Islandbridge

The bridge referred to in the area’s name spans the Liffey joining the South Circular road to Conyngham Road and the Phoenix Park. During the reign of Elizabeth I, a bridge had been built connecting north to south but the floods of 1787 swept it away, and over the next five years the present bridge was eventually put in place. Before 1922, the bridge was known as Sarah’s bridge after the wife of the Lord Lieutenant who had laid the first stone. Along with most of the capital’s bridges, its moniker was changed to reflect the new independent state. Nearby are the War memorial gardens designed by Edwin Lutyens, which are dedicated to the almost 50,000 Irish soldiers who died in World War 1.