1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
River Liffey
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The River Liffey is a river in Ireland, which flows through the centre of Dublin. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the River Poddle, the river supplies much of Dublins water and a range of recreational opportunities. The river was previously named An Ruirthech, meaning fast runner, the word Liphe referred originally to the name of the plain through which the river ran, but eventually came to refer to the river itself. It was also known as the Anna Liffey, possibly from an anglicisation of Abhainn na Life, James Joyce personified the river as Anna Livia Plurabelle in Finnegans Wake. See Annals of Inisfallen for the year 808, AI808.2 A defeat by the Laigin on Áed, son of Niall, the Liffey rises in the Liffey Head Bog between Kippure and Tonduff in the Wicklow Mountains, forming from many streamlets at Sally Gap. It crosses from County Wicklow into County Kildare at Poulaphouca and from County Kildare into County Dublin at Leixlip, the catchment area of the Liffey is 1,256 km2. The long term average flow rate of the river is 18.0 m3/s, the Liffey system is a substantial one, including dozens of smaller rivers and streams. Early tributaries include the Athdown Brook, Shankill River, Ballylow Brook, Brittas River and Woodend Brook, downstream of Poulaphouca are the Lemonstown Stream, Kilcullen Stream and Pinkeen Stream, followed by the Painestown River, Rye Water, and the Griffeen River. Within Dublin are the various Phoenix Park streams on the bank, interspersed with right bank tributaries such as the Glenaulin Stream. In earlier times, the River Tolka was also arguably a tributary of the Liffey, or at least shared its mouth, there are dams for three ESB hydroelectric power stations along the river, at Poulaphouca, Golden Falls and Leixlip. Major reservoir facilities also exist at Poulaphouca, the Liffey does not feature natural lakes, and has few islands. Significant falls at Poulaphouca and at Golden Falls were flooded by reservoir construction, there remain areas of rapids, notably as the river approaches Dublin city. Towns along the river include Ballymore Eustace, Athgarvan, Kilcullen, Newbridge, Caragh, Clane, Celbridge, Leixlip, the River Liffey in Dublin city has been used for many centuries for trade, from the Viking beginnings of the city up to recent times. It is connected to the River Shannon via the Grand Canal, around 60% of the Liffeys flow is abstracted for drinking water and to supply industry. Much of this makes its way back into the river after purification in wastewater treatment plants, a popular myth is that Liffey water is used to brew Guinness but this is not true as Guinness uses water piped from the Wicklow mountains. ESB hydroelectric power stations exist along the river, at Poulaphouca, Golden Falls and Leixlip, a well-known sight on the Liffey up to the 1990s, the Lady Patricia and Miranda Guinness cargo ships were used to export Guinness from the St. Jamess Gate Brewery. In recent years, the regular traffic on the river within the city is the Liffey Voyage water tour bus service. Downstream of the East-Link bridge, the river is mainly used for commercial and ferry traffic
3.
Dublin
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Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, the city has an urban area population of 1,345,402. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2016, was 1,904,806 people, founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800, following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is administered by a City Council, the city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy, the name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, dubh /d̪uβ/, alt. /d̪uw/, alt /d̪u, / meaning black, dark, and lind /lʲiɲ pool and this tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn /d̪ˠi, other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b and those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Irish-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning town of the ford, is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, there are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford. Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times and he called the settlement Eblana polis. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. 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 used 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 the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle
4.
James Gandon
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James Gandon is today recognised as one of the leading architects to have worked in Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century. His better known works include The Custom House, the Four Courts, Kings Inns in Dublin, Gandon was an English architect, born on 20 February 1742 in New Bond Street, London, at the house of his grandfather Peter Gandon, a French Huguenot refugee. He was the son of Peter Gandon, a gunmaker. From 1749 he was educated at Shipleys Drawing Academy where he studied the classics, mathematics, arts, on leaving the drawing academy he was articled to study architecture in the office of Sir William Chambers. Chambers was an advocate of the evolution of Palladian architecture. However, it was Chamberss palladian and neoclassical concepts which most influenced the young Gandon, in 1765, Gandon left William Chambers to begin practice on his own. His first commission was on Sir Samuel Helliers estate at the Wodehouse, Gandons new practice, whilst successful, always remained small. In about 1769 he entered an competition to design the new Royal Exchange in Dublin. The plan eventually chosen was by Thomas Cooley, however, Gandons design came second and brought him to the attention of the politicians who were overseeing the large-scale redevelopment of Dublin, one of the largest cities in Europe at the time. During the following years in England, Gandon was responsible for the design of the County Hall in Nottingham, during his English career he was awarded the Gold medal for architecture by the Royal Academy, London in 1768. Thomas Cooley, the architect on that project, had died. The project was completed at a cost of £200,000. This conspicuous commission proved to be the point in Gandons career and Dublin was to become Gandons home. He took a house in Mecklenburgh Street, that he might be near the residence of John Beresford, the newly formed Wide Streets Commission employed Gandon to design a new aristocratic enclave in the vicinity of Mountjoy Square and Gardiner Street. The new classical terraces of large residences became the Town houses of members of the newly built, Gandon also designed Carlisle Bridge over the River Liffey to join the north and south areas of the city. Gandons least well known building in Dublin is his Royal Military Infirmary of 1787 on Infirmary Road and he worked for the Wide Street Commissioners and designed the facades for the shops at ground floor of DOlier Street, Burgh Quay and some surrounding streets. This building is now the Bank of Ireland and his work in Ireland was not confined to Dublin, nor to civic and municipal commissions. J. Woodmason of 1794, and Sandymount Park for the painter William Ashford, in County Laois, he designed Emo Court, County Laois in 1790–96 for the Earl of Portarlington, and also Coolbanagher Church of Ireland Church just outside Emo village
5.
Irish language
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Irish, also referred to as Gaelic or Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people. Irish enjoys constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland and it is also among the official languages of the European Union. The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island of Ireland and it has the oldest vernacular literature in Western Europe. The fate of the language was influenced by the power of the English state in Ireland. Elizabethan officials viewed the use of Irish unfavourably, as being a threat to all things English in Ireland and its decline began under English rule in the 17th century. In the latter part of the 19th century, there was a decrease in the number of speakers. Irish-speaking areas were hit especially hard, by the end of British rule, the language was spoken by less than 15% of the national population. Since then, Irish speakers have been in the minority, efforts have been made by the state, individuals and organisations to preserve, promote and revive the language, but with mixed results. Around the turn of the 21st century, estimates of native speakers ranged from 20,000 to 80,000 people. In the 2011 Census, these numbers had increased to 94,000 and 1.3 million, there are several thousand Irish speakers in Northern Ireland. It has been estimated that the active Irish-language scene probably comprises 5 to 10 per cent of Irelands population, there has been a significant increase in the number of urban Irish speakers, particularly in Dublin. In Gaeltacht areas, however, there has been a decline of the use of Irish. Údarás na Gaeltachta predicted that, by 2025, Irish will no longer be the language in any of the designated Gaeltacht areas. Survey data suggest that most Irish people think highly of Irish as a marker of identity. It has also argued that newer urban groups of Irish speakers are a disruptive force in this respect. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil the name of the language is Gaeilge, before the spelling reform of 1948, this form was spelled Gaedhilge, originally this was the genitive of Gaedhealg, the form used in Classical Irish. Older spellings of this include Gaoidhealg in Classical Irish and Goídelc in Old Irish, the modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent dh in the middle of Gaedhilge, whereas Goidelic languages, used to refer to the language family including Irish, comes from Old Irish
6.
O'Connell Street
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OConnell Street is Dublins main thoroughfare. It measures 49 m in width at its end,46 m at the north. During the 17th century it was a street known as Drogheda Street. Situated just north of the River Liffey, the street has a fine axial positioning, running close to a north-south orientation. OConnell Street Upper by contrast retains something of its original 18th century character, with the western side conforming to original plot widths, the streets layout is simple but elegant. A paved median space runs down the centre of the street, featuring monuments, both structures are addressed by a large civic plaza space, traversed by the streets two roadways. It also serves as a bus route artery through the city centre. The modern tram, the Luas, is undergoing an extension and it will only travel in one direction, the return loop, to link the system at St. Stephens Green, will run via Marlborough Street, parallel with and east of OConnell Street. OConnell Street has its origins in a street named Drogheda Street dating from the 17th century. In the 1740s, a banker and property speculator by the name of Luke Gardiner acquired the upper part of Drogheda Street extending down to Henry Street as part of a much larger land deal. He demolished the side of Drogheda Street creating an exclusive elongated residential square 46m in width. Gardiner also laid out a mall down the section of the street, lined with low granite walls. It was planted with trees a few years later and he titled the new development Sackville Street after the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lionel Cranfield Sackville, Duke of Dorset. It was also known as Sackville Mall, Gardiners Mall or simply The Mall and it had been Gardiners intention to eventually break this grand new street through to the river, however he died in 1755, with his son taking over the estate. It was not until 1777 that the body in the city. For the next 10 years work progressed in demolishing a myriad of dwellings and other buildings, laying out the new roadway, 1785–90, one of the finest streets in Europe had been created. The street became a success upon the opening of Carlisle Bridge, designed by James Gandon. Sackville Street prospered in the 1800s, though an invisible boundary seems to have maintained for some time between the Upper and Lower street
7.
D'Olier Street
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DOlier Street /dəˈlɪər/ is a street in the southern city-centre of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. It and Westmoreland Street are two broad streets whose northern ends meet at the end of OConnell Bridge over the River Liffey. Its southern end meets Fleet Street, Townsend Street, College Street, the street is named after Jeremiah DOlier, a Huguenot goldsmith and a founder of the Bank of Ireland. DOlier was the City Sheriff in 1788 and a member of the Wide Streets Commission, the street was one of the last major interventions in the Dublin city plan to be executed by the Wide Streets Commissioners. From 1895–2006, Irish Times was based in DOlier Street, leading the paper to be nicknamed The Old Lady of DOlier Street, the paper is now based in Tara Street. In 1830, Samuel Lover was secretary of the Royal Hibernian Academy, in 1891 James Franklin Fuller designed the DOlier Chambers building of yellow brick and terracotta for the Gallaher Tobacco Company
8.
Westmoreland Street
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Westmoreland Street is a street in the southern city-centre of Dublin, Ireland. It is currently a street and part a north-bound section of the R138 road. It is one of the two broad avenues - along with DOlier Street - that converge at their ends at OConnell Bridge over the River Liffey. Westmoreland Street links the bridge to Trinity College at College Green at its southern end, westmoreland Street also constitutes the eastern border of Temple Bar. The street is named after John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, westmoreland street will have a stop on the Luas Cross City line. This line will link the Red and Green lines and go from Broombridge in North Dublin, construction started in June 2013 with services expected to begin in 2017. Dublin, The City Within the Grand and Royal Canals and the Circular Road, with the Phoenix Park
9.
Spire of Dublin
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The spire was designed by Ian Ritchie Architects, who sought an Elegant and dynamic simplicity bridging art and technology. The contract was awarded to SIAC-Radley JV and it was manufactured by Radley Engineering of Dungarvan, County Waterford, the first section was installed on 18 December 2002. Construction of the sculpture was delayed because of difficulty in obtaining planning permission, the Spire consists of eight hollow stainless steel cone sections, the longest being 20 m, which were installed on 21 January 2003. It is a cone of diameter 3 m at the base. It features two tuned mass dampers, designed by engineers Arup, to counteract sway, the steel underwent shot peening to alter the quality of light reflected from it. The pattern around the base of the Spire is based on a sample of rock formation taken from the ground where the spire stands. The pattern was applied by bead blasting the steel through rubber stencil masks whose patterns were created by water jet cutting based on core sample drawings supplied by the contractor. At dusk, the base of the monument is lit and the top 10 m is illuminated through 11,884 holes through which light-emitting diodes shine, the monument was commissioned as part of a street layout redesign in 1999. The Anna Livia monument was installed on the site for the 1988 Dublin Millennium celebrations, in the 1990s, plans were launched to improve the streetscape. The number of trees in the reservation, which had overgrown and obscured views. This was controversial, as the trees had been growing for a century, statues were cleaned and in some cases relocated. Shop-owners were required to replace plastic signage and frontage with more attractive designs, traffic was re-directed where possible away from the street and the number of traffic lanes was reduced to make it more appealing to pedestrians. The Anna Livia monument was moved to make way for the Spire in 2001
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