Fishamble Street (; ) is a street in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
within the old
city walls
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...
.
Location
The street joins
Wood Quay
Wood Quay () is a riverside area of Dublin that was a site of Viking settlement. It is now the location of the Dublin City Council offices.
Location
The site is bounded on the north side by Wood Quay on the River Liffey, on the west by Win ...
at the Fish Slip near Fyan's Castle. It originally ran from Castle Street to Essex Quay until the creation of
Lord Edward Street
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or a ...
in 1886.
History
It is mentioned in the 14th century as ''Vicus Piscariorum'', ''Viscus Piscariæ'', and as Fish Street. In 1577, Stanihurst named it St John's Street. In the fifteenth century, it was referred to as "the Fishamyls".
John Estrete, the eminent judge and statesman, owned a house here in 1483. In 1610, some editions of
Speed
In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quanti ...
's map call it Fish Shambles. During the 1950s it was for a time officially considered part of
Moore Street
Moore Street (; ) is a street in central Dublin, Ireland, off Henry Street, one of Ireland's main shopping streets. The famous Moore Street open-air fruit and vegetable market is Dublin's oldest food market. The market there is a famous landm ...
, though in practice it retained its separate identity.
The street was known as the official fish market for Dublin until the end of the 17th century when the city markets were moved to the north bank of the Liffey. (''"
Shambles
Shambles is an obsolete term for an open-air slaughterhouse and meat market.
Shambles or The Shambles may also refer to:
*The Shambles, a historic street in York, England
*Shambles Square, Manchester, England
*Shambles Glacier, Adelaide Island, A ...
"'' were meat markets and open-air slaughterhouse districts, and the word occurs in several British and Irish street names, such as
The Shambles
The Shambles is a historic street in York, England, featuring preserved medieval buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century. The street is narrow with many timber-framed buildings with jettied floors that overhang the street b ...
in
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
.)
From 1680, around about the time the fish market was moved, the General Post Office was located here and remained for 30 years. The
Church of St. John the Evangelist was located here until it was demolished in the 1880s.
Fishamble Street was the birthplace of both
Henry Grattan
Henry Grattan (3 July 1746 – 4 June 1820) was an Irish politician and lawyer who campaigned for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century from Britain. He was a Member of the Irish Parliament (MP) from 1775 to 18 ...
, Irish politician and lawyer, and
James Clarence Mangan
James Clarence Mangan, born James Mangan ( ga, Séamus Ó Mangáin; 1 May 1803, Dublin – 20 June 1849), was an Irish poet.
He freely translated works from German, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, and Irish, with his translations of Goethe gaining sp ...
, a 19th-century poet.
Taverns
![Handel Plaque - 19 Fishamble Street Temple Bar Dublin 8](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Handel_Plaque_-_19_Fishamble_Street_Temple_Bar_Dublin_8.jpg)
In the 18th century, a tavern on the street, the ''Bull's Head'', was one of the most popular and well-known establishments in Dublin, and was in demand for anniversary and celebratory dinners by the various city guilds and bodies. It also provided accommodation for assemblies of the Grand Lodge of Irish Freemasons. The Bull's Head Musical Society was also well known and undertook the building of a
Musick Hall which was formally opened in 1741.
The street is famous as the site of the first performance of
Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...
's ''
Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...
'', which took place in the aforementioned Music Hall on 13 April 1742 before a large audience.
Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...
addressed an audience in the theatre on 28 February 1812.
A pub further up on Thomas Street was known as G. F. Handel's before changing its name to Arthur's.
Fishamble Street is also home to Darkey Kelly's, a well-known Dublin music pub. It was named after
Dorcas Kelly, who ran a popular brothel in the street in the 1750s and was executed for murder in 1761.
See also
*
List of streets and squares in Dublin
This is a list of notable streets and squares in Dublin, Ireland.
__NOTOC__
References Notes
Sources
*
External linksStreetnames of DublinaArchiseekArchitecture of Ireland— English-Irish list of Dublin street names aLeathanach baile Sh ...
References
{{Streets in Dublin city, state=autocollapse
Streets in Dublin (city)