Dublin

Dublin [Ir. dub(h)-linn, dark pool]. The Irish capital was established by Norsemen, an outpost in 841 and a town perhaps in 988, but has always had Irish names. The story in the Dindshenchas ascribes the name dub(h)-linn to the druidess Dub(h), who on learning that her husband Énna has taken a second wife, Áíde, drowns Áíde and all her family. In revenge Margenn, a servant of Aíde, casts a sling at Dub, killing her. She falls into a pool near the mouth of the Liffey estuary, which is named for her.

While the pool once made the Liffey navigable to larger ships, modern dredging has eliminated it. Some commentators see allusions to the dark pool in Ptolemy's (2nd cent. AD) name for the harbour, Eblana, as well as in the Latin name, Nigratherma. A Norse name for their settlement was Dyflinarski. The name of a nearby smaller pool has also been associated with the city; OIr. poll bec; ModIr. poll beag [small hole], anglicized Poolbeg. The usual Irish language name for the city, Baile Átha Cliath [Ir., settlement/town of the hurdle ford], denotes the narrowest point on the Liffey, forded in pre-Norse times by the road between Tara and Wicklow, near the Wood Quay area, west of the modern commercial centre. It was a ‘hurdle ford’ because of a causeway built of woven wicker, boughs, or hurdles. The ford was known by different names in Irish tradition, including Áth Liag Mairgene [Ford of Margenn's Sling Stone], after the killer of Dub(h).

As a town established by invaders, Dublin does not figure largely in early Irish tradition, although several important sites lie within the environs of modern metropolitan Dublin, including Da Derga's Hostel on the River Dodder and Cnucha [Castle Knock], scene of a significant Fenian battle. James Joyce seized upon the little-known modern tradition that Fionn mac Cumhaill's body lay stretched beneath the city of Dublin from the Head of Howth in the east to Phoenix Park in the west. The Arthurian hero Tristan visits Dublin after traversing the Irish Sea in a rudderless boat. Extensive excavation of Viking Dublin followed the accidental discovery of buried ruins at Wood Quay during construction of an office building in the mid-1970s. See J. M. Flood, Dublin in Irish Legend (Dublin, 1919); G. A. Little, Dublin Before the Vikings (Dublin, 1957); Royal Irish Academy, Dublin (Dublin, 1988). See also MAG NELTA.