Dublin, Georgia

History

The original settlement was named after Dublin, Ireland. Because of Dublin's location as a midpoint between Savannah and Atlanta, the town in recent decades became home to a small assortment of industrial distribution centers, which complemented various industries—textiles, furniture, and paper, among others—that had already established themselves there in the second half of the 20th century. Historically, however, Dublin's economy was based on the local cotton, corn, and soybean trades, which blossomed as the town's central location enabled it to thrive with the growth of the railroad.

Originally, Dublin and the surrounding area was home to Native Americans of the Muskogee people. Most of the Muskogee fled westward with the arrival of European settlers, many of them organizing themselves into armed resistance units, which fought government forces and British militias to protect their native territory well into the early 19th century. Ultimately, most of the Muskogee diaspora settled in what is now Oklahoma.

Despite the Irish ancestry of Dublin's first non-indigenous settlers, the town, like most of Middle Georgia, by the late 19th century had evolved from mixture of ethnicities. Most of the population descended from Scottish, English, and other western European immigrants. The considerable African-American population descended from most of whose roots lay in Angola or throughout west Africa. By the end of the 20th century, the town had also become home to a growing population of recent immigrants, many of them professionals from India, Korea, and Latin America. As labor migrations from Mexico and Central America shifted from the southwest U.S. to much of the southeast, many immigrants from those regions also moved to Dublin in the first decade of the 21st century.

Dublin, according to a historical marker at the town's main Oconee bridge, was one of the last encampments at which Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his family stayed before being captured by Union forces in May 1865.

Geography

Dublin is located at 32°32′15″N 82°55′6″W (32.537463, -82.918358). The town, named such because the Middle Georgia piedmont reminded Irish settlers of terrain in their native country, was founded on the Oconee River, which starts in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Georgia before combining with the Ocmulgee River to form the Altamaha, a river which then proceeds to its mouth on the Atlantic Ocean.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 13.3 square miles (34 km²), of which, 13.2 square miles (34 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km²) of it (0.45%) is water.

Government and infrastructure

The city was expected to approve a ban on sagged down trousers in September 2010.

The United States Postal Service operates the Dublin Post Office and the Court Square Station in Dublin.

The Carl Vinson Veterans Administration Medical Center is located in Dublin. It was originally commissioned as Naval Hospital Dublin on January 22, 1945 as an ideal location for the convalescence from Rheumatic Fever. As such it was the site of the commissioning of Naval Medical Research Unit Four on May 31, 1946 to study Rheumatic Fever. The Navy transferred the hospital to the Veterans Affairs Department in November 1947 and it was subsequently named for congressman Carl Vinson who was responsible for getting it built in Dublin.

Dublin's Laurens County Library is also known for its genealogy department, with archives and records going back two hundred years.

Dublin City School District

The Dublin City School District holds pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of three elementary schools, a middle school, a high school, and an alternative school. The district has 231 full-time teachers and over 3,262 students.

Laurens County School District

The Laurens County School District holds grades pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of four elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools. The district has 381 full-time teachers and over 6,034 students.

Higher education

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 15,857 people, 6,130 households, and 4,027 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,200.7 people per square mile (463.5/km²). There were 6,977 housing units at an average density of 528.3 per square mile (203.9/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 45.54% White, 51.42% African American, 0.20% Native American, 1.75% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.29% from other races, and 0.76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.14% of the population.

There were 6,130 households out of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.2% were married couples living together, 23.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.3% were non-families. 31.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.05.

In the city, the population was spread out with 26.7% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 24.8% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 17.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 85.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $28,532, and the median income for a family was $36,463. Males had a median income of $30,830 versus $21,553 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,560. About 22.5% of families and 27.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 41.1% of those under age 18 and 21.2% of those age 65 or over.

Dublin Micropolitan Statistical Area

Dublin is the principal city of the Dublin Micropolitan Statistical Area, a micropolitan area that covers Johnson and Laurens counties and had a combined population of 53,434 at the 2000 census.

Festivals

Dublin is known for its St Patrick’s festival which takes place annually during March.

Dublin is known for the Redneck Games that took place from 1996 to 2012.

Pageants

Dublin is home to several scholarship pageants, which are largely popular in the Southern United States:

In popular culture

The town, along with a reference to the Oconee River and Laurens County, is mentioned in the opening page of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake: "nor had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselves to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time." (Joyce explained in a letter: "Dublin, Laurens Co, Georgia, founded by a Dubliner, Peter Sawyer, on r. Oconee. Its motto: Doubling all the time.")

Notable residents