1. The Huguenots
Dead industries and ways of production linger on in Dublin's street names. Some names reflect the Huguenots who settled here in Ireland, and their descendants in the city's growing middle classes. Many of them came as refugees from France, particularly after the Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685.
Hence Blaquiere Bridge in Fizzboro (from the Blaquiere family and the Secretary for Ireland), Beckett Bridge (from the Becquetts, on Samuel Beckett's family tree), and Fumbally Lane near Saint Patrick’s Cathedral (from Fombella or Fumbily, a family of skinners).
The Huguenots kickstarted Dubln's weaving industry and linen trade, hence Weaver's Square (Cearnóg Na bhFiodóirí) in the Liberties on the southside. And that's why several streets on the northside around Bolton Street DIT (the Dublin Institute of Technology, which recently evolved into TUD) have Ulster names: Coleraine Street, Lisburn Street, Lurgan Street.
This reflects both the linen industry's roots in the north of the country and the importance of Dublin's own Linen Hall in the eighteenth century. The hall stood on three acres and opened for trade in 1728, with a boardroom, a large coffee-room for the traders, a huge trading floor and hundreds of bays for linen storage.
Nothing lasts for ever. The Dublin industry was doomed after the Belfast Linen Hall opened in 1783, and the Linen Board was abolished in 1828. In the 1870s the Dublin Linen Hall became a temporary barracks for the British Army, and it was burnt down in the 1916 Rising.
2. The Mahons
One of the Linen Hall's extensions was around the corner in Yarnhall Street, and the printers Ardiff Mahon are close by. In a reminder of how these industries interlock each other, the original Mahons premises may also have originally housed a linen printers.
The building was reconstructed as the present three-storey structure in 1923, in a mix of yellow and red brick. It has an eye-catching painted wooden sign in an old "slab" font, and a gorgeous brass postbox saying "Mahon's Printing Works".
But this is not just any old printing business. The place deserves a big plaque as a hugely important location in the run-up to the Easter Rising of 1916 and the subsequent War of Independence.
Several members of the Mahon family took leading roles in the military struggle and ended up in jail. The Mahons were also among the main printers of republican newspapers during the revolutionary upheavals, when such activities were a strictly underground affair. The offices were frequently raided by detectives from Dublin Castle.
3. The Bodkins
At the end of Yarnhall Street, a chemical factory was turned into a pub by its owner, Mr Bodkin, in 1987. As DIT Bolton Street is literally across the road (and will continue to be until I guess it migrates to TUD's new Grangegorman camus), Bodkins Bar became quite a student pub in its day.
It had cheap stout, toasted cheese sangwiches and a pool table, and for a while also served Mexican-style grub ("The Hungry Mexican").
Then about two or three years ago Bodkins was totally rebranded and redesigned as BoCo: Mr Bodkin's son Colm and Colm's wife Alexa have transformed it into a hipster joint, with a wood-fired oven that serves rather splendid pizzas, and a slightly retro "industrial" look that's all the rage in this post-industrial age.
That means bare brick, wire cages, concrete floors, corrugated panels and plenty of hard - I nearly wrote "harsh" - surfaces that aren't exactly conversation friendly.
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Footnote: Bodkin is not just an old Irish family name. As it happens, a bodkin spans both the weaving and printing industries. A bodkin is both a sewing needle and a printer's tool for removing pieces of metal type for correction.