Postcode rad8s culture and cool
What makes this part of the capital so special?
FROM medieval history to modern art, the postcode like no other is steeped in heritage and culture. It’s also one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world, according to Time Out magazine. Here, resident LARISSA NOLAN tells why it’s a special place to call home.
Iwas born in The Coombe, a slice of the city that dates back to the 1600s. I returned as an adult – like a homing pigeon – to live in the same place I came into the world.
So when the locals here on Meath Street wonder if I’m one of those “uppies” landing in to colonise the place – I’m not. I’m Dublin born and D8-resident, since I moved aged 20 to a Celtic Tiger-era Portobello and fell in love with it.
There was the legendary live music venue Whelans on Wexford Street, where Jeff Buckley played. I’ve since seen everyone from Arcade Fire to Hozier and Pete Doherty there.
The spooky 12th century St Kevin’s Church and graveyard is around the corner. There’s the Bleeding Horse pub on Camden Street, which first opened as a tavern in 1649 and is mentioned in the works of Sean O’casey and James Joyce.
Over the years, I’ve moved from one Dublin 8 address to another, from the old Olympic Ballroom on Pleasants Street – named after philanthropist and merchant Thomas Pleasants – to the state’s first housing scheme in The Tenters, where weavers stretched their cloth on wooden tent pegs to dry out.
This year, I settled in Meath Street, that magical part of the city unlike anywhere else, with its street traders and markets.
It has its own distinct culture, with church bells marking the passing of the day, horses going past the window and local pub The Lark Inn selling pints for a fiver.
There are no supermarkets on Meath Street — shopping
Magical part of the city unlike anywhere else, with its street traders and markets
LARISSA NOLAN ON MEATH STREET IN DUBLIN D8
here involves going into the butcher, the baker, the fishmonger, the chemist, the newsagent and the greengrocer. Cash is king: don’t use a card unless you want to be marked out as one of the dreaded uppies.
Respite can be found in the tranquil secret garden grotto behind St Catherine’s Church.
It’s in the heart of The Liberties, surely the proudest place name in Ireland. It got its name as it was outside Dublin’s medieval walls and so was exempt from taxes.
Just around the corner stands the world famous cathedrals of Christchurch and St Patrick’s, where Jonathan Swift was once the Dean.
The Guinness Storehouse – voted the best tourist attraction
in the world – is 400m from my front door.
Roe and Co, the whiskey distillery on James’s Street, is even older than Guinness, established in 1707.
I pass the iconic Guinness brewery gates on my way to Thomas Street, where I think of poor Robert Emmet, the Irish patriot who was only 25 when he was publicly hanged there in 1803.
The great Brendan Behan had his last drink in Harkin’s Bar, before he collapsed there and later died in the Meath Street hospital in 1964.
Dublin 8 is one of the capital’s biggest postcodes, stretching from around the corner from Stephen’s Green, all the way into the Phoenix Park, Europe’s biggest public park. It’s home to stars such as Aiden Gillen, Brian Kennedy, Brenda Fricker, and Leo Varadkar moved in as Taoiseach.
Liberty belle Imelda May grew up in Pimlico and says: “My heart and soul is in the Liberties. Liberties women were and still are strong women, raising their kids and trying to feed their families.”
The late Gay Byrne grew up in Rialto and went to school in the renowned Synge Street CBS, made
famous in the John Carney film Sing Street.
Dublin 8 is immortalised in song by everyone from the Dubliners – in Dublin In The Rare Auld Times – to the Fontaines DC, in their track Liberty Belle. Its culture continues with the National College of Art and Design and the music college BIM – where the Fontaines were formed.
Kilmainham Gaol is here, scene of the 1916 executions and one of the world’s oldest unoccupied jails.
Tailors’ Hall, where Wolfe Tone used to hold meetings, plays host to cultural events and local theatre, Smock Alley, was built in 1662.
All reasons to make a culture date with Dublin 8 this weekend .
See culturedatewithdublin8.ie.