Loving the Liberties
An approx. 2h hour 20 minute / 3km walking tour through the streets of Dublin's historic Liberties telling the uplifting, wretched, and just plain weird stories of the people who lived there.
Set up in the 11th century as the lands of St Thomas's Abbey, the Liberties are Dublin's oldest suburb. Explore the growth of the city from Viking settlement, Norman stronghold, Anglo Irish capital of a troubled nation, and finally capital of a new country.
This ramble through the Liberties is not about history but rather the lives of the people who lived there. Could you live in a Viking house? What was a "Liberty" anyhow? Who were the Huguenots and how did they end up in Dublin? and what were Tenters?
Learn of the Guinness family - at one time Ireland's wealthiest - and their remarkable brewery. Find out about "characters" like Zozimus and Bang Bang. Delve into the rise and fall of distilling industry and discover the unexpected fallout from the great whiskey fire of 1875. Visit the execution place of the Robert Emmet. Learn of the wretched tenements and the quaint red-brick artisan dwellings and the Iveagh Trust that provide housing that replaced them.
Approx 2 hours / 3 km.
Start location and time
Our tour starts at the Peace Park on Christchurch Place (facing Christchurch cathedral). If you look across the road from Christchurch you will see a Jury's Inn hotel. Head over to it (watch out or traffic!). The Peace Park is right beside Jury's at the corner of Christchurch Place and Nicholas St.
"How will I know when I get there?" Right outside the park is a status of three little kids playing.
"Could you be really, really specific?": Sure, Click these GPS co-ordinates to see our start location on Google Map: GPS: 53.3427 -6.27148
The Tour ends St Werburgh's Church about 100m from the Peace Park.
