Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, part of the Wicklow Mountains range. Dublin is the largest city by population on the island of Ireland; at the 2022 census, the city council area had a population of 592,713, while the city, including suburbs, had a population of 1,263,219, and County Dublin had a population of 1,501,500. Various definitions of a metropolitan Greater Dublin Area exist.
A settlement was established in the area by the Gaels during or before the 7th century, followed by the Vikings. As the Kingdom of Dublin grew, it became Ireland's principal settlement by the 12th century, following the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. Dublin expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire and sixth largest in Western Europe after the Acts of Union in 1800. Following independence in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, renamed Ireland in 1937.
The name Dublin comes from the Middle Irish Du(i)blind (literally "Blackpool"), from dubh [d̪ˠuβˠ] "black, dark" and linn [l̠ʲin̠ʲ(dʲ)] "pool". This evolved into the Early Modern Irish form Du(i)bhlinn, which was pronounced "Duílinn" [ˈd̪ˠiːlʲin̠ʲ] in the local dialect. The name refers to a dark tidal pool on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle, where the River Poddle entered the Liffey.
The Middle Irish pronunciation is preserved in the names for the city in other languages such as Old English Difelin, Old Norse Dyflin, modern Icelandic Dyflinn and modern Manx Divlyn as well as Welsh Dulyn and Breton Dulenn. Other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicised as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Variations on the name are also found in traditionally Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh ("the black pool"), which is part of Loch Linnhe.
The Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, from which Dyflin took its name. Beginning in the 9th and 10th centuries, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The Viking settlement of about 841, Dyflin, and a Gaelic settlement, Áth Cliath ("ford of hurdles") further up the river, at the present-day Father Mathew Bridge, also known as Dublin Bridge, at the bottom of Church Street.
Baile Átha Cliath, meaning "town of the hurdled ford", is the common name for the city in Modern Irish, which is often contracted to Bleá Cliath or Blea Cliath when spoken. Áth Cliath is a place name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, currently occupied by Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church.
Humans have inhabited the area of Dublin Bay since prehistoric times. Fish traps discovered from excavations during the construction of the Convention Centre Dublin indicate human habitation as far back as 6,000 years ago. Further traps were discovered closer to the old settlement of the city of Dublin on the south quays near St. James's Gate, which indicate mesolithic human activity.
Ptolemy's map of Ireland, of about 140 AD, provides possibly the earliest reference to a settlement near Dublin. Ptolemy, the Greco-Roman astronomer and cartographer, called it Eblana polis (Ancient Greek: Ἔβλανα πόλις).
The Viking settlement of about 841 was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, from which Dyflin took its name. Evidence indicating that Anglo-Saxons occupied Dublin before the Vikings arrived in 841 has been found in an archaeological dig in Temple Bar.
The Irish government recognised 988 as the year in which the city was settled and that this first settlement would later become the city of Dublin; Dublin celebrated its 'official' millennium in 1988.
Beginning in the 9th and 10th centuries, two settlements later became modern Dublin. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay. The Dubhlinn was a pool on the lowest stretch of the Poddle, where ships used to moor. This pool was finally fully infilled during the early 18th century, as the city grew. The Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library within Dublin Castle. Táin Bó Cuailgne ("The Cattle Raid of Cooley") refers to Dublind rissa ratter Áth Cliath, meaning "Dublin, which is called Ath Cliath".
In 841, the Vikings established a fortified base in Dublin. The town grew into a substantial commercial centre under Olaf Guthfrithson in the mid-to-late 10th century and, despite some attacks by the native Irish, it remained largely under Viking control until the Norman invasion of Ireland was launched from Wales in 1169. The hinterland of Dublin in the Norse period was named in Old Norse: Dyflinnar skíði, lit. 'Dublinshire'. It was upon the death of Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn in early 1166 that Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht, proceeded to Dublin and was inaugurated King of Ireland without opposition.
According to some historians, part of the city's early economic growth was driven by the slave trade. Slavery in Ireland and Dublin reached its pinnacle in the 9th and 10th centuries. Prisoners from slave raids and kidnappings, which captured men, women and children, brought revenue to the Gaelic Irish Sea raiders, and to the Vikings who had initiated the practice. The victims came from Wales, England, Normandy and beyond.
The King of Leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada, after his exile by Ruaidhrí, enlisted the help of Strongbow, the Earl of Pembroke, to conquer Dublin. Following Mac Murchada's death, Strongbow declared himself King of Leinster after gaining control of the city. In response to Strongbow's successful invasion, Henry II of England affirmed his ultimate sovereignty by mounting a larger invasion in 1171 and pronounced himself Lord of Ireland. Around this time, the county of the City of Dublin was established along with certain liberties adjacent to the city proper. This continued down to 1840 when the barony of Dublin City was separated from the barony of Dublin. Since 2001, both baronies have been redesignated as the City of Dublin.
Dublin Castle, which became the centre of Anglo-Norman power in Ireland, was founded in 1204 as a major defensive work on the orders of King John of England. Following the appointment of the first Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1229, the city expanded and had a population of 8,000 by the end of the 13th century. Dublin prospered as a trade centre, despite an attempt by King Robert the Bruce of Scotland to capture the city in 1317. It remained a relatively small walled medieval town during the 14th century and was under constant threat from the surrounding native clans. In 1348, the Black Death, a lethal plague which had ravaged Europe, took hold in Dublin and killed thousands over the following decade.
Dublin was the heart of the area known as the Pale, a narrow strip of English settlement along the eastern coast, under the control of the English Crown. The Tudor conquest of Ireland in the 16th century marked a new era for Dublin, with the city enjoying a renewed prominence as the centre of administrative rule in Ireland, where English control and settlement had become much more extensive. Determined to make Dublin a Protestant city, Queen Elizabeth I established Trinity College in 1592 as a solely Protestant university and ordered that the Catholic St. Patrick's and Christ Church cathedrals be converted to the Protestant church. The earliest map of the city of Dublin is John Speed's Map of Dublin (1610).
The city had a population of 21,000 in 1640 before a plague from 1649 to 1651 wiped out almost half of the inhabitants. However, the city prospered again soon after, thanks to the wool and linen trade with England, and reached a population of over 50,000 by 1700. By 1698 the manufacture of wool employed 12,000 people.