Dublin themes

• What was Dublin like in the early 20^th century?
  “This was a city of genuine diversity, its many complexities defying easy explanations.”
• Dublin: A short history
  “Dublin’s emergence as the most important city of modern Ireland was the result a process which played out over more than a millennium of history.”
• Poverty and Health
  “Tenements in inner-city Dublin were filthy, overcrowded, disease-ridden and teeming with malnourished children.”
• The Suburbs
  “The nineteenth century saw a steady move to suburbs such as Rathmines, Monkstown and Blackrockby many wealthy Dubliners.”
• Commerce, employment and trade unions
  “There was virtually no evidence of economic growth in Dublin in 1911. Many of the traditional industries in the city were struggling to survive, let alone prosper.”
• City Transport
  “There were, by 1911, 330 trams operating on lines which ran for 60 miles along the city’s roads, drawing the suburbs tightly to the city.”
• Government and politics
  “In a city so divided by wealth, class and religion, it was inevitable that politics in Dublin in 1911 were intense, bitter and utterly absorbing.”
• Religion
  “In 1911 the city was 83% Catholic, 13% Church of Ireland, 2% Presbyterian and Methodist and 2% others, including a growing Jewish presence.”
• Education
  “Patrick Pearse founded St Enda’s school in 1909 in opposition to the examination-orientated ‘murder-machine’ of the state system.”
• Law and Order
  “In 1910 there were 2,462 charges of drunkenness in the Dublin Metropolitan police district, while a total of 3,758 people were drunk when they were taken into custody.”
• Emigration and migration
  “In the Shelbourne Hotel, the waiting staff comprised of eight Germans, three Austrians, and one each from Bohemia and England.”
• Dublin Waters: the Liffey, the canals and the port
  “Kingstown, for example, was fashionable for its yachting and other maritime activities, including swimming at the ‘forty foot’.”
• Literary Life
  “The Abbey opened in December 1904 with plays by Yeats and Lady Gregory, and thereafter theatre in Dublin remained contentious.”
• Social Life
  “There were regular concerts given at the Antient Concert Rooms and operatic performances at theatres on Burgh Quay and Hawkins Street.”
• Sport
  “Another prominent swimmer was the distinguished doctor, writer and wit, Oliver St. John Gogarty. Gogarty also played soccer with Bohemians FC and competed regularly in the Irish cycling championships.”
• Census day, 2 April 1911