PUBLIC CLOCK ON DAME STREET AS SEEN FROM FOWNES STREET

PUBLIC CLOCK ON DAME STREET [AS SEEN FROM FOWNES STREET]

The building site that would normally block the view is the redeveloped Central Bank building.

I attended school near here and on Saturdays I worked for the International Trading Group on Cope Street which has storage space in basements in Fownes Street and elsewhere in Temple Bar. ITG imported and distributed top end Hi-Fi equipment.

Fownes Street is a street that runs from Wellington Quay in the north to Dame Street in the south. It is crossed by Temple Bar in the north and joined by Cecilia Street on its western side and Cope Street on its eastern side. It is divided into Fownes Street Lower (northern end) and Fownes Street Upper (southern end).

The Women's Liberation Movement was based in Fownes Street in the 1970s and published from there the Fownes Street Journal (1972).

Fownes Street was also the site of the Hirschfeld Centre, first gay and lesbian community centre in Dublin. Named after the gay rights reformer, Dr Magnus Hirschfeld, the centre opened on St Patrick's Day 1979 and was the first venue of its kind in Ireland. It included a café, a small cinema and a disco called ‘Flikkers’, and was credited with the revitalisation of the Temple Bar area as it became the hub for the gay community in the city. A plaque to commemorate the centre was unveiled on 20 June 2019 by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Paul McAuliffe, along with Irish LGBT campaigner Senator David Norris, and Eddie McGuinness, Director of the Dublin Pride Festival.