The Iveagh Markets on Francis Street are a handsome red-brick and granite covered market hall, built by the Guinness magnate Lord Iveagh in 1906 to rehouse the street traders displaced by his clearance of the nearby slums. Carved stone heads above the entrance represent the trading nations of the world, a confident flourish of Edwardian civic ambition. The building is a protected National Monument.
The markets stood empty and increasingly derelict for decades, the subject of a long-running dispute over their future. That finally changed at the end of 2025, when Dublin City Council commenced emergency stabilisation works on the roof and structure — a €11 million project expected to take around two years. The building cannot be entered, but the facade is one of the Liberties' finest Victorian streetscapes, in the heart of its antiques district on Francis Street. Worth a look as you pass.