Streets Of Dublin

BETWEEN EUSTACE STREET AND SYCAMORE STREET

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Meeting House Square is an award-winning architectural space with four retractable umbrellas and is located between Eustace Street and Sycamore Street. This multipurpose, flexible, outdoor performance space includes a screen, projection booth and proscenium stage.

At one corner of Meeting House square, if you look up at the red-brick wall, you should see an exact replica of the guitar that belonged to Rory Gallagher. According to a tour guide, that I overheard, the original guitar actually used by the Rory hanging was on the wall for many years but it was damaged by the weather and had to be replaced.

William Rory Gallagher (2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995) was an Irish guitarist, singer and songwriter. He formed the blues rock power trio Taste in 1966, which experienced some moderate success in the UK. He also found success with a solo career releasing music throughout the 1970s and 1980s and selling more than 30 million records worldwide.

Gallagher is known for his virtuosic style of guitar playing, which strongly influenced other guitarists such as Brian May and Eric Clapton. But, due to his lack of commercial success, he is often referred as “the greatest guitarist you’ve never heard of”. Gallagher was voted as guitarist of the year by Melody Maker magazine in 1972, and listed as the 57th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.

Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, and raised in Cork, Munster. His popularity had declined throughout the 1980s due to changes within the music industry and poor health. Gallagher received a liver transplant in 1995, but died of complications later that same year in London at the age of 47.

Eustace Street takes its name from Sir Maurice Eustace (c. 1590 – 1665), former Lord Chancellor of Ireland, whose townhouse “Damask” and its gardens once stood on the site.The street was laid out prior to 1701 but legal issues held up the initial construction. A map of 1728 shows the street as fully built.

The street is known for its association with the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers. In 1692, the Quakers in Dublin established a meeting house on Sycamore Alley, off Dame Street and later expanded onto Eustace Street. Eustace Street also once housed a Presbyterian/Unitarian church, which moved there from New Row in 1728; John Leland was a pastor there.

In the 18th century, Eustace Street was the site of the Eagle Tavern, which was the site of the founding of the Dublin Society of United Irishmen.

The street addresses were renumbered in the 1840s

In recent years the street has become a cultural centre, housing the Irish Film Institute and The Ark.[8][9] Fishamble: The New Play Company are located at 1 Eustace Street.

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