Dublin

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Dublin (Irish: Baile Átha Cliath) is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Ireland, located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and forms the centre of the Dublin Region. Originally founded as a centre of Viking settlement, the city has been Ireland's capital city since mediæval times.

Dublin City is the entire area administered by Dublin City Council. However, when most people talk about 'Dublin', they also refer to the contiguous suburban areas that run into the adjacent counties of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. This area is sometimes known as 'Urban Dublin' or the 'Dublin Metropolitan Area'.

The population within the city (i.e. the administrative area controlled by Dublin City Council) was 505,739 at the census of 2006. Beyond this, at the same census the Dublin Region population was 1,186,159, whilst the Greater Dublin Area had a figure of 1,661,185.

A person from Dublin is known as a Dubliner or colloquially as a Dub. They can also be mildly pejoratively called a Jackeen by other Irish people. In a 2003 survey, Dublin was found to be the best capital city in Europe to live in, and the Republic of Ireland was also the best country to live in.

Name

The name Dublin is an anglicism of 'Dubh Linn' (Irish, meaning 'black pool'), though some doubt this derivation. Historically, in the old script used for the Irish language, 'bh' was written with a dot placed over the 'b' — thus appearing to be 'Dub Linn' or 'Dublinn'. The Norman-speaking English who arrived in Irish-speaking Ireland, omitted the 'dot' (or buailte in Irish), and spelled the town's name variously as 'Develyn' or 'Dublin'.

Meanwhile, the city's name in Modern Irish — 'Baile Átha Cliath' ('The Town of the Ford of the Reed Hurdles') — actually refers to the settlement, founded in 988 by High King Mael Sechnaill II, which adjoined the town of Dubh Linn proper, at the Black Pool.

Some sources have suggested that 'Dublin' is of Scandinavian origin, cf. Icelandic: 'djúp lind' ('deep pond'). However, the name 'Dubh Linn' pre-dates the arrival of the Vikings in Ireland, and the Old Norse (and modern Icelandic) name for Dublin is simply the words 'Dubh Linn' re-spelled as if they were Old Norse: 'Dyflinn' (correctly pronounced "Duev-linn" — indeed, the letter 'y' is still pronounced like the vowel in 'ewe' in Modern Norwegian, Swedish, etc., just as it was in Old Norse; Icelandic, while keeping the spelling, has changed this sound to /i/).

Read more at Wikipedia.org