Temple Bar

Temple Bar (Irish: Barra an Teampaill) is an area on the south bank of the River Liffey in central Dublin, Ireland. Unlike the areas surrounding it, Temple Bar has preserved its medieval street pattern, with many narrow cobbled streets. It is promoted as "Dublin's cultural quarter" and has a lively nightlife that is popular with tourists. Temple Bar is in the postcode Dublin 2 (D2), and has an estimated population of 3,000.

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. It probably got its name from the Temple family, who lived in the area in the 17th century; Sir William Temple, provost of Trinity College Dublin in 1609, had his house and gardens here[citation needed]. Alternatively, it could have been named in imitation of the Temple Bar in London[citation needed]. However it got its name, the earliest historical reference to the name Temple Bar is on a 1673 map.

Fishamble Street in 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. The republican revolutionary group, the Society of the United Irishmen, was formed at a meeting in a tavern in Eustace Street in 1791.

During the 19th century, the area slowly declined in popularity, and in the 20th century, it suffered from urban decay, with many derelict buildings. Its unfashionability probably saved it from Dublin's property developers, who destroyed much of the city's historic architecture during the 1960s[citation needed].

In the 1980s, the state-owned transport company Córas Iompair Éireann proposed to buy-up and demolish property in the area and build a bus terminus in its place. While this was in the planning stages, the purchased buildings were let out at low rents, which attracted small shops, artists and galleries to the area. Protests by An Taisce, residents and traders led to the cancellation of the bus station project, and the Taoiseach Charles Haughey was responsible for securing funding, and, in 1991, the government set up a not-for-profit company called Temple Bar Properties to oversee the regeneration of the area as Dublin's cultural quarter.

In 1999 "Stag Parties" and "Hen Nights" were supposedly banned (or discouraged) from Temple Bar, mainly due to drunken loutish behaviour, although this seems to have lapsed. However, noise and anti-social behaviour usually fueled by excessive alcohol consumption remain a problem at night. (More on Wikipedia)