Portland Row

Dublin's only true Georgian square — a perfect square, each side exactly 140 metres — gives Mountjoy its architectural distinction. Laid out by Luke Gardiner in 1789, the uniform red-brick terraces with their decorative doorways and sash windows once housed the city's professional elite. Joyce, O'Casey, and Yeats all lived or stayed here at various points. The square has weathered decades of decline and recovery, and its restoration continues with quiet determination.