Dublin (/'d?bl?n/; locally /'d?b(?)l?n/; Irish: Baile tha Cliath, meaning "town o f the hurdled ford", pronounced [bl?a'kl?i?

] or th Cliath, [a? kl?i?], occasional ly Duibhlinn) is the capital and most populous city of Ireland.[4][5] The Englis h name for the city is derived from the Irish name Dubhlinn, meaning "black pool ". Dublin is situated in the province of Leinster near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and the centre of the Dublin Regio n. Founded as a Viking settlement, it evolved into the Kingdom of Dublin and became the island's principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded ra pidly from the 17th century; it was briefly the second largest city in the Briti sh Empire and the fifth largest in Europe. Dublin entered a period of stagnation following the Act of Union of 1800, but it remained the economic centre for mos t of the island. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, the new parliament, the Oireachtas, was located in Leinster House. Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State and later the Republic of Ireland. Like the cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, Dublin is administered separately from its respective County with its own City Council. The city is lis ted by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global ci ty, with a ranking of "Alpha-", placing Dublin among the top 30 cities in the wo rld.[6][7] It is a historical and contemporary cultural centre for the country, as well as a modern centre of education, the arts, administration, economy, and industry. Contents [hide] 1 History 1.1 Toponymy 1.2 Middle Ages 1.3 Early modern 1.4 Late modern and contemporary 2 Government 2.1 Local 2.2 National 2.3 Politics 3 Geography 3.1 Landscape 3.1.1 Cultural divide 3.2 Climate 4 Places of interest 4.1 Landmarks 4.2 Parks 5 Economy 6 Transport 6.1 Road 6.2 Rail 6.3 Airport 6.4 Cycling 7 Education 8 Demographics 9 Culture 9.1 The arts 9.2 Entertainment 9.3 Shopping 9.4 Restaurants 9.5 Media 9.6 Sport 10 Irish language 11 Twinning 12 See also 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External links

History[edit] Main article: History of Dublin Toponymy[edit] Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric t imes, the writings of Ptolemy (the Egyptian astronomer and cartographer) in abou t 140 AD provide possibly the earliest reference to a settlement there. He calle d the settlement Eblana Civitas. The name Dublin comes from the Irish name Dubhlinn or Duibhlinn, meaning "black pool". This is made up of the elements dubh (black) and linn (pool). In most Iri sh dialects, dubh is pronounced ['d???v?]. The original pronunciation is preserv ed in the names for the city in other languages such as Old English Difelin, Old Norse Dyflin, modern Icelandic Dyflinn and modern Manx Divlyn. Other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin,[8] Div lin[9] and Difflin.[10] Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh w ith a dot over the b, rendering Du?linn or Dui?linn. Those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Baile tha Cliath, meaning "town of the hurdled ford", is the common name for the city in modern Irish. th Cliath is a place name referring to a fording point of t he River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile tha Cliath was an early Christia n monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, currently occu pied by Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church. Father Mathew Bridge is understood to be near the ancient "Ford of the Hurdles" (Baile tha Cliath), the original crossing point on the River Liffey. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay. The Dubhlinn was a small lake u sed to moor ships; the Poddle connected the lake with the Liffey. This lake was covered during the early 18th century as the city grew. The Dubhlinn lay where t he Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin C astle. Tin B Cuailgne ("The Cattle Raid of Cooley") refers to Dublind rissa ratter th Cliath, meaning "Dublin, which is called Ath Cliath". Middle Ages[edit] Dublin was established as a Viking settlement in the 9th century and, despite a number of rebellions by the native Irish, it remained largely under Viking contr ol until the Norman invasion of Ireland was launched from Wales in 1169.[11] The King of Leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada, enlisted the help of Strongbow, the Ea rl of Pembroke, to conquer Dublin. Following Mac Murrough's death, Strongbow dec lared himself King of Leinster after gaining control of the city. In response to Strongbow's successful invasion, King Henry II of England reaffirmed his sovere ignty by mounting a larger invasion in 1171 and pronounced himself Lord of Irela nd.[12] Around this time, the county of the City of Dublin was established along with certain liberties adjacent to the city proper. This continued down to 1840 when the barony of Dublin City was separated from the barony of Dublin. Since 2 001, both baronies have been redesignated the City of Dublin. Dublin Castle was the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland until 1922. Dublin Castle, which became the centre of Norman power in Ireland, was founded i n 1204 as a major defensive work on the orders of King John of England.[13] Foll owing the appointment of the first Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1229, the city expand ed and had a population of 8,000 by the end of the 13th century. Dublin prospere d as a trade centre, despite an attempt by King Robert I of Scotland to capture the city in 1317.[12] It remained a relatively small walled medieval town during the 14th century and was under constant threat from the surrounding native clan s. In 1348, the Black Death, a lethal plague which had ravaged Europe, took hold in Dublin and killed thousands over the following decade.[14][15] Dublin was incorporated into the English Crown as the Pale, which was a narrow s trip of English settlement along the eastern seaboard. The Tudor conquest of Ire

land in the 16th century spelt a new era for Dublin, with the city enjoying a re newed prominence as the centre of administrative rule in Ireland. Determined to make Dublin a Protestant city, Queen Elizabeth I of England established Trinity College in 1592 as a solely Protestant university and ordered that the Catholic St. Patrick's and Christ Church cathedrals be converted to Protestant.[16] The city had a population of 21,000 in 1640 before a plague in 1649 51 wiped out a lmost half of the city's inhabitants. However, the city prospered again soon aft er as a result of the wool and linen trade with England, reaching a population o f over 50,000 in 1700.[17] Early modern[edit] Henrietta Street, developed in the 1720s, is the earliest Georgian Street in Dub lin. As the city continued to prosper during the 18th century, Georgian Dublin became , for a short period, the second largest city of the British Empire and the fift h largest city in Europe, with the population exceeding 130,000. The vast majori ty of Dublin's most notable architecture dates from this period, such as the Fou r Courts and the Custom House. Temple Bar and Grafton Street are two of the few remaining areas that were not affected by the wave of Georgian reconstruction an d