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Merrion Square
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Merrion Square
Merrion Square (Irish: Cearnóg Mhuirfean) is a Georgian garden square on the southside of Dublin city centre.
The square was laid out in 1762 to a plan by John Smyth and Jonathan Barker for the estate of Viscount FitzWilliam. Samuel Sproule later laid out the East side around 1780 and the gardens were created through a competition won by Benjamin Simpson in 1792 thanks to drawings created by John James Barralet. All of the surrounding houses were largely complete by the beginning of the 19th century.
Before the River Liffey was fully contained, floods on a high tide could reach as far as the square. In 1792, during one such event, the Duke of Leinster Augustus FitzGerald managed to sail a boat from Ringsend through a breach in the river wall as far as the north-east corner of Merrion Square (where it meets Holles Street).
During the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s, soup kitchens were set up in Merrion Square Park to help feed the citizens.
The demand for such Georgian townhouse residences south of the River Liffey had been fuelled by the decision of the then Earl of Kildare (later the Duke of Leinster) to build his Dublin home on the then undeveloped southside. He constructed the largest aristocratic residence in Dublin, Leinster House, second only to Dublin Castle.
Aristocrats, bishops and the wealthy sold their northside townhouses and migrated to the new southside developments.
All the original 18th-century properties in Merrion Square have survived to the present day except for Antrim House which was demolished to make way for the National Maternity Hospital in the 1930s. Three sides are lined with Georgian redbrick townhouses; the West side abuts the grounds of Leinster House (seat of the Oireachtas), Government Buildings, the Natural History Museum and the National Gallery. The central railed-off garden is now a public park.
The Wellington Testimonial to commemorate the victories of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was originally planned to be located in Merrion Square. However, it was built in the Phoenix Park after opposition from the square's residents.
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Merrion Square AI simulator
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Merrion Square
Merrion Square (Irish: Cearnóg Mhuirfean) is a Georgian garden square on the southside of Dublin city centre.
The square was laid out in 1762 to a plan by John Smyth and Jonathan Barker for the estate of Viscount FitzWilliam. Samuel Sproule later laid out the East side around 1780 and the gardens were created through a competition won by Benjamin Simpson in 1792 thanks to drawings created by John James Barralet. All of the surrounding houses were largely complete by the beginning of the 19th century.
Before the River Liffey was fully contained, floods on a high tide could reach as far as the square. In 1792, during one such event, the Duke of Leinster Augustus FitzGerald managed to sail a boat from Ringsend through a breach in the river wall as far as the north-east corner of Merrion Square (where it meets Holles Street).
During the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s, soup kitchens were set up in Merrion Square Park to help feed the citizens.
The demand for such Georgian townhouse residences south of the River Liffey had been fuelled by the decision of the then Earl of Kildare (later the Duke of Leinster) to build his Dublin home on the then undeveloped southside. He constructed the largest aristocratic residence in Dublin, Leinster House, second only to Dublin Castle.
Aristocrats, bishops and the wealthy sold their northside townhouses and migrated to the new southside developments.
All the original 18th-century properties in Merrion Square have survived to the present day except for Antrim House which was demolished to make way for the National Maternity Hospital in the 1930s. Three sides are lined with Georgian redbrick townhouses; the West side abuts the grounds of Leinster House (seat of the Oireachtas), Government Buildings, the Natural History Museum and the National Gallery. The central railed-off garden is now a public park.
The Wellington Testimonial to commemorate the victories of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was originally planned to be located in Merrion Square. However, it was built in the Phoenix Park after opposition from the square's residents.
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