Marlborough Street

Marlborough Street, sometimes called ‘Great Marlborough Street’, was laid out in 1707,¹ running north from the quays to Parnell Street. It is shown on Brooking’s Map of 1728.²

As M’Cready says, the name is a tribute to John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), although he gives us no reason for the tribute.³

Marlborough spent a month in Ireland in September/October 1690, when he led the Williamite forces that took Cork City and Kinsale.⁴

Marlborough’s most celebrated victory was at Blenheim, in 1704, for which he received, perhaps, the most valuable laurel leaves in history, in the shape of the eponymous Palace.

Marlborough was, of course, not the last Churchill to influence the course of European and Irish history.

1. Colm Lennon, Dublin Part 2, 1610 to 1756(Irish Historic Towns Atlas, No. 19)(Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2008). ↩︎
2. Charles Brooking, ‘A map of the city and suburbs of Dublin. And also the Archbishop and Earl of Meath’s liberties with the bounds of each parish, drawn from an actual survey. With inset ‘A prospect of the city of Dublin from the north”. Dublin, 1728. ↩︎
3. Rev’d C.T. M’Cready, Dublin street names : dated and explained (Dublin, 1892). ↩︎
4. Piers Wauchope, ‘John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough’, in Dictionary of Irish Biography (https://www.dib.ie/biography/churchill-john-a1658), (https://doi.org/10.3318/dib.004276.v1), (accessed 17 December 2024). ↩︎