I LIKED the suggestion by a reader (Des Nix, June 26th) that the new Liffey bridge should be called the Troika.
It would accord with the tradition of naming bits of the city after viceroys such as Harcourt, Clarendon, Grafton, Westmorland and Townsend.
And it would be a mute testament to generations yet unborn that in the early years of the 21st century their ancestors lost their financial sovereignty and fell into the hands of institutions that, in the peculiar language of the time, were known as partners and provided bailouts subject to conditionality including austerity.
Or there again, perhaps not.
Bridges are not as permanent as they seem and even if they are not replaced they can easily be re-named. Unlike streets, they don’t have residents who could object.
And there is the other tradition of ignoring official names.
Every Dubliner knows the locations of O’Connell Bridge and the Ha’penny Bridge and most would know Butt Bridge, but after that we are quickly into pub quiz territory.
I suspect that any visitor who sought directions to Rory O’More Bridge, for example, would receive a lot of blank stares.
This bridge wasn’t named after the leader of the 1641 rebellion until 1939. Before that, it was in turn the Emancipation Bridge and the Victoria Bridge and its predecessor was the Barrack Bridge, or unofficially, the Bloody Bridge, because of the violent reaction of ferrymen who lost their livelihoods when it was opened in the 1670s.
It obtained its royal title when the Queen Victoria and Prince Albert passed over it in their carriage, in 1861.
And yes, passed over, not p*ssed over, as a newspaper is said to have reported. The story is also told about bridges visited by the queen in Scotland and London.
If you want to find it, ask for Watling Street Bridge.
The early history of Liffey crossings is vague, but it is generally accepted that there were a number of causeways or fords.
One, where a number of ancient roads converged near modern Bridge Street and Church Street, had a structure of interwoven saplings in its foundations and became known as Áth Cliath, the Ford of the Hurdles.
The first bridge across the Liffey, the Droicead Dubhgall, was probably built near there by the Vikings in the early 1000s, before the battle of Clontarf.
In 1816, the latest structure on the site became the Whitworth Bridge. In 1923, it was renamed the Dublin Bridge and it has been the Fr Mathew Bridge since 1938.
Further east, King’s Bridge was opened in 1828 to commemorate the visit of George III in 1821. It also fell under the gaze of the city councillors in 1923 and became Sarsfield Bridge.
The tenure of the Jacobite general was temporary, however, and he was dismissed in 1941 in favour of Seán Heuston, one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising.
The Ha’Penny Bridge, one of the city’s iconic structures and Dublin’s first toll bridge, started out in 1816 as the Wellington Bridge and became in turn the Metal Bridge and the Liffey Bridge but retained the unofficial title after the toll was increased from a halfpenny to a penny halfpenny and even after it was abolished in 1919. The nickname finally received official approval when the bridge was renovated in 2001.
Queen Street Bridge, the oldest Liffey bridge, is another multi-titled crossing. Its predecessor in 1683, one of four built during the last quarter of the 17th century, was known variously as the Bridewell, the Aran and the Ellis Bridge. After it was swept away by a storm in 1763, it was replaced by the current bridge. This was named the Queen’s Bridge in honour of Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III. But Charlotte was replaced in turn by Queen Maeve and in 1942 by the republican leader, Liam Mellows.
Sarah’s Bridge, which connects the South Circular Road and Conyngham Road was built in 1793 and named after the wife of the lord lieutenant, the Countess of Westmorland. It is now, officially, Island Bridge but the original name is still used.
In 1875, Dublin Corporation broke with precedent by naming the newly expanded Essex Bridge after an Irish leader, Henry Grattan. It is generally known as Parliament or Capel Street Bridge.
Will the City Council adopt one of the names suggested by Irish Times readers for the new bridge? There is a precedent.
In August 1879, a person using the initials WFD wrote to the Freeman’s Journal to propose that the bridge nearing completion at Beresford Place should be named after the recently deceased Isaac Butt. He suggested that it would be a fitting tribute to the leader of the Home Rule League but added, ungallantly, that it would also save the cost of a statue and leave more money available for Butt’s family.
The incoming lord mayor, Edward Dwyer Gray, read the letter and a supporting editorial and agreed in 1880 that the new structure should be called Butt Bridge. The name survived in common use perhaps because it was easier on the tongue than Beresford or George’s Street East, the lane on the southern side that was later replaced by Tara Street.
In 1880 also, a third national figure received pontine recognition when the nearby Carlisle Bridge was named for the Liberator.
Irrespective of the council’s choice, I suspect that the popular name that eventually emerges for the new construction will be either Marlborough Street or Hawkins Street depending on whether you are a northsider or a southsider.
In all, there are now 24 road (including pedestrian) and rail crossings of the Liffey in the Dublin area.
Readers who are more interested in the architecture than the nomenclature of the older bridges should consult the Historical and Technical Report compiled by the Liffey Bridges Survey Team in 1987 and sponsored by the Liberties Association. There is a copy in the Gilbert Library in Pearse Street, Dublin.