O'Connell Street seen from O'Connell Bridge. O'Connell Street is Dublin's main thoroughfare. It measures 49 m (160 ft) in width at its southern end, 46 m (150 ft) at the north, and is 500 m (1650 ft) in length. Known as 'Sackville Street' (named after Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset) until 1924, it was renamed in honour of Daniel O'Connell, a nationalist leader of the early nineteenth century whose statue stands at the lower end of the street, facing O'Connell Bridge.