Dun Laoghaire is really a suburb of Dublin, and is still in Dublin country. You can see from this map the geographic location in relation to Dublin.
I took a taxi to work on Friday and my driver, who turned out to be a neighbour, told me the basic history of this once small fishing village.
Dún Laoghaire gets its name from the Irish Translation, Fort (Dún) of Laoghaire. King Laoghaire was the ancient High King of Ireland before the Vikings arrived. When the English came they renamed the town Dunlary (Dunleary) to suit the English tongue. In 1821 it was renamed Kingstown by King George IV of England to honour his visit to the town that year. It remained Kingstown through Victorian times until in 1921, one year before independence, the town council voted to change the name back to the ancient Irish name Dún Laoghaire.
The apartment is the garden level section of a 3 story townhouse built in the 1850’s for the British admiralty. My landlord is none other than the “Dun Laoghaire Borough Old Folks Association”. They split the townshouse in two and rent out the top floor of both sides as well as our side of the ground level. The middle level was left intact and serves as the Old Folks Association’s meeting area. It’s a 2/1 with a porch leading out to the garden.
The rooms were larger than I was mentally bracing for and the location is absolutely perfect.The first thing I did upon moving to Dun Laoghaire was to join the Crunch Fitness Center – easily the nicest “gym” I’ve been in. I bought a copy of James (Seamus) Joyce’s A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, having finished A Brief History of Ireland in French.
1 comment:
"A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man" is a wonderful read, and downright accessible, as far as Joyce is concerned.
"A Brief History of Ireland" in French?! If you liked that, I recommend "A Brief History of Iraq" in Hebrew.
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