Dublin

Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, part of the Wicklow Mountains range. Dublin is the largest city by population on the island of Ireland; at the 2022 census, the city council area had a population of 592,713, while the city including suburbs had a population of 1,263,219, County Dublin had a population of 1,501,500. Various definitions of a metropolitan Greater Dublin Area exist.

A settlement was established in the area by the Gaels during or before the 7th century, followed by the Vikings. As the Kingdom of Dublin grew, it became Ireland's principal settlement by the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. Dublin expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest in the British Empire and sixth largest in Western Europe after the Acts of Union in 1800. Following independence in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, renamed Ireland in 1937. As of 2018^[update], Dublin was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha minus", which placed it among the top thirty cities in the world.

The name Dublin comes from the Middle Irish Du(i)blind (literally "Blackpool"), from dubh [d̪ˠuβˠ] "black, dark" and linn [l̠ʲin̠ʲ(dʲ)] "pool". This evolved into the Early Modern Irish form Du(i)bhlinn, which was pronounced "Duílinn" [ˈd̪ˠiːlʲin̠ʲ] in the local dialect. The name refers to a dark tidal pool on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle, where the River Poddle entered the Liffey.

The Middle Irish pronunciation is preserved in the names for the city in other languages such as Old English Difelin, Old Norse Dyflin, modern Icelandic Dyflinn and modern Manx Divlyn as well as Welsh Dulyn and Breton Dulenn. Other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicised as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Variations on the name are also found in traditionally Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh ("the black pool"), which is part of Loch Linnhe.

The Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, from which Dyflin took its name. Beginning in the 9th and 10th centuries, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The Viking settlement of about 841, Dyflin, and a Gaelic settlement, Áth Cliath ("ford of hurdles") further up the river, at the present-day Father Mathew Bridge, also known as Dublin Bridge, at the bottom of Church Street.

Baile Átha Cliath, meaning "town of the hurdled ford", is the common name for the city in Modern Irish, which is often contracted to Bleá Cliath or Blea Cliath when spoken. Áth Cliath is a place 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, currently occupied by Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church.

The area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times. Fish traps discovered from excavations during the construction of the Convention Centre Dublin indicate human habitation as far back as 6,000 years ago. Further traps were discovered closer to the old settlement of the city of Dublin on the south quays near St. James's Gate, which indicate mesolithic human activity.

Ptolemy's map of Ireland, of about 140 AD, provides possibly the earliest reference to a settlement near Dublin. Ptolemy, the Greco-Roman astronomer and cartographer, called it Eblana polis (Ancient Greek: Ἔβλανα πόλις).