Location

Eustace Street runs from Wellington Quay (near Millennium Bridge) to Dame Street, with junctions with Essex Street East and Curved Street.

At the halfway point of the street there is a passageway to Meetinghouse Square.

History

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. Fishamble: The New Play Company are located at 1 Eustace Street.

Cultural references

Eustace Street appears twice in the work of James Joyce:

Darkness, accompanied by a thick fog, was gaining upon the dusk of February and the lamps in Eustace Street had been lit.

— "Counterparts" (Dubliners)

Watch! Watch! Silk flash rich stockings white. Watch!
A heavy tramcar honking its gong slewed between.
Lost it. Curse your noisy pugnose. Feels locked out of it. Paradise and the peri. Always happening like that. The very moment. Girl in Eustace street hallway Monday was it settling her garter. Her friend covering the display of. Esprit de corps. Well, what are you gaping at?

— Ulysses

Irish band Delorentos released a single entitled "Eustace Street" in 2007.

Gallery

• 
  Irish Film Institute (6 Eustace St); sign visible for the Friends Meeting House (4–5 Eustace St) at left
• 
  View facing east towards Temple Bar's main square
• 
  Mr. Simm's Olde Sweet Shoppe, located on the corner of Eustace Street and Dame Street
• 
  View facing north

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eustace Street, Dublin.

• Quakers in Ireland
• List of streets and squares in Dublin