Things everyone really needs to know about Dublin.

1) Dublin's O'Connell Bridge was originally made of rope and could only
carry one man and a donkey at a time. It was replaced with a wooden
structure in 1801. The current concrete bridge was built in 1863 and was
first called "Carlisle Bridge".

2) O'Connell Bridge is the only traffic bridge in Europe which is wider
than it is long and Dublin's second O'Connell Bridge is across the pond in
Stephen's Green.

3) Dublin Corporation planted 43,765 deciduous trees in the Greater Dublin
area in 1998.

4) Dublin's oldest workhouse closed its doors for the last time in July
1969. Based in Smithfield, the premises housed 10,037 orphan children
during the one hundred and seventy years it operated.

5) Dublin was originally called Dubh Linn meaning Black Pool. The pool to
which the name referred is the oldest known natural treacle lake in
Northern Europe and currently forms the centrepiece of the penguin enclosure in
Dublin Zoo.

6) There are over 1,000 prostitutes operating in the Dublin area on any
given night. Most are women from outside Dublin.

7) The average Dubliner earns ?000 per annum, giving twelve pounds to
charity and a hundred and sixty two pounds in tips. The most important
consideration when a man is deciding whether or not to give a barmaid a
tip is the amount of her body that he can see. A quarter of all tips go to
taxi drivers even though they earn, on average, four times the average wage in
the city, higher than ninety six percent of their clients.

8) None of the so-called Dublin Mountains is high enough to meet the
criteria required to claim mountain status. The Sugarloaf is the tallest
'Dublin Mountain' yet measures a mere 1389 feet above sea level.

9) The headquarters of the national broadcaster RTE in Montrose was
originally built for use as an abattoir.

10) Dublin's oldest traffic light is situated beside the Renault garage in
Clontarf. The light, which is still in full working order, was installed
in 1893 outside the home of Fergus Mitchell who was the owner of the first
car in Ireland.

11) The Temple Bar area is so called because it housed the first Jewish
temple built in Ireland. The word 'bar' refers to the refusal of Catholics
to allow the Jewish community to enter any of the adjoining commercial
premises.

12) Tiny Coliemore Harbour beside the Dalkey Island Hotel was the main
harbour for Dublin from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century..

13) Dublin is the IT Call Centre capital of Europe with over 100,000
people employed in the industry.

14) In 1761 a family of itinerants from Navan were refused entry to
Dublin.The family settled on the outskirts of the city and created the
town of Rush. Two hundred and fifty years later, almost the entire population
of Rush can still trace their roots back to this one family.

15) Ireland's longest running Internet publication www.bowsie.com was
established in Dublin in 1994.

16) Dubliners drink a total of 9800 pints an hour between the hours of
5.30pm on a Friday and 3.00am the following Monday.

17) Women from Dublin are the least likely to become pregnant through
casual sex. Women from Meath are the most likely.

18) Dublin is Europe's most popular destination with travelling stag and
hen parties. There are an estimated six hundred 'pre wedding sessions' every
weekend in the capital.

19) Harold's Cross got it's name because a tribe called the Harolds lived
in the Wickow Mountains and the Archbiship of Dublin would not let them come
any nearer to the city than that point.

20) Leopardstown was once known as Leperstown.

21) The average 25-year-old Dubliner still lives with his/her parents
preferring to spend their money on fast cars and clothes rather than a
mortgage.

22) Dublin vets charge up to fifteen times more for animal health services
than their counterparts outside the capital.

23) Two radio stations attract over 90% of all listeners in the Dublin
area.

24) There are twelve Dublins in the United States and six in Australia.

25) Buck Whaley was an extremely wealthy gambler who lived in Dublin in
the seventeen hundreds. Due to inheritances, he had an income of seven
thousand pounds per year (not far off seven million a year at today's prices). He
lived in a huge house near Stephen's Green which is now the Catholic
University of Ireland. He went broke and he had to leave Ireland due to
gambling debts. He swore he'd be buried on Irish soil but is in fact
buried in the Isle of Man in a shipload of Irish soil which he imported for the
purpose.

26) The Burke Brothers were Dublin's 1960's equivalent of the Kray twins.
They weren't actually brothers but second cousins.

27) The converted Ford Transit used for the Pope's visit in 1976 was
upholstered using the most expensive carpet ever made in Dublin. The
carpet was a silk and Teflon weave and rumoured to have cost over ?.00 per
square meter.

26) There was once a large statue of Queen Victoria in the Garden outside
Leinster House. It was taken away when the Republic of Ireland became
independent and in 1988 was given as a present to the city of Sydney,
Australia to mark that city's 200th anniversary.

29) The largest cake ever baked in Dublin weighed a whopping 190lb's and
was made to celebrate the 1988 city millennium. The cake stood untouched in
the Mansion House until 1991 when it was thrown out.

30) A pint of Guinness in Dublin can cost as much as ?5 or as little as
?0p depending on where you drink.

31) Dubliners are more likely to buy a stranger a drink than locals from
any other area of the country are.

32) The Radisson St Helens Hotel in Stillorgan sells the dearest pint in
Ireland.

33) There are forty six rivers in Dublin city. The river flowing through
Rathmines is called the River Swan (beside the Swan Centre). The Poddle
was once known as the 'Tiber' and was also known as the River Salach (dirty
river), which is the origin of the children's song "Down by the river
Saile". It is also the river whose peaty, mountain water causes the Black
Pool mentioned above.

34) Saint Valentine was martyred in Rome on February 28th eighteen
centuries ago. He was the Bishop of Terni. His remains are in a cask in White Friar
Street Church, Dublin. He is no longer recognised as a Saint by the
Vatican.

35) The statue in Dublin's O'Connell Street is commonly known as the
'Floozy in the Jacuzzi' while the one at the bottom of Grafton Street is best
known as the 'Tart with the Cart'. The women at the Ha'Penny bridge are the
"Hags with the bags", James Joyce's statue is called the "Dick with the stick"
and the Chimney Stack with the new lift in Smithfield Village is now called
the "Flue with the View"

36) There is a fountain in College Green with some ghastly statues of
angels. This stands on the spot where there was once a statue of King
Billy on a horse. It was blown up six times before being completely destroyed by
a bomb in 1946. The wreck was taken to a corporation yard and the horses
huge lead testicles were melted down and used to repair a pipe.

37) St Michan's Church was called after St Michan and St Stephen's Green
was called after St Stephen.

38) Montgomery Street was once the biggest red-light district in Europe
with an estimated 1600 prostitutes. It was known locally as the "Monto" and
this is the origin of the song "Take me up to Monto"

39) Dublin boasts more homosexuals per capita than San Francisco.

40) Henry Moore, Earl of Drogheda lived in Dublin in the eighteenth
century. His job was naming streets. He called several after himself. Henry Street, Moore Street, Earl
Street, Drogheda Street. Drogheda Street later became Sackville Street and is now O'Connell Street.
He didn't like to see the 'of' from his name left out so when he was
naming a small lane (off O'Connell Street) he called it "Of Lane" (it's gone
now).

41) The average man has under five inches and the average woman can
accomodate up to ten and a half inches so that in Dublin alone there is
one hundred and eighty eight miles of unsatisfied woman.

42) Nelson's Pillar was blown up in 1966 to mark the fiftieth annivarsary
of the 1916 rising. It now lies in a heap in a valley in County Wicklow.

43) Leinster House in Dublin was originally built as a private home for
the Duke of Leinster. At that time, the most fashionable part of Dublin was
the North Side and he was asked why he was building on the South Side. He said
"Where I go, fashion follows me.! " .....and to this day the most
fashionable part of Dublin is the South Side.

44) Tallaght is one of the oldest placenames in Ireland and it means "The
Plague Cemetery"

45) There are five areas in Dublin whose names end in the letter 'O'.
Fewer than one Dubliner in 20,000 can name them off by heart. They are.....
Rialto, Marino, Portobello, Phibsboro and Pimlico.

46) Kevin Street Garda Station was once the Palace of the Archbishop of
Dublin.

47) The original name of Trinity College was "Trinity College Near
Dublin". The capital was a lot smaller then.