Crossing the Liffey

Since the Liffey divides Dublin's North and South Sides, many Dubliners have to cross the river each morning and evening as they commute to work or school. I decided to spend a morning documenting some of the ways they do so. I wanted to be sure to explore the Docklands especially after a reading we did in the first half of the course, entitled "Cultivating a Cultural Dockland," by Brian O'Connell of The Irish Times. The article, written in 2006, outlines some of the projects at work on "Dublin's evolving riverside" (see below), particularly by describing the cultural community that is finding economic and community support there. While artistic expression is not necessarily the focus of my blog, crossing the river is an everyday experience of many Dubliners, and so I think it is important to note, as O'Connell does in the article, that "Just like the waterfronts of Vancouver or Boston, Dublin Docklands is a large-scale development project where a culture and urban regeneration have made for uncomfortable, yet necessary, bedfellows." His parallel of the docklands with those of Vancouver or Boston point out that in major ways, the project of developing the docklands is a project of globalization.