Temple Bar is an area on the south bank of the River Liffey in central Dublin. The area is bounded by the Liffey to the north, Dame Street to the south, Westmoreland Street to the east and Fishamble Street to the west. Unlike other parts of Dublin’s city centre, it is promoted as Dublin’s cultural quarter and has a lively nightlife that is popular with tourists. After dark, the area is a major centre for nightlife, with many tourist-focused nightclubs, restaurants and bars. Pubs in the area include The Temple Bar Pub, The Porterhouse, the Oliver St. John Gogarty, the Turk’s Head, Czech Inn (in the former Isolde’s Tower), the Quays Bar, the Foggy Dew, The Auld Dubliner and Bad Bobs. The historic name of the district was not Temple Bar but St. Andrews Parish. It was a suburb of medieval (Anglo-Norman) Dublin, located outside the city walls, but it fell into disuse beginning in the 14th century because the land was exposed to attacks by the native Irish. The land was redeveloped again in the 17th century, to create gardens for the houses of wealthy English families. Many sources agree that Temple Bar Street got its name from the Temple family, and specifically Sir William Temple (provost of Trinity College from 1609-1627), whose house and gardens were located there in the early 17th century. However, given the existence of a storied district of the same name in London, it seems that the new Temple Bar street of Dublin must have been a nod to its older and more famous cousin.
Furthermore, London’s Temple Bar is adjoined by Essex Street to the west and Fleet Street to the east, and streets of the same names occupy similar positions in relation to Dublin’s Temple Bar. It seems almost certain therefore that Dublin’s Temple Bar was named firstly in imitation of the historic Temple precinct in London. However, a secondary and equally plausible reason for using the name Temple Bar in Dublin would be a reference to one of the area’s most prominent families, in a sort of pun or play on words. Or as it has been put more succinctly, Temple Bar ‘does honour to London and the landlord in nicely-gauged proportions’.
Fishamble Street near Temple Bar was the location of the first performance of Handel‘s Messiah on 13 April 1742. An annual performance of the Messiah is held on the same date at the same location. A republican revolutionary group, the Society of the United Irishmen, was formed at a meeting in a tavern in Eustace Street in 1791.
Two squares have been renovated in recent years — Meetinghouse Square and the central Temple Bar Square. The Temple Bar Book Market is held on Saturdays and Sundays in Temple Bar Square. Meetinghouse Square, which takes its name from the nearby Quaker Meeting House, is used for outdoor film screenings in the summer months. Since summer 2004, Meetinghouse Square is also home to the Speaker’s Square project (an area of Public speaking) and to the Temple Bar Food Market every Saturday. The Cow’s Lane Market is a fashion and design market which takes place on Cow’s Lane every Saturday.
