The Old Market House
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| Photo by Ann Ormond Fennell (me) |
The Old Market House is located on Lower
Main Street, formerly known as Parnell Street. It is a beautiful Greek revival
building in the pre-civil war style, 1642. A deed dated 1647 refers to a
building, located on the site of the Old Market House as “the courthouse.” It
is unclear if this is the same building.
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| Old Market House at the end of the road. Photo courtesy of Waterford Co. Museum |
The Market House was used for public
executions. Canon Power, states in his history, that John Clancy, parish priest
and Edmond Hore, curate of Dungarvan, were among those executed here in 1642.
Many other prominent citizens were executed in the Market Place,
during the occupation of the town, by the Anglican Royalist, Lord Inchiquin in
1642.
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| Old Market House in the background Photo courtesy of Waterford Co. Museum |
In or around 1700, the area in front of the building was known as “Market Place” and the center of the town. The building was a butter market, with council offices overhead.
Irish Patriot, Edmond Power was hanged from
a window of the Market House in 1799 for his involvement with the United
Irishmen.
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| Photo by Damien Geoghagan: Things You Miss About Dungarvan |
In 1868, Robert A. Merry & Co. Ltd.
purchased the building, for offices and a storehouse for their, grocery, wine
and spirit business.
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| Photo by Damien Geoghagan: Things You Miss About Dungarvan |
In 1984 the building was once again
refurbished and converted into The Dungarvan Library and Museum until 1999.
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| Photo by Ann Ormond Fennell (me) |
In 1996 Waterford County Council employed
Margaret Organ as Arts Officer and recommended the Old Market House be renovated into an
Art Centre for the town.
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| Gallery in Art Centre. Photo by Ireland.com |
On April 10, 2000 the Old Market House Arts
Centre was officially opened as an Arts Centre for County Waterford by the
then, Minister for the Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht, and the Islands, Síle de
Valera T.D.
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| Dungarvan Museum Society |
A multi-purpose room 'Seomra de Paor' is
located on the upper floor of the Arts Centre, and is named after the above mentioned Edmond
Power.
3 comments:
I've just read over all your A to Z posts and loved all of them.
I've added myself to your list of followers.
Eileen @ In My Playroom (also doing the A to Z Challenge)
I was going to say, "I really like this place" until I read the bit about public executions. Do you think it's haunted?
True Heroes from A to Z
Thank you for your comments in my blog.
The building is very beautiful, and I enjoyed reading about its history.
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