Opposition to works at Wood Quay

IN spite of the fact that Dublin staged Millennium celebrations recently, the history of settlements there go much further back in history.

One of the earliest references to it was in the famous map by Ptolemy dating from around the year 140. Ptolemy lived in Alexandria in Egypt. His family may have been originally Greek and he was possibly a Roman citizen. Dublin must have been well established before that for a cartographer in Egypt to have been aware of it. The name Ptolemy gave to it was Eblana Civitas and even still, Eblana is sometimes used.
The two names we use, Dublin and Áth Cliath, are over 1,000 years old. Áth Cliath was an ancient crossing point. Dublin comes from Dubh Linn, the black pool. This came from the location of the earliest Viking settlement, which grew up near a deep pool in the river, which they called Dyflin. This was where the River Poddle entered the Liffey and is in the area now known as Wood Quay. From this early Viking settlement grew the early city of Dublin. Wood Quay was the oldest of the quays.
In the mid-800s, the Vikings began to establish settlements along the coast and remained here, rather than return home after their raids. When the Normans arrived later, they developed the area further and the entire area is overlooked by Christchurch, which grew from an earlier Viking church. Close by is St Patrick’s Cathedral, built reputedly on the site of a well used by St Patrick for baptisms. King John granted permission for building along the river and the quays grew. The area remained the centre of Irish shipping down to the 1800s, when it was deemed too shallow for modern ships and trade moved down river.
Like all places where the main business moves out, the area fell into disrepair and became a typical city centre run-down area. From 1950 onwards, Dublin Corporation gradually began to acquire the properties and in 1975 announced that Wood Quay would become the site for their new civic offices. The decision started years of protest. The initial excavations yielded huge numbers of artefacts and the site quickly assumed importance as possibly one of the greatest Viking finds in Europe.
There were protest marches, sit-ins and court cases. Feelings were extremely high. While some public opinion dismissed the protestors as eccentrics, many were academics, noted historians and archaeologists. Foremost amongst them was Fr FX Martin, an Augustinian priest who was a professor of medieval history in UCD and chairman of the Friends of Medieval Dublin. He was forced to defend court cases out of his own resources.
In spite of everything, the corporation were determined to press ahead with their plans and now on the site of one of the greatest Viking finds in history and the oldest part of Dublin stand the Dublin Corporation offices.
If further proof of the historical significance of the area was needed, it came in the 1990s when permission was given for a planned development and underground car park. The car park could not be developed because they unearthed the ruins of a 13th century round tower.
When all channels were exhausted, work started and the JCBs moved into the Wood Quay site on March 7, 1979 – 32 years ago this week.