Down on Main Street – The Story of Some Key Buildings on Main Street, Maynooth (Including Maynooth Public Library)

Maynooth 850 is celebrating the arrival of Fitzgeralds here in 1176 and the village of Maynooth that developed around their castle.

For almost six centuries Maynooth’s Main Street remained a straggle of buildings. Through the Duke of Leinster’s visionary redevelopment in the late 1700s, today’s Main Street which, to a large extent, retains the form and structure of 18th Century Maynooth. It was the centre of his planned landlord village. Using maps, archives, census document, deeds & photographs, Kay MacKeogh traces the changing face of Main Street – from a largely residential street with a few public houses and shops, to today’s dynamic mix of restaurants, barbers & hairdressers, estate agents, supermarkets, public library, banks, pharmacy, health centre, clothes shops etc.

Kay will focus on some key buildings on Main Street, including the Public Library in which the lecture takes place.