The Square contains a statue of Oscar Wilde, who resided in No. 1, Merrion Square from 1855 to 1876.  There are many other sculptures and a collection of old Dublin lamp standards.

Leinster House -- is a complex of buildings, of which the former ducal palace is the core, which houses Oireachtas Eireann (Parliament), its members and staff.  First built in 1745  by James FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare.  Its first and second floors were used as the floor model for the White House in DC as well as it's stone exterior. (White house architect was an Irishman)

Security does not allow one to see much.

Natural History Museum -- Houses specimens of animals from around the world. Its collection and Victorian appearance have not changed significantly since the early 20th century.  Is a part of the National Museum of Ireland.

St. Stephen's Church -- Upper Mount Street - Church of Ireland (protestant). Known as 'The Pepper Canister' because of dome/tower.   The name of Mount Street is thought to have been derived from a mound which once stood at the corner of Fitzwilliam and Baggot Street, where gallows were erected for the execution of criminals.

Grand Canal -- is the southernmost of a pair of canals that connect Dublin with the River Shannon.  Its sister canal is across the Liffey and is called the Royal Canal.  The canal opened in 1804 and the last working cargo barge passed through the Grand Canal in 1960.

Fitzwilliam Street Lower, No. 29 - Beatty House is a museum showing Georgian Life and History.  It exemplifies Georgian architecture. 

Fitzwilliam Street was once the longest unbroken line of Georgian houses in Europe.  The many colored doors of Georgian houses, some on this street, are on popular posters.  At one time, all of the exterior doors were the same colour. Research didn’t turn up exactly what colour that was, but it was most likely a neutral shade. 

Later, in order to set themselves apart, the residents of Georgian Dublin painted their front doors whatever color they fancied (“red was more durable”), added ornate knockers, elegant fanlights above the door, and wrought iron boot scrapers near the the entrance. Decorated iron coal-hole covers were often embedded in the pavement. Today, most of the houses have their original fanlights, some still with box shaped glass recesses in which a lamp would have been placed. There are also examples of a simple security device in the form of a fan-shaped arrangement of spikes set into the wall beside a window to foil burglars. Sometimes a similar device was inserted inside the fanlight.

Shelbourne Hotel --

In the early 1900s, Alois Hitler, Jr. the half-brother of Adolf Hitler, worked in the hotel while in Dublin. During The Easter Rising in 1916, forty British soldiers were garrisoned at the hotel. Consequently, the Shelbourne came under regular fire. When fighting broke out on the Green on Easter Monday, afternoon tea was relocated to the rear of the hotel for safety.  In 1922, the Irish Constitution was drafted in room 112, now known as The Constitution Room.  In the Horseshoe Bar one of Ireland’s great traditional musical groups, The Chieftains, was formed.

St. Stephen's Green was a marshy common on the edge of Dublin, used for grazing.  That year the Dublin Corporation, seeing an opportunity to raise much needed revenue, decided to enclose the center of the common and to sell land around the perimeter for building. The houses built around the Green were later replaced by new buildings in the Georgian style and by the end of the eighteenth century the Green was a place of resort for the better-off of the city. In 1814 control of St Stephen’s Green park passed to Commissioners for the local householders, who redesigned its layout and replaced it's walls with railings. Access to the Green was restricted to local residents until 1877 when Parliament passed an Act to reopen St Stephen’s Green to the public at the initiative of Sir A. E. Guinness.  By way of thanks the city commissioned a statue of him, which faces the College of Surgeons.

• During the Easter Rising of 1916, a group of insurgents established a position in St Stephen's Green and dug defensive positions in the park itself.  This approach differed from that of taking up positions in buildings, adopted elsewhere in the city. It proved to have been unwise when elements of the British Army took up positions in the Shelbourne Hotel, at the northeastern corner of St Stephen's Green, overlooking the park, from which they could shoot down into the entrenchments. Finding themselves in a weak position, the Volunteers withdrew to the Royal College of Surgeons on the west side of the Green.

Other notable features of St. Stephen's Green include:

• the Fusilier's Arch at the Grafton Street corner which commemorates the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who died in the Second Boer War

• a garden for the blind with scented plants, which can withstand handling, and are labeled in Braille - found in the northwest co - found in the northwest corner.

• a group representing the Three Fates located inside the Leeson Street gate (a gift from the German people in thanks for Irish help to refugees after WWll)

• the Yeats memorial garden with a sculpture by Henry Moore

• a bust of James Joyce facing his former university at Newman House

• a memorial to the Great Famine of 1845-1850 by Edward Delaney

• a bust of Constance Markievicz on the south of the central garden

• Royal College of Surgeons -- dates back to 1784 and is now Ireland’s largest medical school with over 3000 students from 60 countries.  During the 1916 Rising, the main college building was occupied by rebel Irish forces, led by Countess Markievicz.

We are just getting started; there are two more long pages.  Obviously too much for one walk or one day.  So, please do your research and pick and choose.

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