This is the second blog in a series of blog posts, to complement our current exhibition Ireland’s Main Street, 1625-1925: An Architectural History. They will add further context to the exhibition, and the architectural evolution of Dublin's main street.



The Abbey of St Mary, located on the junction of present day Abbey Street and Capel Street, was established in 1139 and became the first major ecclesiastical settlement on the north side. It was founded directly from Savignac in France. In 1147 it became Cistercian under the direction of Combemere of Chester.

In 1170 Dublin came under attack from the Anglo Normans, who succeeded in taking the city – expelling the surviving Vikings to an area on the north side, where they established a suburb, Oxmantown (modern day Smithfield).

The first large scale stone buildings, in this area, were constructed after the arrival of the Anglo Normans.

Diarmuid Mac Murrough who had fallen out with other Gaelic chieftains wanted to reclaim land that he had lost to them. The land on the north side was controlled by the Viking Mac Turcaill family but after the Anglo Normans seized control of Dublin, this land was granted, by Royal Charter, to the Abbey of St Mary.

The Normans set about expanding and strengthening the existing walls and settlement. They erected a substantial wall, punctuated by a series of towers. They were the first (besides the native Irish) to build outside the town perimeter, establishing a number of ecclesiastical settlements and a series of connecting lanes in and around the Abbey. Two of the earliest charters from St. Marys Abbey are endowments of land.

The Abbey held a strategic location and was assisted by the Anglo Normans. The entire development of the area was laid out by the monks and was known as Abbey Parkes.

New charters, in 1195, took more land from the local Irish and Hiberno-Norse families, granting it to the Abbey. There was defensive a wall built, along the line of modern day Liffey Street. Parts of the Abbeys’ chapter house remain near Capel Street. There were no embankments on the river estuary at this time. Modern day O’Connell Street lies on lands which functioned as orchards, grain fields and mills for the Abbey.