Dublin Urban Legends

About this book

Dublin Urban Legends gathers stories that have circulated around the capital as fact, near-fact or whispered possibility. Brendan Nolan, a Dublin folklorist and native Dubliner, records the tales attached to the city’s streets, landmarks and everyday life, showing how modern folklore grows through repetition and local belief.

Among the documented subjects is the ill-fated Millennium Clock, installed beneath O’Connell Bridge in the River Liffey before technical problems brought its short public life to an end. The book places such recent stories alongside the wider habits of Dublin storytelling, where gossip, memory, humour and unease can turn an ordinary place into the setting for a legend.