DE COURCY IRELAND, John: History of Dun Laoghaire Harbour [SIGNED LIMITED EDITION]

With numerous illustrations and maps. Dublin: By Éamonn de Búrca, for Edmund Burke Publisher, 2001. First edition. pp. xiv, 184. Limited edition of 50 copies, signed by the author and publisher. Bound in full maroon levant morocco, covers with a gilt anchor and sailing ship. Spine divided into five compartments by four gilt raised bands. T.e.g. A fine binding from the Harcourt Bindery, Boston.

Dun Laoghaire harbour, recognised as one of the most picturesque in Europe, was built early in the 19th century as the consequence of an explosion of popular anger at the continuous deaths from shipwreck in Dublin Bay. The most competent and experienced navigators at that time described the port of Dublin as the most perilous in the whole world for a ship to leave or approach in certain circumstances. Thanks largely to the efficiency and foresight of Captain Hutchison, the first Harbour Master, the port built as an ‘Asylum’ harbour or port of refuge, became with the introduction of steam-driven passenger and mail carrying ships the busiest port on the eastern shore of the Irish Sea, also a leading fishing port and popular yachting centre.