File:Kennan & Sons Ltd., Iron works, Fishamble Street, Dublin (23737405856).jpg

From the wide open spaces of Ballinasloe Fair Green to one of the oldest parts of inner city Dublin today, where we find the premises of Kennan & Sons in Fishamble Street (so named as the are was once a fish market: Fish shambles).

With thanks to the contributors below, especially [/photos/66311327@N05/ B-59], [/photos/129555378@N07/ sharon.corbet], [/photos/20727502@N00/ guliolopez], [/photos/beachcomberaustralia/ beachcomberaustralia], and [/photos/23851618@N07/ dok1969], we learned a lot more about the Kennan engineering works site. Not least that the central archway was once the gateway to Neal's Music Hall - where JF Handel first showcased his famous Messiah in 1742:

 The Music Hall, Fishamble Street, was founded in  1741 [..and in the..] following year, HANDEL performed  there [...] It continued the most fashionable place of  public entertainment until [...] it was in 1868 added  to KENNAN & SONS' Works, and it now resounds again  with the "Harmonious Blacksmith", differently composed

Photographer: Elinor or Reginald Wiltshire

Collection: Wiltshire Photographic Collection

Date: 1967

NLI Ref: WIL 32[1]

You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie