1849 – Royal Triumphal Archway, Baggot Street, Dublin

0207

Royal triumphal archway constructed at Baggot Street bridge over the Grand Canal, for the occasion of Queen Victoria’s visit to Dublin in 1849.

“The Queen, after having received a deputation of the nobility and gentry of the county of Dublin, headed by the High Sheriff, John Ennis, esq., landed with Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, and Princess and her retinue; proceeded in the special train provided for the occasion by the Directors of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway to Sandymount Avenue, whence they proceeded in the Royal Carriages through Ball’s Bridge to Baggot-street, where a triumphal arch had been erected, where the Corporation of the Borough, headed by the Lord Mayor, now Sir Timothy O’Brien, bart., presented the keys of the city to Her Majesty, which were by her returned, and the cortege proceeded through Merrion-square, Nassau-street, Grafton-street, Westmoreland-street, Carlisle-bridge, Sackville-street, and the North Circular-road, to the Viceregal Lodge, Phoenix Park, the whole lino of the procession being crowded by multitudes in carriages and on foot, who hailed Her Majesty with enthusiastic shouts of applause, and other demonstrations of welcome. After her arrival at the Phoenix Park, the Queen, accompanied, by the young Princes and Princesses in her carriage, and by Prince Albert and the Lord Lieutenant on horsebock, visited the Botanic Gardens of the Royal Dublin Society in private. The city was brilliantly illuminated in the evening. The whole day passed without the slightest tumult or accident, and the vast assemblage of people collected to yiew the illnminations were at length compelled reluctantly to disperse by a fall of rain such as has not often been witnessed in this metropolis.”