Grafton Street

This bustling shopping street in Dublin is also home to a vibrant busking scene. Musicians, bands, mime artists, poets and people from all different backgrounds of the Arts perform along the street everyday. The opening scene of the 2006 Academy-Award Winning movie Once was filmed here. The scene features the Irish musician and actor Glen Hansard busking near the top of Grafton Street just by Chatham Street at night. Grafton Street was named after Henry FitzRoy, the illegitimate son of Charles II of England who owned land in the area. It began as a residential street after being developed from a then existing country lane by the Dawson family in 1708 (after whom the parallel Dawson Street is named). It was a popular address among the city's most affluent citizens. After O'Connell Bridge was constructed in 1794 (known back then as the Carlisle Bridge), the ease of passage from the North Side to the South Side meant Grafton street became a desirable location for merchants to sell their wares. That heralded the beginning of Grafton Street establishing itself as one of the principal shopping streets in Dublin City. The protagonist in James Joyce's Ulysses, Leopold Bloom passes by Brown Thomas on Grafton Street and thinks of buying a pin cushion for his wife Molly.