JAMES GILL’S CORNER HOUSE THE NEAREST PUB TO CROKE PARK
This pub claims to be the nearest to Croke park and to be honest they could be telling the truth.
Croke Park is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is sometimes called Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Since 1891[3] the site has been used by the GAA to host Gaelic sports, including the annual All-Ireland in Gaelic football and hurling.
A major expansion and redevelopment of the stadium ran from 1991 to 2005, raising capacity to its current 82,300 spectators. This makes Croke Park the third-largest stadium in Europe, and the largest available [not often used] for association football.
In 1984 the organisation decided to investigate ways to increase the capacity of the old stadium. The design for an 80,000 capacity stadium was completed in 1991. Gaelic sports have special requirements as they take place on a large field. A specific requirement was to ensure the spectators were not too far from the field of play. This resulted in the three-tier design from which viewing games is possible: the main concourse, a premium level incorporating hospitality facilities and an upper concourse. The premium level contains restaurants, bars and conference areas. The project was split into four phases over a 14-year period. Such was the importance of Croke Park to the GAA for hosting big games, the stadium did not close during redevelopment. During each phase different parts of the ground were redeveloped, while leaving the rest of the stadium open. Big games, including the annual All-Ireland Hurling and Football finals, were played in the stadium throughout the development.
BLAQUIERE BRIDGE SCHOOLHOUSE – NORTH CIRCULAR ROAD
Different accounts and discriptions use different spellings “Blacquiere” or “Blaquiere” but the name on the building and the spelling a local streetsign is the version without the “c”.
A diminutive early nineteenth-century schoolhouse, prominently located at the corner of North Circular Road, and now converted to a house. The overall form and proportions have been retained, and the building is of social significance for the area, due to its associations with early nineteenth-century education in the area.
In the 19th Century Broadstone was a major transport centre consisting of a railway station and a canal harbour. There was, at one stage, an aqueduct and a narrow canal that linked to the royal canal.
The canal was known as the Broadstone Canal and as the North Circular crossed the canal route the engineers had to build a humpbacked bridge to carry to road over the canal. The bridge was named Blaquiere Bridge after one of the directors of the Royal Canal Company.
Note: The Royal Canal was originally planned to terminate in Dublin at Broadstone, to serve the then fashionable area of residence, as well as King’s Inns and the nearby markets, but it was extended so that now, at the Dublin end, the canal reaches the Liffey through a wide sequence of dock and locks at Spencer Dock, with a final sea lock to manage access to the river and sea.
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