In recent weeks and months student protests have been erupting – with very good reason – on the streets of Dublin. The first three months of this year have found young people demonstrating in support of gun control reform in the US, in solidarity with victims of sexual assault, and in despair at rent increases in privately-owned student accommodation.
Back in 1987 it was the streets of Dublin themselves which needed a show of public support. Town planners were keen to revamp the city by demolishing swathes of its older buildings to make way for spanking new roads through the city centre.
A group of students from the Dublin Institute of Technology, Bolton Street, begged to differ. Many were studying architecture and urban planning; all were passionate about Dublin’s built heritage.
Official moniker
When the Ha’penny Bridge sailed across the Irish Sea from Shropshire, Dublin was a sleepy outpost of the British empire. Once the bridge opened for business in May 1816, Dubliners were obliged to fork out a halfpenny for the convenience of crossing the Liffey on foot – guaranteeing that in double-quick time, its official moniker of “Wellington Bridge” would vanish into the river mud, never to be used again.
By the late 1980s the bridge was in bad nick and under threat of closure, making it an obvious location for the protesting DIT students. Even now, their methods offer an object lesson in “how to go viral on a budget”: it’s just a few banners draped over the parapet, but the lettering is huge, and easily legible. Look at the figures behind the banners; the letters of “Dublin Is Dying” are almost as tall as they are.
By capturing the perfection of the structure’s elliptical curve and its fluvial facsimile, our photographer has effectively doubled the message. He has also used the bridge to draw attention to the decrepitude of the building at the top left - crucially, just behind the word “Dublin”.
Happily, the Ha’penny Bridge survived and after a major refurbishment in 2000, now carries more than 30,000 pedestrians a day. Let’s just hope some genius doesn’t bring back the halfpennies.
These and other Irish Times images can be purchased from: irishtimes.com/photosales. A book, The Times We Lived In, with more than 100 photographs and commentary by Arminta Wallace, published by Irish Times Books, is available from irishtimes.com and from bookshops, priced at €19.99.