Fleet Street () is a street on the southside of
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
,
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. Located in the
Dublin 2
Dublin 2, also rendered as D2 and D02, is a historic List of Dublin postal districts, postal district on the Southside, Dublin, southside of Dublin, Ireland. In the 1960s, this central district became a focus for office development. More recentl ...
area, Fleet Street runs eastwards, parallel to the
River Liffey
The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...
, through
Temple Bar, across
Westmoreland Street
Westmoreland Street () is a street on the Southside of Dublin. It is currently a one-way street. It carries a segment of the R138 road for northbound traffic; nearby D'Olier Street carries southbound traffic of that segment.
Location
It i ...
to
D'Olier Street
D'Olier Street ( ; ) is a street in the southern city-centre of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. It and Westmoreland Street are two broad streets whose northern ends meet at the southern end of O'Connell Bridge over the River Liffey. Its sout ...
.
History
The street formerly marked the southern edge of the
River Liffey
The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...
, and was known in
Irish as ''Sráid na Toinne'' ("street of the waves"). Its name may refer to the "fleet" of ships that moored along it, or it may be imitative of
Fleet Street, London; many streets on Dublin's southside are named for London streets, and Dublin's Fleet Street is east of
Dublin's Temple Bar, just as London's Fleet Street is east of
London's Temple Bar.
In 1902, Irish revolutionary
Kevin Barry
Kevin Gerard Barry (20 January 1902 – 1 November 1920) was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) soldier and medical student who was executed by the British Government during the Irish War of Independence. He was sentenced to death for his part in a ...
was born at number 8, Fleet Street, where his father ran a dairy business.
[O'Donovan, Donal. ''Kevin Barry and His Time'', Glendale, Dublin, 1989; , at p.15.]
In the 1970s, it was home to Sloopy's, Ireland's first
discotheque
A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and ...
.
Although a wealthy area, and a centre of
furniture
Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., Stool (seat), stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (table (furniture), tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furnitur ...
-making, Fleet Street went into decline in the 20th century and in the 1980s was set to be demolished, and a
bus terminus
A bus station, bus depot, or bus interchange is a structure where city buses or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. A bus station is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can s ...
built in its place. Instead, it was revived as a cultural area.
Today it is known for its many pubs, cafés and restaurants, including the
Hard Rock Cafe
Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a chain of theme restaurant, theme bar-restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos, hotels and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll ...
, the Oliver St. John Gogarty, Bowes, and The Palace Bar. Fleet Street also contains the Irish HQ of
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
, at
Seán MacBride
Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988) was an Irish Republican activist, politician, and diplomat who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff o ...
House.
In 2022, travel website The World Bucket List ranked Fleet Street as one of Europe's 15 most beautiful streets, calling it "the capital city’s most bustling street
��A picturesque
cobbled
Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Setts, also called ''Belgian blocks'', are often referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct from a ...
street, Fleet Street comes alive at night and encapsulates the
craic
''Craic'' ( ) or ''crack'' is a term for news, gossip, fun, entertainment, and enjoyable conversation, particularly prominent in Ireland. It is often used with the Article (grammar), definite article – ''the'' craic – as in the expressi ...
and hospitality that Ireland is known for."
Cultural references
Fleet Street appears several times in the work of
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
: in "
The Boarding House
"The Boarding House" is a short story by James Joyce published in his 1914 collection ''Dubliners
''Dubliners'' is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. It presents a naturalistic depiction of Irish ...
" he mentions "Jack Mooney, the Madam’s son, who was clerk to a commission agent in Fleet Street", while in "
Counterparts
Counterpart or Counterparts may refer to:
Entertainment and literature
* "Counterparts" (short story), by James Joyce
* Counterparts, former name for the Reel Pride LGBT film festival
* ''Counterparts'' (film), a 2007 German drama
* ''Counter ...
" he mentions "Terry Kelly’s
pawn-office in Fleet Street". In
''Ulysses'', Leopold Bloom stands at "Fleet street crossing."
Gallery
File:Electric culture (8114245971).jpg, Electricity substation at junction with Bedford Row
File:HRC in dublin.JPG, Hard Rock Café at junction with Aston Place
File:20130807 dublin052.JPG, Oliver St. John Gogarty pub and restaurant
Corner of Fleet and Bedford St Dublin - panoramio.jpg, Streetscape
File:The Palace Bar, Dublin. Brendan Behan bronze plaque 02.jpg, A bronze plaque set in the pavement outside The Palace Bar in memory of Brendan Behan
Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (christened Francis Behan) ( ; ; 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican, an activist who wrote in both English and Irish. His widely ackno ...
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)