The River Liffey divides the city north and south, socially and culturally. Affluent South Dublin is a tourist mecca. North Dublin, you will realise if you saw the 1991 movie The Commitments, has, north Dubliners will propose, the key to Dublin’s soul.

The Liffey’s bridges from Island Bridge (1790) up river by Kilmainham, then down-river by Heuston Bridge, Frank Sherwin Bridge, O’More Bridge, Liam Mellows Bridge (1768), Father Matthew Bridge (1818), O’Donovan Rossa Bridge (1813), Grattan Bridge/Capel St Bridge – at the 'Blackpool' (dubh linn) which gave the city its name, Ha’penny Bridge (1816), O’Connell Bridge (1794), Butt Bridge, Matt Talbot Bridge, to the 1985 East Link Toll Bridge, many re-named for revolutionary politicians are architectural features in their own right. Most favoured by tourists, is the cast iron Ha’penny Bridge.