The Casino was designed by Sir William Chambers as a pleasure house for James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont. It is one of the finest 18th century neo-classical buildings in Europe The Casino, meaning “small house”, surprisingly contains 16 finely decorated rooms, endlessly rich in subtlety and design. It is a remarkable building – both in terms of structure and history.

Seen from the outside, the building has the appearance of a single roomed structure, with a large panelled door on the north elevation and a single large window on each of the other elevations. This is all illusion, however, as it actually contains 16 rooms on three floors.

The underground tunnel at the Casino was used as a shooting range by Irish revolutionaries including Michael Collins in the 1920s

The Casino is located at Marino, just off the Malahide Road and only three miles north of the centre of Dublin.

A stone plaque in above the door of an old building in Fairview states: “Built in the year 5618”.

Sounds like Back to the Future but it is actually a Hebrew Calendar year for 1857. That year was the year that a wall was erected around the cemetery to protect it from grave body robber and headstones thief.

The cemetery has almost 150 headstones with inscriptions in both Hebrew and English, but it is understood to hold about 200 graves. It was in use from 1718 until the end of the 19th century, when the Jewish community moved to the south side of the city and established a new cemetery near Dolphin’s Barn. In recent years, the grounds have become overgrown, and the board of guardians has lacked the resources to continue maintaining the house and cemetery.

Located between the intersection of Clonliffe Road and Ballybough Road, this corner was a burial for people who committed suicide. In the 13th century, the English jurist, Henry DeBracton, recorded the ancient common law of Felo de Se (literally Felony against one’s self), which set forth the penalties for those who committed suicide. Under that law, all of a person’s moveable property was forfeited to the Crown and their body was removed to waste lands – unconsecrated ground, near a crossroads, and buried with a stake through the heart. It is believed that this place was part of the inspiration of the story written by Bram Stoker, Dracula.

Today the corner remained almost forgotten but there are still people feeling the presence of spirits at night.

Croke Park Stadium is the biggest in Ireland and the 3rd biggest in Europe, with a capacity on nearly 83000 people. Croke Park is a three-tier stadium with 7 levels. The total area cover by Croke Park is 16 acres. The total area covered by the roof is 5 acres.

The area was used since 1870 as a sports ground. It was called Jones’s Road Sportsground. Since the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association, it was used for major events in Gaelic sports. In 1913 the ground was bought by them. At this time the ground had one stand and earth walls around the field. In the 1920s the capacity raised by building new stands. In the 1980s the GAA decided to build a high capacity stadium. The final constructions were in 2003.

On 21 November 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. In total, thirty-two people were killed, including thirteen British soldiers and police, sixteen Irish civilians, and three Irish republican prisoners. This total includes people who were wounded but died later. Royal Marines officer Hugh Montgomery was shot in the morning and died on 10 December, and three people who were wounded at Croke Park died later – Robinson and Carroll on 23 November and Tom Hogan on 26 November.

The day began with an Irish Republican Army (IRA) operation, organised by Michael Collins, to assassinate the ‘Cairo Gang’ – a team of undercover British intelligence agents working and living in Dublin. IRA members went to a number of addresses and shot dead fourteen people (in addition, Montgomery was mortally wounded and died on 10 December): nine British Army officers (including Montgomery), a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officer, two members of the Auxiliary Division, two civilians, and one man (Leonard Wilde) whose exact status is uncertain.[1]

Later that afternoon, members of the Auxiliary Division and RIC opened fire on the crowd at a Gaelic football match in Croke Park, killing eleven civilians and wounding at least sixty, three of whom died later (Robinson and Carroll on 23 November and Tom Hogan on 26 November).[2] That evening, three IRA suspects being held in Dublin Castle were beaten and killed by their captors, who claimed they were trying to escape.

Overall Bloody Sunday was considered a victory for the IRA, as Collins’s operation severely damaged British intelligence, while the later reprisals did no real damage to the guerrillas but increased support for the IRA at home and abroad.

Epic Ireland is located in the Docklands, in the CHQ building on North Wall/Custom House quays, 10 minutes’ walk from the city centre and 5 minutes from Tara or Connolly Station. The location is ideal for the museum because it is near the Famine memorial and the Jeanie Johnston Tall ship (ship where many people emigrated to North America and Europe). The building was restored for the museum, it used to be used as a warehouse for wine and tobacco. The restoration of the building and the development of the museum redirect many tourists from the city centre to the Docklands Area. This benefits the City as the tourists don’t concentrate on just one area. Epic Ireland is a vibrant attraction and capable of coping with large numbers. The attraction is marketed quite well with a leaflet on many Tourist Information Centres and advertised online. They have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube pages and they are advertised on the website. The entrance fee is 15 euro.

The Attraction is self-guided, but there are agents ready to help you if you have any queries. You can pay for a guided tour as well. There are audio guides available in many different languages or a phone application can be downloaded to give you information about the attraction.

A passport is given to you when you buy the ticket, the passport is a map and a record of your journey through Epic. You can stamp the passport in every gallery you visit and at the end of the exhibition you can tap the passport on the connection table to send a digital postcard, you can also explore the family background in the genealogy section.

The attraction starts with a video of the founder of Epic Ireland, Neville Isdell, former Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola that explains how he had the idea of transforming the building to a major tourist attraction and the reasons for setting it up.

The attraction is organised in 20 galleries and divided into four themes:

• Migration, an introduction on what was Ireland like in those times and the departures that have shaped it

• Motivation, explains the reason why so many people left during the centuries, people that went through wars, poverty, starvation of the “Famine”, oppression for religion believes or love orientation, the need of liberation from the oppressor, the want of adventure, the hope for a better life, the crime, big or small that ended in being banished from the homeland.
• Influence, what Irish people did abroad during the centuries, how they influenced music, literature, art, politics, business, science, medicine.
• Connection, how the people with Irish origins maintain the pride and connection with the homeland.

 

I personally liked the attraction, made me feel like I was going through the emotion that people might have felt leaving the homeland, going to an unknown place. 

Entering the museum, located in the same place where people emigrated in the Docklands, in a vault that resembles a ship, getting the passport stamped gave me that feeling.  Also was interesting knowing that some of the people that left made such a big impact in various fields. I think a local and international tourist would find this attraction very interesting because it gives full immersion on the many different stories of Irish people that left Ireland, told in a digital and interactive way. This is the world only fully digital museum. One of the stories that really stood out to me was the story of Dr. James Barry, a British army surgeon with Irish origins which operate the first Caesarean section disguised as a man, she was, in fact, a woman and the first female surgeon. The museum tells many stories like this one and underlines how much Irish influence there is in the world.

 

 

 

 

Discover the North side of Dublin

When I die, Dublin will be written in my heart. — James Joice