Werburgh Street is a street in the medieval area of

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 ...

named for St. Werburgh's Church.

Location

Werburgh Street runs from Castle Street at the northern end, to

Bride Street Bride Street () is a street in the medieval area of Dublin, Ireland. Location Bride Street runs from Werburgh Street at the north to New Bride Street at the south. It runs parallel to Patrick Street. History Bride Street appears in a 1465 map ...

at the south, parallel with

Patrick Street Patrick Street is an Irish folk group founded by Kevin Burke (formerly of The Bothy Band) on fiddle, Andy Irvine (Sweeney's Men, Planxty) on mandolin, bouzouki, harmonica and vocals, Jackie Daly (De Dannan) on button accordion, and Arty McGl ...

History

The street was originally St Werburgh Street, named after St. Werburgh's Church, with the street first appearing on maps in 1257.

Werburgh Street Theatre The Werburgh Street Theatre, also the Saint Werbrugh Street Theatre or the New Theatre, was a seventeenth-century theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Scholars and historians of the subject generally identify it as the "first custom-built theatre in the c ...

was the first purpose-built theatre built in Ireland. In the fifteenth century, Roger Sutton had a house on Werburgh Street. It passed on his death to his son William Sutton,

Attorney-General for Ireland The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the ...

.Ball, F Elrington ''The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921'' London John Murray 1926 p.179 The southern end of the street was the location of one of the gateways in the city's walls, known as St Werburgh's Gate or Pole Gate. In the 1600s, the southern end was also the location of the Main Guard of the city. Their station on the street is denoted by Gun Alley nearby, which has since been demolished. The earliest iteration of the prison, the

Four Courts Marshalsea The Four Courts Marshalsea was a prison in Dublin, Ireland until 1874. The keeper of the prison was the Marshal of the Four Courts, a role filled after 1546 by the Constable of Dublin Castle.Gilbert 1854, p.43 Name Other debtor's prisons in D ...

, was also located on Werburgh Street in an area previously known as Shoemaker's Street from 1580 until the 18th century. There was a square on the western side of the street known as Darby Square, where the Liberty Rangers performed military practice in the run-up to the

1798 rebellion The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a Irish republicanism, ...

. In 1785, a portion of the pavement collapsed, revealing a cave 40 feet deep filled with coffins and bones. It was thought to be the remains of the old cemetery of St Martin's Church.

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

was born in Hoey's Court, which was off Werburgh Street. One of the last surviving cagework, timber and plaster houses in Dublin was on the corner of Werburgh and Castle Street before it was demolished in 1813.

References

{{Streets in Dublin city, state=autocollapse Streets in Dublin (city)

Location

History

See also

References