Could one of Dublin's oldest trading spaces the Iveagh Market close?
The Iveagh Market has been at the core of the Liberties community since the start of the twentieth century.
It was built by Lord Iveagh about fifty years ago at a cost of £50,000. It was established under the Dublin Corporation's Market Act of 1901 and opened in 1907. The idea was to drive the street traders off the street and put them here under a comfortable roof in Francis Street.
A casual let costs four pence a square yard and the average pitch is about four square yards. With the opening of the market, a rule was also introduced prohibiting street trading within 500 yards of the market.
The Chief Superintendent of the market says rumours of closure are "pure speculation".
Third generation trader Josie Twomey, whose grandmother was the first stall holder at the Iveagh Market says that the market could not close as people could not do without it.
Ellen Dunne who has worked at the market since she was twelve years old helping her mother is less optimistic.
There's no future in it for children.
Iveagh Market, Dublin (1986)
Concluding this report John Ross asks
Is the Iveagh Market alive or dead? Well, judging from what I've seen here today, the enthusiasm, the crowds, and the genuine nostalgia for the old place, I'd say that the Iveagh Market is very much alive.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 21 March 1962. The reporter is John Ross.
