Dublin
Dublin (pronounced /ˈdʌblɨn/, /ˈdʊblɨn/, or /ˈdʊbəlɪn/, Irish: Baile Átha Cliath, meaning Town of the Hurdled Ford,[3] pronounced [bˠalʲə aːha klʲiəh] or [bˠɫaː cliə(ɸ)]) is both the largest city and the capital of Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region. Founded as a Viking settlement, the city has been Ireland's primary city for most of the island's history since medieval times. Today, it is an economic, administrative and cultural centre for the island of Ireland and has one of the fastest growing populations of any European capital city.[4][5]
Dublin is one of the constituent cities in the Dublin-Belfast corridor region which has a population of just under 3 million.
The name Dublin is a Hiberno-English derivative of 'Dubh Linn' (Irish, dubh -> black, and linn -> pool). Historically, in the traditional Gaelic script used for the Irish language, 'bh' was written with a dot over the 'b', viz 'Duḃ Linn' or 'Duḃlinn'. The French-speaking Normans omitted the dot and spelled the name variously as 'Develyn' or 'Dublin'.
The common name for the city in Modern Irish is 'Baile Átha Cliath' ('The Settlement of the Ford of the Reed Hurdles'). 'Áth Cliath' is a place-name referring to a fording point of the Liffey in the vicinity of Heuston Station. 'Baile Átha Cliath' was later applied to an early Christian monastery which is believed to have been situated in the area of Aungier Street currently occupied by St Valentine's (Roman Catholic) church. Due to its length, it is sometimes abbreviated as BÁC.
The article above is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dublin".