Market-house, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Market Places
At the junction of what are now Pearse Street and Kenyon Street in Nenagh, there is no visible trace of a building that once served as the commercial and civic heart of the town.
A seventeenth-century market house stood here for roughly two centuries before it was pulled down in 1812, leaving behind only a set of dimensions and a date to mark its existence.
Market houses were a common feature of Irish towns from the late medieval period onwards, typically providing a covered space for traders on the ground floor while the upper storey served administrative or judicial functions. The Nenagh example measured 12 metres along Pearse Street and 10 metres along Kenyon Street, making it a moderately sized structure for a provincial town of that era. Its demolition in 1812 was not unusual; many such buildings were cleared away during the Georgian and early Victorian periods as towns reordered their street plans and replaced older structures with more imposing civic buildings. In Nenagh's case, the town was growing in administrative importance around that time, which may well have prompted the clearance.


