North William Street

Running west off the North Strand, near Newcomen Bridge, this street, according to M’Cready, dates to 1805, but, unhelpfully, he says nothing about the origin of the name.¹

However, it’s likely named for William, Duke of Clarence, for whom the nearby Clarence Street was named.

The IHTA cites it as appearing unnamed in a map of 1811.²

There were certainly houses on the street by 1820, when ‘several small houses’ were offered to let for 67 shillings. ³

The building of the fine Roman Catholic Church on the street, Saint Agatha’s, was begun in 1878 [reference needed] but wasn’t completed until 1908 [reference needed].

In 1894, the Corporation considered buying the unfinished building to convert into a public library,⁴ but ended up building the library on a vacant plot on the site.⁵

This ended up in an unseemly dispute with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, and in 1905 the Corporation agreed to buy the plot from His Grace (who drove a hard bargain).⁶

1. Rev’d C.T. M’Cready, Dublin street names : dated and explained (Dublin, 1892). ↩︎
2. Rob Goodbody, Dublin Part 3, 1756 to 1847 (Irish Historic Towns Atlas, No. 26)(Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2014). ↩︎
3. Saunders Newsletter, 28 November 1829, p. 4. ↩︎
4. Reports 1895/78. ↩︎
5. Reports 1896/108. ↩︎
6. Reports 1905/46. ↩︎