Monthly Sunday markets set to return to Dublin’s Liberties

Monthly Sunday markets, with bric-a-brac, food stalls, art and antiques, are to return to Dublin’s Liberties from next month with 50 traders setting up at the Digital Hub campus.

Operator We Love Markets will run the outdoor market starting on March 20th with stalls featuring a range of goods with an emphasis on supporting traders in the Dublin 8 area.

The new market will replace the Dublin Flea Market, which had operated at the Digital Hub until the end of last year, but closed with organisers citing “red tape and rocketing rents” and the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. They also referenced the ongoing loss of cultural spaces to make way for “hotels and overpriced office blocks”.

The flea market had previously been based in Newmarket Square for more than a decade but moved to the nearby Digital Hub in 2019 after the Newmarket site was sold to developers.

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Emma Brereton, market director of We Love Markets, said the new market would help fill the gap left by the loss of the flea market.

“The Liberties has such a strong history and tradition of markets and this is an amazing opportunity to bring market life back into the area. The markets are the city’s heartbeat.”

Pent-up demand

The pandemic had illustrated a pent-up need for markets but had also revealed a “great abundance of creativity” in the local area she said.

“We as a city and a community have an amazing collection of high-quality local produce. Independent start-ups, local enterprises, businesses and designers, who all together make up our market community,” she said. “The market will be a great place for people to test out products.”

The Government last April announced the closure of the Digital Hub. However, late last year the Digital Hub Development Agency agreed a deal with the Department of Communications, Climate Change and Environment to allow the agency to offer leases to new and existing companies up until 2025, after which the site is expected to be developed for housing by the Land Development Agency.

Digital Hub chief executive Fiach Mac Conghail welcomed the return of markets to the campus.

“The Digital Hub has always been a focal point for enterprise in the Liberties, and the launch of this market in collaboration with We Love Markets is exciting for us. With the reopening of society and the economy it will be a welcome sight to see the return of traders, our local community and visitors to the campus while also benefiting local enterprise.”

The market will be open from 11am-5pm on March 20th and monthly thereafter.