ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how science was implicated in the construction of a real and imagined Dublin as the second city of the British Empire in scientific terms. It takes as a point of departure that science in Dublin involved the manufacture of Dublin as a scientific center. The Irish naturalists and zoologists were principally engaged in creating new natural history and zoology knowledge. Dublin's status as a second city of science in the British Empire can be seen in the biographies of the museums' staff, who are also key players in the stories of lion breeding and natural history. The zoological study of lions helped to manufacture Dublin as the second city of science in the British Empire just as the relationship between Dublin and empire influenced the zoological study of lions. The naturalists and zoologists saw Dublin as the capital of Irish science, and this belief both shaped their scientific activity and was shaped by it.
