Newmarket Square on the day of the final local Dublin Flea Market

For the last five years, I’ve lived a short walk from two lively, varied and enticing markets in Newmarket, Dublin 8, called the Green Door Market and the Dublin Food Co-op. They are essentially warehouse buildings, but beautifully used ones.

The fast development of the area around Newmarket has been a mixed blessing for us: it’s included the arrival of a long-overdue public park, the Teelings Distillery, and big increases in house values (the latter goes for pretty much everywhere, of course, though I suspect our part of Dublin 8 more than most).

When an area starts to attract things like these markets, the long-term result is often the departure of the more inventive and low-budget things that attracted people to the area in the first place. The markets helped create an allure and, in turn, land value in this part of Dublin 8. That very same effect is now pushing them out as those shabby warehouses stand to be knocked down to enable development.

Taking a step back, I have mixed feelings about it all (the arrival of Weaver Park just down the road really changes our four-year-old’s life, for one). But I’m really, really sad to see the back of these rugged markets, a Sunday mainstay for us since 2013. I would far prefer they stay, but sadly it’s not to be.

For the final Dublin Flea market, I walked around quite emotionally snapping a few pics to remember it all by. These are below, taken on Sunday, May 27. The end of an era.

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