Consolidated by the Norsemen in 841, Dublin became the capital of the Republic of Ireland (Eire) when the country gained formal independence in 1922. It is primarily an industrial city, and boasts distilleries, breweries and flour-mills among the more scenic delights that include the Tobacco Factory, the Customhouse, the 13th-century St Patrick's Cathedral and the Gothic-style Catholic church of St Audoen. As shown by the author, Ingo Latotzki, Dublin remains a city that is both poetic and tragic. It was here that Irishmen determined to achieve national independence instigated the Easter Rising of April 1916, an attempt at a revolt that the writer O'Flaherty has so well described in his many publications on the subject of 'English' domination. Here too are the pubs and bars in which the inhabitants love to sing as they down their pints of ever-frothing stout.