Islandbridge lies on the Liffey between Kilmainham and Phoenix Park. Its main visitor stop is the Irish National War Memorial Gardens, designed by Edwin Lutyens.
The war memorial gardens
Every one of the 49,400 Irish soldiers who died in the First World War is named, by hand, in the illuminated manuscripts Harry Clarke’s studio made for the granite bookrooms here. That, not the bridge the district is named for, is the reason to come. The Irish National War Memorial Gardens are one of the gardens Sir Edwin Lutyens designed in Ireland, alongside Heywood, Lambay Island and Howth Castle.
A memorial committee raised close to £50,000 by public appeal and secured a 25-acre site beside Phoenix Park; Lutyens, then chief architect to the Imperial War Graves Commission, was commissioned in 1929. The work was done by hand on purpose. British and Irish ex-servicemen moved the earth over two years without machinery, using granite from the Ballyknockan and Barnaculla quarries and stone cut by Irish masons. The garden runs symmetrically on a north–south axis around the central War Stone, with two fountains, sunken rose gardens, pergolas and four classical pavilions, the Bookrooms, for the four provinces.
The Bookrooms are the best thing here and the hardest to see: visits are by arrangement only, so check the OPW visiting details and contact the park before you go if you want the manuscripts opened. The Second World War delayed the formal opening and the gardens were let go in the 1960s; after a long OPW restoration, the memorial was finally dedicated on 10 September 1988 by representatives of the four main Irish churches.
The bridge and the river
Island Bridge, the single ashlar arch the district is named for, has crossed the Liffey since 1793. Alexander Stevens the Elder built the 32-metre elliptical span to replace a 1577 crossing that a flood swept away in 1787. It opened as Sarah’s Bridge, after Sarah Fane, Countess of Westmorland, who laid the first stone on 22 June 1791; the Free State renamed it Island Bridge in 1922. From the 1730s, water drawn at Island Bridge was pumped over to the north side of the city by a ‘forcing engine’, an early link in Dublin’s water supply. Just downstream, the little River Camac slips out of a tunnel near Heuston Station to meet the Liffey.
The old barracks
The barracks beside the bridge began as Island Bridge Barracks, home first to British artillery and, after independence, to the Irish Artillery Corps. It was renamed in 1942 for Peadar Clancy, killed during the War of Independence, and stayed in Defence Forces hands until it was sold in 2001 and largely redeveloped. Its outline can still be traced on old maps held by the National Archives.
Viking burials
Archaeologists found ninth- and tenth-century Viking graves along the Liffey in Islandbridge and Kilmainham, near a point where the river could be forded in the early medieval period. The burial ground is not open to visitors. Weapons, jewellery and other objects recovered here helped establish the early history of Viking Dublin, and the National Museum of Ireland’s Viking collection explains what the finds reveal about the people buried along the river. The museum’s displays are in Dublin City Centre.
Phoenix Park at the gate
The gardens sit beside the river within easy reach of Phoenix Park. Deeper in the park are the Victorian People’s Flower Gardens, Dublin Zoo, Áras an Uachtaráin and, a little way east, the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.
Getting there
Use the entrance from the South Circular Road or Con Colbert Road. There is a car park at the gardens. If you are travelling by public transport, check the TFI journey planner for current services. Heuston Station and its Luas stop are nearby.
Opening hours and tours
The gardens open at 8am on weekdays and 10am on weekends, closing at dusk, and entry is free. The OPW offers guided tours on Wednesdays from April to October, covering the design and the manuscripts. Check the OPW visiting details before travelling, and arrange ahead if you want the Bookrooms opened: walking the gardens without seeing the manuscripts is missing the point of them.