What is recorded here

Closed in 1842 after decades of desperate charity pleas from its debtor inmates, the City Marshalsea at Merchants Quay became a Dublin Militia barracks before standing empty until demolition in 1975. Its stones joined the old city wall at Cook Street, carrying forward the memory of men and women who once held boxes at unglazed windows, begging passers-by for bread or release. The prison vanished, but its hunger did not; it simply changed shape, moving from quay to wall, from cry to scar.

De Courcy (1996, 46, 253) mentions that the City Marshalsea prison (Debtor's Prison) moved from Bridge Street to the S end of Merchants Quay in 1704. It was located between Skipper's Lane and Swan Alley and was closed in 1842. The Dublin Militia used it as a barracks in the later 19th century. It stood empty for some years before its demolition in 1975. Some of the stone went to repair the old city wall at Cook Street. According to Gilbert (1854, vol. 1, 373); 'The City Marshalsea was established, in 1704, on the Merchants' Quay, between Skipper's-lane and Swan-alley, where it was continued till 1805; and the passers-by were incessantly assailed by the cries of the inmates soliciting charity for their maintenance, or the discharge of their fees'. The building was described in 1825 as; 'Before the erection of this building, which is between the Sheriff's prison and the Sessions-house in Green-street, the poor debtors were confined in a wretched hovel on the merchant's quay, having a window without glazing, secured by iron bars here one or two of them stood, holding a box with a small hole in the top, and earnestly supplicated charity from every passer-by' (Wright 1825, 114). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 5 July 2023

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