ESB Super League fixtures for
it's resident team, Denny Notre Dame.
Sport however is not the only purpose: throughout the year the arena
hosts events such as exhibitions, conferences, trade shows, banquets,
exams and concerts. Boyzone's first major concert was held
here.
The present Church of Ireland building, St. Maelruan's originated as
a monastery. St. Maelruan founded it in the year 769 AD. The church
occupies the centre of the old monastic settlement. The original
monastery was a centre of learning for monks who came from all over
the country. St. Maelruan himself died in 792 AD. In 811 AD, the
monastery was attacked and destroyed by Vikings. However it was
rebuilt and continued to function.
The County Library, Tallaght is situated beside
the South Dublin County
Council Offices, opposite the Square. It first opened in December
1994. The current library stock is over 85,000 items, including
books, cassettes, magazines and cds. To maintain such a huge stock
there are 26 staff altogether, made up of library attendants,
assistants, senior assistants, librarians and the senior librarian
who is in charge of the branch. The library offers many services
apart from book rental. These include: a community information
section, reference and local history, computer games, comics, school
project files, toys and games, study area, language learning, videos
and Teenscene, a special section for 12-15 year olds.
Lots of events and activities are also organised,
such as author visits, drama workshops, arts and crafts, photography,
music and dance, mad science workshops, story time and loads of
competitions. So it's clear, there's a lot going on in Tallaght
Library and remember membership is absolutely free!
The park first opened in 1989 and was named after the well-known
local politician, who died in the same year. Tallaght's 36.5 hectare
park is opposite the Square Town Centre which is linked to the park
by a footbridge over the Tallaght bypass. The park provides the
people of Tallaght with a lovely landscaped neighbourhood park, with
pleasant trees, shrubs and attractive water features enjoying
beautiful views of the Dublin Mountains. Among the facilities in the
park are ponds, waterfalls, ornamental bridges, picnic areas and
playing pitches.
The main entrance to Trinity College is situated
on College Green, south of the Liffey, in Dublin's city centre. Queen
Elizabeth I founded it in 1592, to house the students and provide the
latest in facilities.
The college followed a fantastic policy of commissioning architecture
from some of the best architects in Ireland and Britain. As a result
the college has some of the most important buildings in Dublin, not
just from the eighteenth century but also from the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. St Patrick's College was the first College to
open in Dublin, but due to lack of funds it closed. Trinity College
opened some years later in 1592 and has over 9000 students.
Within the grounds of the College there are other buildings they
include the Old Library, Examination Hall, the
Chapel, the Graduate Memorial Building and the
Rubrics . The museum building has remade the Irish Deer Giant
fossils, and has some of the most interesting
engineering models of time.
On Friday the 13th of July 1984 fire struck Trinity Dinning Hall. It
was very badly damaged. The book of Kells was
stolen in 1007, three months later it was
found without its gold Decorations. A few years later the book of
Kells was sent to Dublin for safekeeping. After this Henry Jones
Bishop of Meath presented it to the College, where it is on display
in the Long Room.
Leinster House is located on Kildare Street, beside the National
Museum in the heart of Dublin's city
centre. Richard Cassels for Lord Kildare, Duke
of Leinster, built Leinster House in1745. It's a county house built
in town, though it was on the edges at the
time of its construction. It is a limestone building
The northern side of the house is said to be
the prototype for the bow fronted White House in
Washington.
The Fitzgeralds originally built Leinster House. The 20th Earl,
James Fitzgerald and 1st Duke of Leinster.
Leinster House remained in the family for
seventy years until The Royal Dublin Society bought it, from whom it
was bought by the Irish Government in 1925. It
is now the seat of both houses of the Irish
Parliament, the Dail and the Senate.
The seat of the Dail and the Seanad since 1922 has been Leinster
House.
Kilmainham jail is located in Kilmainham near
Inchicore, on the south side of Dublin. The
foundations were laid in 1786. The Dublin authorities fearing
a spread of the French Revoltionary ideas to this
county carried out further expansions to the
original plans for the jail and delayed the official
opening until 1786.
The dark corridors, thick iron doored punishment cells, the chapel,
the hanging room and the execution yard can
still be seen in their original condition. The
jail was filled with political prisoners that was to last for
nearly 130 years. Today it is a major museum with
items relating to the 1916 rising as its care
collection.The last prisoner to be held in Kilmainham
jail was Eamon de Valera who was released on the 16th
of July 1924.
The Ha'penny Bridge is located in the middle of Dublin's city centre,
near Henry Street.
The Halfpenny Bridge was built in the year 1816 as the Wellington
Bridge . The bridge has three lamps supported
by curved ironwork over the walk way and there
are steps and iron bars around the bridge. The Ha'penny
Bridge's function today is for people to walk
over the Liffey to get to the main shopping
areas north and south of the Liffey. The bridge has three lamps
to light up at night to show people the way
across.
It was called the Ha'penny Bridge because people had to pay a half of
a penny to get across the bridge ,but if you
did not have a halfpenny, you would not be
able to cross. This toll was abandoned well over a century
ago, yet the name will always stick.
In December the new pedestrian bridge over the Liffey will open, just
in time for the Millenium. The new Liffey
Pedestrian Bridge will provide a link between
Lower Ormond Quay on the north bank and Wellington Quay on the
south.
The General Post Office is located on O'Connell
street in Dublin's city centre.
The General Post Office was built in 1814.It was designed by
Richard Johnston. The building's main feature
is the huge hexstyle Doric portico over the
pavement and which spans the five central Bays. The frieze is
heavily carved and topped by huge dentil frieze and
balustrade. To each side of the portico are
five further bays. Above the portico are statues by John
Smith Fidelity, Hibernia and Mercury.
The GPO is a large post office, a bureau de change and also has
public phones.
The General Post Office has a special place in Irish and Dublin
history, being the focal point of the Easter
Rising in 1916. Pádraig Pearse read the
Proclamation of Independence on the steps here. The
General Post Office had been occupied as the
virtual headquarters of the rebels, during the 1916
Rising and it was set ablaze by the British
Artillery. The building was then gutted in the
Civil War by rebel forces.
The Four Courts are situated on the north quays, in Dublin's city
centre. This building is one of Dublin's main
landmarks with its large drum and shallow
dome. The Four Courts were built in the eighteenth century.
The new building was designed to replace the old lawcourts,
near Christchurch Catedral. The Four Courts
are the centre of the Irish judiciary, all
major trials are held here. The Central Criminal Court is
part of this building.
The Four Courts has a special place in Irish and Dublin history,
being one of the focal points of the Easter
Rising of 1916. Destroyed during the Irish
civil war of 1921 -22, the building has since been
restored outside, although it was remodelled
and rearranged inside.
It is located in Dublin city south of the Liffey
Dublin castle was founded in 1204 by order of
King John. There is one entrance and some heavy duty
towers. The castle covered most of the ground of the
upper yard. By the beginning of the
seventeenth century the castle was fully built.Law courts,
meetings of parliament, the residence of the Viceroy
and a council chamber. In 1534 the castle came
under siege by Thomas Fitzgerald otherwise known as
"Silken Thomas".
Today the State Apartments of Dublin Castle are used for
Presidential inaugurations and during the time
Ireland held the presidency of the EU. Dublin
Castle is also used for other important Government meetings.
The Castle also held the Metropolitan Area
Headquarters for the Garda
Síochána(Irish Police) for a half
century before they moved to Harcourt
Square.
The Custom House is sited on the Liffey riverfront.
Building started on the Custom House in 1781 and it
was finished 10 year's later at a cost of
£200.000.
The Custom House was the first major public building built in Dublin
as an isolated structure with four monumental
facades. The outside of the building is richly
adorned with sculptures.
The function of the Custom House is to store public records
birth certificates etc.
In the Irish civil war of 1921-1922 the interior of the Custom House
was destroyed by fire lit by the IRA. The fire
blazed for five days destroying a huge amount
of public records. The fire was so hot that the dome melted
and the stonework was still cracking because
of cooling five months later.
Christchurch Cathedral is located between
Winetavern Street and Lord Edward Street, on
the southside of Dublin's city centre.
Christchurch was built around 1038 by the newly
converted Vikings under King Sitric
Silkingbeard. Outside the most interesting feature is the fine
Romanesque doorway.
From the outside the Cathedral seems to wander all over the hillside
on which it is built. Later on the building
was extended lengthwise rather than
upwards.The inside of the Cathedral is mainly
victorian, dating from the restoration. The
oldest part of the Cathedral is the crypt dating from 1188.
Today Christchurch Cathedral is the church of Ireland
Cathedral for the Diocese of Dublin and
Gledalough.
Áras an Uachtaraín is through a
formal break in the shrubbery along the main
road of the Phoenix Park. It
was designed and built in 1751, for Nathaniel Clements. The building
is very wide, it has a lot of windows and a
few chimneys. It has two flags, a fence and a
couple of houses around it.
The English government purchased the house and an attempt was made to
get the cooperation of Henry Grattan the
leader of the opposition in the Irish
parliament. Today it is the house where the President
of Ireland lives, currently Mary McAleese.
In the past Queen Victoria visited on four occasions and planted
an evergreen on the lawn, which is now a
towering tree. Edward VII also visited three
times and the last royal welcome was for George V in 1911.
