Dublin Dossier
Vice-Admiral William Bligh, of Mutiny on the Bounty fame. during his surveys of Dublin Bay recommended the building the North Bull Wall. These walls deepened the entrance of Dublin Port for
the building the North Bull Wall. These walls deepened the entrance of Dublin Port for larg er shipping access, and remarkably the side effect was the formation of North Bull Island and our biosphere from silt, mud and sand cleared by the narrower more vigorous river water flows. The actual construction of the North Wall used designs by George Halpin. He is mostly remembered as the major figure in the early construction of Irish lighthouses, including my nearest, the Baily on Howth head.
Sir John Rogerson began to reclaim and fill-in lands along south side of the then much wider Liffey, effectively he straightened the river and establishing what is now Sir John Rogerson's Quay.
That very same William Bligh, eleven years earlier, was captain of the 'HMS Bounty' when the legendary 'Mutiny on the Bounty' occurred. Three weeks into a journey from Tahiti to the West Indies the mutineers took over his ship and set him and 18 loyal crewmen adrift in a small open boat. After almost 42 hundred miles they safely reached the shores of Timor Island in Southeast Asia. While working in Dublin he rented an apartment above The White Horse pub on the corner of George's Quay and Corn Exchange Place. The pub closed and is now a Starbucks coffee shop. To visit the North Bull Island Interpretative Centre take the Causeway Road from the James Larkin Road. Open Mon.to Thurs 10.30-16.00 Fri.10.-13.30 Closed Sat/Sun In these uncertain times it might be advised to check first, visit www.dublinbaybiosphere. ie/ where you can also get their Dublin Bay Biosphere Newsletter.
Dublin Bay looking south to Wicklow
60 Senior Times l January - February 2022 l www.seniortimes.ie
