The Talbot Memorial Bridge () is a road

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

spanning the

River Liffey The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland. Completed in 1978, it is 22 metres (72 feet) wide, and was designed by ''De Leuw, Chadwick and O’hEocha Consulting Engineers''. The bridge marks the furthest point up to the Liffey to which tall ships may travel, as all bridges downriver of it are either

swingbridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity ...

s or

bascule A bascule is a counterbalanced structure (i.e. a lever) having one end that rises as the other lowers. It may also refer to: * Bascule bridge, a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances the span in providing clearance for b ...

. The bridge links Memorial Road (and

Custom House A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...

Quay) on the north bank of the river to Moss Street (and City Quay) on the south bank. Memorial Road was named in commemoration of those members of the Dublin Brigade who died during the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...

- notably those who died in a raid on the nearby Custom House. The "Talbot" reference in the bridge's name is in remembrance of

Matt Talbot Matthew Talbot, TOSF (2 May 1856 – 7 June 1925) was an Irish ascetic revered by many Catholics for his piety, charity and mortification of the flesh. Talbot was a manual labourer. Though he lived alone for most of his life, Talbot did liv ...

. Talbot was a temperance campaigner from Dublin's

Northside Northside or North Side may refer to: Music * Northside (band), a musical group from Manchester, EngIand * NorthSide, an American record label * NorthSide Festival (Denmark), a music festival in Aarhus, Denmark * "Norf Norf", a 2015 song by Vince ...

, a

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or Casting (metalworking), cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to ...

of whom stands at the south end of the bridge.

References

External links

New Bridge Over The Liffey
— 11 December 1976 news report from RTÉ archives Bridges in Dublin (city) Bridges completed in 1978 Monuments and memorials in Ireland {{Ireland-bridge-struct-stub