Fumbally Lane

Fumbally Lane is a narrow and historic street in Dublin, Ireland, south of the city centre in The Liberties, 'In name and character perhaps the most evocative of all the Liberties' streets.' It connects Blackpitts to New Street and is close to St Patrick’s Cathedral.HistoryThis area was originally part of the Liberty of Thomas Court and Donore (later called the Earl of Meath's Liberty), having been granted by Henry VIII to Sir William Brabazon, whose ancestors were later the Earls of Meath, after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538.This location was then on the fringes of the expanding 18th-century city when the lane itself was set out by local brewer and Quaker Jacob Poole in 1721 to connect Blackpitts (where he had property) to New St. The lane has long had mixed industrial and residential use. Historically, tanning brewing and associated industries flourished in this part of Dublin, partly because the River Poddle is close by. The industrial heritage of the area even dates back even to the mid 17th century and is linked to and influenced by both Quakers and Huguenots. In 2006 archaeologists found evidence of medieval leather tanning off Fumbally Lane and nearby New Street with wood-lined soaking pits and elaborate ditch systems. They also identified that one of the existing large old former brewery buildings on Fumbally dates from the 1740sParticularly brewing flourished here in the Fumbally/Blackpitts area since the mid 18th century. It is very possible that the first Dublin porter was brewed here. The Poole and Taylor families, who were related, had brewing interests here from at least that time and before.