The Coombe is one of Dublin's oldest streets, following the line of a small river (now underground) through the heart of the Liberties. The name comes from the Anglo-Norman 'combe', meaning a hollow or valley. For centuries it was the centre of the Huguenot silk-weaving trade that gave the Liberties much of its character.
Today it's a quiet back street with fragments of old Dublin — a surviving pub here, a derelict weaving shed there — that rewards slow exploration. The nearby Meath Street has an authentic neighbourhood market and some of the city's most unpretentious traditional pubs.