Dublin c. 1725

Before the Stuart Restoration, Dublin was a miserable relict of less than 9,000 inhabitants depopulated by plague and decades of war. Thereafter, it recovered dramatically, initially under the oversight of the Duke of Ormonde, who decreed that riverside houses must face the River Liffey, preventing its use for dumping waste. A second bridge over the Liffey was completed in 1670, and thatched rooves banned to reduce fire risk. Phoenix Park (1662) was made public, fashionable for promenades; Blue Coat School was founded in 1669. A number of hospitals were also founded including, by the bequest of the Dean of St Patrick’s, Jonathan Swift, St Patrick’s Hospital ‘for (the) fools and mad’ (1745). The Parliament House was built in 1735 reflecting Dublin’s enhanced status as the second largest city in the British Isles, its growth in large part owed to the booming wool and linen trade headquartered at Linen Hall, supported by the immigration of French Huguenots in the 1600s.