Dun Laoghaire gained popularity as a landing place because of the dangers shipmasters faced to arrive into Dublin Port. This led to the construction of a pier in the 1760s, which was not usable for long. It wasn’t until the 1810s when the government decided to build a harbour, after the tragedy of the HMS Prince of Wales and the Rochdale and the campaigns for an asylum harbour that followed. Responsibility for the project was entrusted to five Commissioners to oversee the construction of “an harbour for ships to the eastward of Dunleary within the port and harbour of Dublin”.
The town and the harbour were renamed Kingstown to commemorate the the departure of King George IV on the royal yacht in September 1821 following a visit to Ireland.
In 833, the Board of Works proposed to the Dublin port authority that a bill be promoted to repeal all existing statutory provisions whereby old Dunleary harbour and the new Kingstown harbour were or would be vested in the Dublin Port & Docks Board. The Dublin authority had a great deal on its own plate at this period and assent to the proposal was quickly forthcoming.
Accordingly in 1853 an act was passed carrying these proposals in effects and vesting Dunleary and Kingstown harbours in the Kingstown Harbour Commissioners. In effect, the area enclosed between the two new piers, and for the space of 500 yards outside the entrance became an enclave within the port of Dublin but not part of It except in relation to the pilotage and lighthouse functions of the Dublin port authority.
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