An augmented reality app showcasing the history of Dublin’s Docklands has been launched as the first in a series of historical walking trails planned for the city.
The app allows people to use their phones at points along a walking trail to view historic scenes. The trail includes stops featuring Guinness barges sailing down the Liffey, the Customs House fire of 1921 and local characters telling the stories of dock and port workers.
The Dublin Discovery Trails app was developed by Dublin City Council and Fáilte Ireland. Lord Mayor of Dublin Caroline Conroy described it as “the first of its kind” for the local authority.
“This is really amazing technology bringing a part of Dublin alive in a way most of us have never seen before,” she said.
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Jamie Cudden, Smart City programme manager at the council, said the launch of the app was a “real milestone” after the idea was floated around five years ago.
Donal Fallon, historian with the Dublin City Council Culture Company, said the walking trail brought the “working class Dublin history” of the inner city dock workers to life.
“There is sometimes a conceived tension in this area, whether it is real or not, between tech and the historic communities that are here. To see tech utilised in a way that promotes local history is really special,” he said.
Mr Fallon said Ireland did well at lifting history out of “dusty archives” and making it accessible to the public.
For some people, he added, there seemed to be a “psychological idea that Dublin ends at the Loopline Bridge”, which many only pass “if they are going to a gig in the Point”. He said he hoped the walking trail might change that.
“The visitor isn’t necessarily someone that has come from Dublin Airport, it could be someone that has come from the end of another Dublin Bus line.”
For more information on the app see: doorsintodocklands.com
