Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge or Ball's Bridge (Irish: Droichead na Dothra, meaning "Dodder bridge") is a neighbourhood of the city of Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland. The area is largely north and west of a three-arch stone bridge across the River Dodder, on the south side of the city. The sign on the bridge still proclaims it as "Ball's Bridge", in recognition of the fact that the original bridge on that location was built and owned by the Ball family, a well-known Dublin merchant family in the 1500s and the 1600s.[1] The current bridge was built in 1791. Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge was once part of the Pembroke Township.

Contents

1 History 2 Popular culture 3 Buildings, structures and parks 4 Transport 5 See also 6 References

History[edit] 18th century maps show that the area of Dublin
Dublin that is now Ballsbridge was originally mud-flats and marsh, with many roads converging on a small village located around the bridge, and known already as Ballsbridge. Situated on the Dodder, this village had a ready source of power for small industries, including by the 1720s a linen and cotton printers, and by the 1750s a paper-mill and a gunpowder factory.[2] By the early 1800s Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge was a small settlement on a major road linking Dublin
Dublin city with the port at Dalkey, where most of the shipping freight was landed, due to the shallow waters of the Liffey estuary. The land around Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge was rural, and mostly belonged to the Earl of Pembroke. After the Royal Dublin
Dublin Society (RDS) moved into its present site near Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge in 1879, the Earl of Pembroke
Earl of Pembroke began to develop these lands into suburban residential housing. The RDS held their first show on their new premises in the early 1880s.[2] In 1903 the lands formerly known as the ‘Forty Acres’ were given to the city by the Earl of Pembroke
Earl of Pembroke to establish Herbert Park. (The Earl of Pembroke's surname was Herbert.) In 1907 the Dublin
Dublin International Exhibition was held in Herbert Park. Until 1965 there was a well-known botanical garden on Landsdowne Road near Ballsbridge. The garden belonged to Trinity College, which had leased land from the Earl of Pembroke. In 1960 the original lease from the Pembroke Estate expired and was not renewed. After reducing their size considerably, in 1965 Trinity decided to close the botanical gardens at that location and to open a new garden at Dartry. Two hotels now stand on the site.[2] In 1916, the Mount Street bridge, which spans the Grand Canal at the foot of Northumberland Road, was the site of an important battle during the Easter Rising.[2][3] The O'Rahilly, one of the leaders of the Rising, lived at 40 Herbert Park. Another resistance leader, Eoin MacNeill, who refused to participate in the Rising, lived down the road at 19 Herbert Park. During the Irish war of independence, Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the Irish National Army and later a government minister, had a study in the house of Miss Hoey at 5 Mespil Road, from where he carried out intelligence work. Popular culture[edit] The date of 16 June 1904, now commemorated as Bloomsday, was chosen by the writer James Joyce
James Joyce for the setting of his novel Ulysses because it was the date on which he lost his virginity to his girlfriend Nora Barnacle - Joyce was renting a room at the time in a house at 60 Shelbourne Road. In the 1940s and 50s the writer Brendan Behan
Brendan Behan lived in Ballsbridge, as did the poet Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh (notably at 63 Pembroke Road); their busts are on display at the two big pubs along Pembroke Road, Searson's and the Wellington. Kavanagh wrote his famous song On Raglan Road about a girl he met on that street in 1944.[4] Buildings, structures and parks[edit] The bridge itself forms the heart of the Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge suburb which extends northwards towards the Grand Canal along Northumberland Road up to Haddington Road and Shelbourne Road, southwards along the Merrion Road towards Merrion and along Anglesea Road
Anglesea Road towards Donnybrook, and westwards to encompass the area around Pembroke Road, Clyde Road, Elgin Road and Herbert Park. Herbert Park, a public park, is thirty-two acres in size and is divided by a road, also called Herbert Park, and forms part of Ballsbridge's nebulous border with Donnybrook. The Royal Dublin
Dublin Society (RDS) has its grounds here, and the Lansdowne Road headquarters of the Irish Rugby Football Union
Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is on the boundary between Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge and Irishtown. The corporate headquarters of Allied Irish Banks
Allied Irish Banks (AIB) are also located in Ballsbridge. Ailesbury Road, along with adjacent Shrewsbury Road comprise the blue (most expensive) properties in the Dublin
Dublin edition of the board-game Monopoly. Shrewsbury Road was the sixth most expensive street in the world in 2007.[5] Many of Dublin's embassies and diplomatic residences are located in the southern part of Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge on and around Ailesbury Road. The British, American, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Israeli embassies are all located in the Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge area of Dublin.[6] The U.S. embassy, an iconic cylindrical building, is a major landmark in present-day Ballsbridge. It was designed in 1955 by John M. Johansen, Professor of Architecture at Yale university. The project was 9 years in incubation and the building was inaugurated in 1964, shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.[2] Transport[edit] The DART train passes nearby, stopping at Lansdowne Road
Lansdowne Road and Sandymount
Sandymount stations. Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge is serviced by the following bus routes:

4 Ballymun
Ballymun to Monkstown 7 Cherrywood to Dublin 7a Loughlinstown
Loughlinstown to Dublin 18 Palmerstown
Palmerstown to Sandymount 27X Clare Hall to Belfield

A number of services have been withdrawn due to Dublin
Dublin Bus' Network Direct route restructuring programme.[7] See also[edit]

Aviva Stadium Marian College Sandymount St Bartholomew's Church, Dublin List of towns and villages in Ireland

References[edit]

^ At least three generations of the Ball family were elected mayors and sheriffs of Dublin, including Walter Ball (d. 1598). See Eneclann Irish Genealogy and History Research Services, "History of Ballsbridge", published by Sherry Fitzgerald realtors, accessed 23 January 2017. ^ a b c d e Eneclann Irish Genealogy and History Research Services, "History of Ballsbridge", published by Sherry Fitzgerald realtors, accessed 23 January 2017. ^ Paul O'Brien, Blood on the Streets, the Battle for Mount Street Bridge, pp.22-23; Max Caulfield, The Easter Rebellion, Dublin
Dublin 1916, p. 196. ^ "The beauty who inspired Kavanagh's "Raglan Road"". The Independent. 29 June 2004.  ^ Clark, Andrew (5 December 2010). "The roof falls in on Ireland's Millionaires Row". The Observer. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 5 December 2010.  ^ "Four call outs for Army Bomb Disposal Team". RTÉ News. RTÉ. 21 August 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2012.  ^ "Routes". Dublin
Dublin Bus. [permanent dead link]

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Residential areas of Dublin

North of River Liffey (Northside)

Artane Ashtown Baldoyle Balgriffin Ballybough Ballyboughal Ballygall Ballymun Bayside Beaumont Blanchardstown Broadstone Cabra Castleknock Clonee Clongriffin Clonsilla Clontarf Coolock Corduff Darndale Dollymount Donabate Donaghmede Donnycarney Drumcondra East Wall Fairview Finglas Glasnevin Grangegorman Harmonstown Howth Kilmore

Kilmore West

Kilbarrack Killester Kinsealy Malahide Marino Mulhuddart North Strand North Wall Ongar Oxmantown Phibsborough Poppintree Portmarnock Portrane Priorswood Raheny Santry Sheriff Street Smithfield Stoneybatter Sutton Swords Tyrrelstown Waterville Whitehall

South of River Liffey (Southside)

Adamstown Ballinteer Ballsbridge Ballyboden Ballybrack Ballyfermot Ballymount Ballyroan Belfield Blackrock Bluebell Booterstown Cabinteely Carrickmines Chapelizod Cherrywood Churchtown Clondalkin Clonskeagh Cornelscourt Crumlin Dalkey Deansgrange Dolphin's Barn Donnybrook Drimnagh Dundrum Dún Laoghaire Edmondstown Firhouse Foxrock Glasthule Glenageary Glencullen Goatstown Greenhills Harold's Cross Inchicore Irishtown Jobstown Killiney Kilmacud Kilmainham Kilternan Kimmage Knocklyon Leopardstown Liberties Loughlinstown Lucan Milltown Monkstown Mount Merrion Newcastle Oldbawn Palmerstown Portobello Ranelagh Rathcoole Rathfarnham Rathgar Rathmichael Rathmines Rialto Ringsend Rockbrook Saggart Sallynoggin Sandycove Sandyford Sandymount Shankill Stepaside Stillorgan Tallaght Templeogue Terenure Walkinstown Whitec