January is named after Janus (Ianuarius), the god of the doorway.  The name has its beginnings in Roman mythology, coming from the Latin word for door (ianua).  Because January is the door to the new year, we turn for inspiration to some of the most famous doors in the world--The Doors of Dublin.

These gorgeous doors were first made famous by Bob Fearon who was in Dublin on a commercial photo shoot. He was strolling back to his hotel and passed through Merrion Square and then Fitzwilliam Square. Struck by the symmetry and beauty of the Georgian doorways, he took photos of forty or more of them with the idea of making an art collage for himself. This collage became the famous poster "The Doors of Dublin".

All of these now-famous entries are found on the Georgian town houses as part of what was once the longest unbroken line of Georgian houses in Europe. The houses and the doors are all found gracing Dublin’s equally as famous Georgian Squares, which were laid out during the Hanoverian period in the 1700s as the city attracted new wealth and rejuvenation. Before then, Dublin was considered no more than a provincial town in the British Empire, but from about 1715, laws changed and economically Dublin rose to become the largest city in the British Empire after London. With prosperity, Dublin’s Protestants began to build their elegant new Georgian homes beyond the walls of the medieval town.