Did You Know…?

Saint Patricks Cathedral
Saint Patricks Cathedral

Malahide Castle
Malahide Castle
  • The phrase ‘chancing your arm’ originated in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, where you had to put your hand into a hole to open the Medieval Chapter House door.
  • The population of Dublin city and county is 1,122,821.
  • Dublin takes its name from the Black Pool (Dubh Linn) which was on the site of the present Dublin Castle garden.
  • The first chapter of Ulysses by James Joyce is set in the Martello Tower in Sandycove, now open to the public as the James Joyce Museum.
  • Ten million glasses of Guinness – the “famous blackpint” from Dublin – are produced daily all over the world.
  • Dublin’s O’Connell Bridge was originally made of rope and could only carry one man and a donkey at a time.  It was replaced with a wooden structure in 1801.  The current concrete bridge was built in 1863 and it is the only traffic bridge in Europe which is wider than it is long.
  • The remains of St. Valentine, the Patron Saint of Love, are contained in Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church, on Aungier Street in Dublin.
  • Croke Park’s Hill 16 was constructed from the rubble left in Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) after the 1916 Rising.  Croke Park is the 4th largest sports stadium in Europe with a capacity of 82,500!
  • George Frederic Handel gave the first performance of The Messiah in Dublin in 1742.
  • Dublin’s Ha’Penny Bridge is thus called because pedestrians had to pay a half penny toll to walk over it.
  • In the Catacombs under Christ Church Cathedral there are the remains of a Medieval Cat and Mouse who died when they got stuck in the pipes of the Church organ.
  • Malahide Castle is said to be haunted by a number of different ghosts.  On the morning of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, 14 members of the Talbot family breakfasted together in the Great Hall.  All 14 were dead by nightfall!
  • Ireland’s most famous rockers, U2, started out busking for coppers on Grafton Street.
  • Bram Stoker, the creator of the nefarious bloodsucker, Count Dracula, was born in Clontarf, Dublin 3.
  • In the vaults of St. Michan’s Church lies a macabre sight!  Numerous open coffins reveal the final resting place of Medieval Dubliners.  Semi-mummified corpses dating from the Crusades to the 1798 Rebellion include rebels who were actually hanged, drawn and quartered!