O'Connell Street and the northside

The boulevard where Irish history was made

O’Connell Street is fifty metres wide and runs from the River Liffey north to Parnell Square, a distance of about 700 metres. It is Dublin’s widest street, named after the nineteenth-century politician Daniel O’Connell, and its central island is lined with monuments to the people who shaped modern Ireland: O’Connell himself, Charles Stewart Parnell, the labour leader James Larkin, William Smith O’Brien. The Spire — a steel needle 120 metres tall, installed in 2003 on the spot where Nelson’s Pillar stood before it was blown up in 1966 — dominates the skyline and is either elegant or baffling depending on who you ask.

What makes O’Connell Street historically irreplaceable is the General Post Office on its western side, a neoclassical building from 1814 that became the headquarters of the Easter Rising in April 1916. The leaders of the rebellion — Patrick Pearse, James Connolly and others — read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic from the front steps. The Rising was suppressed within a week, the leaders were executed, and the building was heavily damaged. The rebuilt GPO still functions as a working post office, and the GPO Witness History museum in its interior is one of the most moving exhibitions in the city.

The GPO Witness History museum

The exhibition inside the GPO tells the story of the Easter Rising through the testimonies of participants — letters, diaries, personal effects — housed in a space that incorporates the surviving bullet marks on the building’s interior walls. It is not large (allow 60–90 minutes), but it is well constructed and honest about the complex legacy of the event. The decision to execute the Rising’s leaders transformed their failure into a political catalyst; the exhibition does not shy away from the ambiguities.

The 1916 Rising walking tour and GPO Museum entry combines the museum with a guided walk through the streets where the Rising was fought, extending the context into Parnell Square, the Four Courts, and the street-by-street story of the battle. It is a strong option if you want to understand the geography as well as the history.

The 1916 Easter Rising guide provides additional background before you visit.

Parnell Square and the Garden of Remembrance

At the northern end of O’Connell Street, Parnell Square is a Georgian square that contains the Gate Theatre (one of Dublin’s two main drama venues), the Dublin Writers Museum, and the Hugh Lane Gallery. The Hugh Lane is free and holds an impressive collection of modern and contemporary art alongside the studio of Francis Bacon, relocated from London in its entirety and reassembled here — a genuinely strange and compelling installation.

The Garden of Remembrance, at the top of the square, is a quiet memorial to all those who died for Irish freedom. It was opened in 1966 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Rising and centres on a pool in the shape of a cross. The sculpture by Oisín Kelly at its centre depicts the Children of Lir from Irish mythology, transforming from swans to humans. It is a small, still space, often overlooked.

The northside: what it actually is

“North of the Liffey” carries cultural connotations in Dublin that outsiders find difficult to map. The basic reality is: the northside is more working-class in character than the south, has suffered more from decades of neglect and economic pressure, and is changing rapidly in some areas while remaining essentially unchanged in others. Moore Street market, a few blocks west of O’Connell Street, is one of the oldest open-air markets in the city and has a completely different atmosphere from the tourist circuit. Henry Street, running west from the Spire, is a working shopping street where Dubliners actually shop.

None of this should put off visitors. The northside is safe, accessible, and in many ways more representative of how Dublin actually lives than the Georgian south.

Connecting to other northside attractions

The EPIC Museum and the docklands are about fifteen minutes walk east from O’Connell Street along the quays — a logical pairing for a northside day. Glasnevin Cemetery is about twenty minutes by bus north of Parnell Square (routes 4, 9, 13 from the quays) and combines well with the 1916 narrative: the leaders of the Rising are buried there alongside Daniel O’Connell, Michael Collins, Éamon de Valera, and others.

For practical transport, O’Connell Street is the hub of Dublin’s bus network — most cross-city routes pass through here, making it the easiest place to change direction or plan connections. The leap card guide explains how to use a single card across bus, DART and Luas for this kind of cross-city day.

A northside half-day

Start at the Ha’penny Bridge crossing (ten minutes from Temple Bar). Walk the length of O’Connell Street, reading the monuments as you go. Turn into the GPO for the museum. Walk to the top of the street, stop at the Garden of Remembrance. Turn east to the Hugh Lane Gallery for the Francis Bacon studio. Return via Henry Street and the IFSC (International Financial Services Centre) along the quays. Finish at the EPIC Museum if time allows.

This takes most of a morning and gives a complete picture of Dublin’s revolutionary and cultural northside. Combine it with an afternoon in Temple Bar or Trinity College on the south side for a complete first day in the city, as outlined in the Dublin 1-day itinerary.