The Talbot Memorial Bridge () is a road

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

spanning the

River Liffey The River Liffey ( 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 tributaries include the River Dodder, the Ri ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, 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 has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then p ...

s or

bascule Bascule may refer to: * Bascule bridge, a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances the span in providing clearance for boat traffic * Bascule (horse), the arc a horse's body takes as it goes over a jump * Bascule light, a sma ...

. 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 The Dublin quays () refers to the two roadways and quays that run along the north and south banks of the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland. The stretches of the two continuous streets have several different names. However, all but three of ...

) 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 () or 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 United Kingdom of Gre ...

- 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 Matt Talbot (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 live with his ...

. Talbot was a

temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture * Temperance (group), Canadian dan ...

campaigner from Dublin's

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

, a

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

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