Bright lights, big city this Christmas with 13 radiant attractions

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas in Dublin as buildings across the city are being illuminated by Christmas themed lighting effects.

No, it’s not your eyes playing tricks because of short days and long nights at this time of year. Neither is it a consequence of overindulgence in the hard stuff. The lighting effects around Dublin city this season are, well, something special and comprise part of Dublin City Council’s Winter Lights Dublin City.

After nearly a year’s planning, the council has unveiled its illuminations at 13 city centre locations, lighting up the city each night between sunset and 2am until January 2nd.

The scheme involves customised projections illuminating and animating places including City Hall, Trinity College, Liberty Hall, Civic Offices, GPO, The Mansion House, Hugh Lane Gallery, Custom House and the Waste to Energy Plant in Poolbeg. There are also more elaborate Christmas lights on Samuel Beckett Bridge, Millennium Bridge, O’Connell Street and Parliament Street.

Close up at the Custom House. Photograph: Tom Honan/The Irish Times

The council says Winter Lights Dublin City is eco-friendly and some projections involve lights using 80 per cent less power than the traditional variety. The advanced energy-efficient technology was sourced in Italy.

The illumination of one of the bridges, according to the council, involves 15 million colour combinations. But the entire installation, apparently, uses less electric power than a domestic iron or 10 household light bulbs.

The city’s new illumination project has deployed 157,800 low power LEDs, 100 tonnes of equipment and 15,780m of cable.