Dublin River Cruise

The Ha'penny Bridge

Before the Hapenny Bridge
was built, a man named
William Walsh operated seven
ferries across the Liffey. The
ferries were in a terrible
condition and Walsh was
informed that he had to either
fix them or build a bridge.
Walsh chose the latter option
and was granted the right to
extract a hapenny toll (the price of the ferry) from anyone crossing what became
known as the Hapenny Bridge. The bridge opened in May 1816, however the toll
was eventually dropped in 1919.

The Custom House

Dublin has had a Custom House
since 1621. While the first
Custom House was located on
lands later reclaimed from the
River Liffey, its arcade-style
successor built in 1707 became
redundant with the construction
of the present-day Custom
House. In November 1791,
James Gandons new neo-classical Custom House was completed and was
officially pronounced open for business. Its copper dome was visible for miles and
its Doric exterior was enhanced by several sculptured keystone heads representing
the Atlantic Ocean and the rivers of Ireland. The building cost 200,000 which is
close to 24 million in todays modern day terms. The Custom House was long
considered a symbol of British power and in 1921, 120 Irish Republican Army
volunteers set fire to the building. The Irish Free State government commissioned a

restoration of the building in the 1920s. Today, the building houses the Department
of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Gandon was an architect who
has had a huge impact on the city having also designed O' Connell Bridge, The
Four Courts, part of the Houses of Parliament (now Bank of Ireland, College Green)
and the Kings Inns.

The Famine Memorial

'Famine' (1997) was commissioned by Norma Smurfit and
presented to the City of Dublin in 1997. The sculpture is a
commemorative work dedicated to those Irish people forced to
emigrate during the Irish Famine of the 1840s. The Famine
resulted from the failure of the potato crop, due to a blight
causing beetle, leaving Irish tenant farmers with little that they
could afford to eat. The bronze sculptures were designed and
crafted by Dublin sculptor Rowan Gillespie and are located on
Custom House Quay in Dublin's Docklands.
This location is a particularly appropriate and historic as one of the first voyages of
the Famine period was on the 'Perserverance' which sailed from Custom House
Quay on St. Patrick's Day 1846.

The Jeanie Johnston

The ship is a replica of the original Jeanie Johnston
ship which proudly brought over 2500 emigrants to
America and Canada in the 1840s and 1850s, with
no lives lost in 16 crossings. In 1858, en route to
Quebec from Hull with a cargo of timber, she
became waterlogged. The crew climbed into the
rigging, and after nine days clinging to the slowlysinking ship, they were rescued by a Dutch ship, the
Sophie Elizabeth. Even as she sank, the Jeanie
Johnston maintained her perfect safety record. In
2002, in memory of the emigrants who travelled on
the original, the Jeanie Johnston replica sailed
across the Atlantic from Fenit, Co. Kerry to Canada and the USA, stopping at over
20 ports along the way. In 2005, she sailed in the Tall Ships Race. She was
purchased by the Docklands Authority in 2006 and currently operates as a Class A
sail training ship and as a famine history museum.

Dublin's Docklands
Rescued from decay in the 1990s, the docklands has become a hub of modern
commerce: Google, Yahoo and Facebook all have their European headquarters

here. Dublins International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) is situated in the

docklands area and over half of the worlds top 50 banks and half of the top 20
insurance companies have an office somewhere in the IFSC district.The view from
the river includes traditional granite and redbrick warehouses, beautifully converted
for modern use. The boat tour also allows you to take in the striking Convention
Centre, which was designed by one of Americas most revered architects Irishman
Kevin Roche.

Dublin River Cruise Quiz

1. How old is the Ha'penny Bridge?

2. Why was the toll for the bridge half a

penny?

3. What do the keystones of the Custom House represent?

4. Name two other structures designed by James Gandon in Dublin.

5. What caused the Irish famine?

6. Who designed the Famine Memorial?

7. How many people left Ireland on the Jeanie Johnston?

8. Why did people emigrate from Ireland on the Jeanie Johnston?

9. Name two companies that have headquarters in the Dublin Docklands.

10.

Who designed Dublin's Convention Centre?