Dublin tourist information

Bus
The bulk of the public transport system in Dublin is made up of bus services operated by Bus Átha Cliath (Dublin Bus), which operates a network of nearly 200 daytime routes (identified by number and sometimes suffixed with a letter, e.g. 40, 40A, 40B, 40C, 40D) and 24 "Nitelink" overnight services which run on Monday to Saturday nights, which are identified by a number suffixed with "N" e.g. 40N). Apart from some tourist buses, all Dublin Bus' services are one-person operated, and daytime fares are determined by the number of fare stages travelled through — fares are payable in coin and only the exact fare is acceptable — if passengers overpay, they are issued "change tickets" which must be presented at the Dublin Bus office in O'Connell Street to be converted to cash. Alternatively, various pre-paid tickets and passes can be bought from Dublin Bus or its agents, and are processed by a validating machine on the right of the entrance door of the bus. Nitelink buses charge a flat fare regardless of the distance travelled. A number of other bus companies provide services in Dublin aswell.

Rail
The Dublin Suburban Rail network is a system of five rail lines serving mainly commuters in the Greater Dublin Area, though some trains go even further to commuter towns such as Drogheda. One of these lines is known as the Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) line and is the only electrified railway in the country that runs along Dublin Bay. Over 80,000 people use the DART line alone every day.

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Light Rail / Tram
A two-line light rail/tram network called the Luas opened in 2004 and has proved popular in the (limited) areas it serves, although the lack of a link between the two lines is widely criticised. There are, however, abitious plans for the Luas, with seven projects (including a link between the two lines) planned for the future. It is estimated that around 60,000 people use the Luas daily.

In 2006 in was announced by the Railway Procurement Agency that the Luas system reached profitability ahead of schedule, after only a year of operation. The Luas is now the only mass transit in the country to operate without Government assistance, and among the few in Europe

Road network
Dublin is also the main hub of the country's road network. The M50 motorway (the busiest road in Ireland), a semi-ring road runs around the south, west and north of the city, connecting the most important national primary routes in the State that fan out from the capital to the regions. A toll of €1.80 applies on what is called the West-Link, two adjacent concrete bridges that tower high above the River Liffey near the village of Lucan. Construction of the M50 took almost 20 years, with the final section opening in June 2005. A court case regarding the destruction of medieval ruins at Carrickmines Castle delayed the final completion of the route. The M50 currently has two traffic lanes going either direction but plans are afoot to increase that to three. The National Roads Authority also intends to increase capacity at many of the motorway's busiest junctions by building triple-grade interchanges instead.

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The earliest reference to Dublin is in the writings of Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy), the Greek astronomer and cartographer, around the year A.D. 140, who calls it Eblana Civitas. The settlement Dubh Linn dates perhaps as far back as the first century BC; Baile Átha Cliath or simply Áth Cliath was founded in 988 near by. The two towns eventually became one. The modern city retains the Anglicised Irish name of the former and the original Irish name of the latter. After the Norman invasion of Ireland, Dublin replaced the Hill of Tara as Ireland's capital, with much of the power centring on Dublin Castle until independence. From the 14th century until the late 16th century, Dublin and the surrounding area -known as the Pale - was the only area of Ireland under English government control.

From the 17th century the city expanded rapidly, helped by the Wide Streets Commission. Georgian Dublin was, for a time, the second city of the British Empire after London. Much of Dublin's best architecture dates from this time. The Easter Rising of 1916 left the capital in an unstable situation and the Anglo-Irish War and Irish Civil War left the capital in ruins, with many of its finest buildings destroyed. The Irish Free State rebuilt much of the city's buildings and moved parliament to Leinster House, but took no bold tasks such as remodelling. After The Emergency (World War 2) Dublin remained a capital out of time, modernisation was slow and finally the 1960s saw change begin. In recent years the infrastructure of Dublin has changed immensely, with enormous private and state development of housing, transport, and business. Some well-known Dublin street corners are still named for the pub or business which used to occupy the site before closure or redevelopment.

Since the beginning of English rule in the twelfth century, the city has served as the capital of the island of Ireland in the varying geopolitical entities:

• the Lordship of Ireland (1171–1541)
• the Kingdom of Ireland (1541–1800)
• the island as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922)
• the Irish Republic (1919–1922)

From 1922, following the partition of Ireland, it served as the capital of the Irish Free State (1922–1937) and now as the capital of the Republic of Ireland. (Many of these states co-existed or competed within the same timeframe as rivals within either British or Irish constitutional theory.)