Doors of Dublin

I'm sure you all have seen posters or have heard of the "Doors of Dublin." Most of these doors are on the south side of the city in a Georgian garden square called Merrion Square. The streets are lined with Georgian redbrick townhouses. These were built starting around the mid 1700's and were finished by the 19th century. 

The last time was I was in town with the children we went around and looked at the doors. They all have different colors and some have ornate door knockers.  Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats, Daniel O'Connell, and Bram Stroker all lived in these homes. 

Here are some posters that I found on the internet. 

Here are 10 things I learned about Merrion Square:

• The Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, described himself as being born in an Irish stable. Where was he born? In a house that is now the Merrion Hotel. That gives some indication of the type of homes he was used to living in, doesn’t it?

• As you walk around Merrion Square, you can see little circles of metal about a foot diameter buried in the ground. This was where coal used to be poured into the basement of the buildings, to allow servants to bring buckets into the range where you do your cooking and to bring up coal into the various rooms.

• The park was once a private park – only residents had keys for it, as it was built as a large ornamental garden and park for the residents of Merrion Square and not for the general public. But in the 1970s, the park was opened to the public. It was formerly called Archbishop Ryan Park, but re-named in 2010 after Ryan was criticized in a church scandal.

Oscar Wilde statue in the park

• Merrion Square Park nearly became a site for a Roman Catholic cathedral. It belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, who were were looking to build a cathedral in Dublin. The Church of Ireland had St Patrick’s Cathedral and Christchurch in Dublin. The Church eventually chose to build the Pro-Cathedral on Marlborough St.

• When the Georgian homes of Merrion Square were built, around 250 years ago, the area was farmland on the edge of the city of Dublin. It was a far cry from the city-centre location it now occupies. It shows how small Dublin was physically, in terms of built-up space.  If you lived in Leinster house, as a handful of rich people did, you could see as far as the bay. That was, until Merrion Square was built.  After Leinster House was built in the 1740s, the area became quite fashionable, and new homes were built in what had been farmland.

• Georgian homes weren’t exactly like the houses we live in today. They were much more the ‘city home’ and business home, where the father of the house had a business in town and kept a house.  You lived upstairs in the house, to get “better views and fresher air”. This was due to the fact that horses were everywhere, and their droppings, and the streets could be very noisy and dirty. The genteel people of Merrion Square could avoid the noise and smell at the top of their homes. The streets would have been quite noisy, with cartwheels clattering everywhere, and horses braying.

• Some residents would hold salons in their homes, such as Oscar Wilde’s mother, Lady Wilde, who would hold salons for guests such as Bram Stoker. Some people would visit their homes after leaving their country estates for social purposes, such as attending masked balls, or marrying their daughters to suitable men. Others would visit to hold or attend parties with other bachelors, or to play cards. 

Henrietta Street

After Ireland got its independence in 1922, not many paid attention to Georgian Dublin since it reminded them of British Rule. Many left their townhouses, and by the 1920-30's many of these homes had become business addresses of companies. Henrietta Street was turned into tenement housing. Some of the townhouse rows were demolished during the 1960's. By the 1990's, attitudes had changed and now there are strict guidelines to preserve the remaining Georgian buildings. The biggest result of Georgian Dublin is that it moved the rich aristocrats from the north side to the south side of the city. The south side is where wealthier Dubliners have remained to this day. The Liffey River is the divider for the north/south side.