THE MARDYKE BRIDGE [IT TOOK ME A LONG TIME TO DISCOVER WHAT IT WAS CALLED]

Some aspects of Cork City are very badly document and often Google Maps are totally out of date especially in relation to bridges in Cork city.

The Lord Mayor of Cork officially opened the North Mall to Mardyke section of the Lee Walk on 1st February 2006.

The riverside walkway begins at the entrance to the 'Distillery Fields' at Wise's Quay/St Vincents bridge, and continues westwards through the Distillery fields (beside the north channel of the Lee), over the new Harland and Wolff Mardyke Pedestrian Bridge and onto the Mardyke Walk.  The bridge did not appear to have a name but many of the people that I met were absolutely certain that it was ‘The Shakey Bridge’ … they could not be more wrong but I can understand the confusion. One person suggested that it was named the Mardyke Bridge based on the fact that he had remembered seeing an inscription which gave the Irish name for the bridge as ‘Droichead Na Dige’ [he must have had a very good memory]  but to the best of my knowledge the Irish for Mardyke is ‘An Mhuirdíog’. The Irish for dyke is díog which is not very different from dige. I searched on line for Droichead Na Dige and variations and fount nothing of use.

A few days ago I found a photograph showing a granite stone which indicated that ‘Droichead Na Dige’ is the name of the bridge. I then assumed that there must be another inscription showing the name in English.

Today, knowing that the name may be the Mardyke Bridge I found it listed as a pin on Google Maps. Looking at some photographs associated with the Google listing there is a very obvious metal plate with the name ‘Mardyke Bridge’.

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