Formed from various areas of special manorial jurisdiction, separate from the main city government, it is one of Dublin's most historic working class neighbourhoods.

The area was traditionally associated with the River Poddle, market traders and local family-owned businesses, as well as the Guinness brewery, whiskey distilling, and, historically, the textiles industry and tenement housing.

[2] The modern Liberties area lies within the former boundaries of these two jurisdictions, between the river Liffey to the north, St. Patrick's Cathedral to the east, Warrenmount to the south and the St. James's Hospital campus to the west.

[5] After the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII the liberties of Thomas Court and Donore was granted to William Brabazon, ancestor of the Earls of Meath.

Many places in The Liberties still have connections with a turbulent past in which political upheaval or dire poverty were the order of the day.

Woollen manufacture was set up by settlers from England, while many Huguenots took up silk weaving, using skills they had acquired in their home country, France.

In the eighteenth century a revival took place, based on importation of Spanish wool, helped from 1775 by the Royal Dublin Society, but the events of 1798 and 1803, in which many weavers in the Liberties took part, and the economic decline that set in after the Act of Union, prevented any further growth in this industry in the Liberties.

Similarly, the successful growth of the silk and poplin industries, which was supported by the Royal Dublin Society in the second half of the 18th century, was hindered by an act passed by the Irish government in 1786, which prevented the society from supporting any house where Irish silk goods were sold.

When war was declared against France under Napoleon and raw materials were difficult to obtain, the silk weavers suffered greatly.

Before this the poor weavers of the Liberties had either to suspend work in rainy weather or use the alehouse fire and thus were (as Wright expresses it) "exposed to great distress, and not unfrequently reduced either to the hospital or the gaol.

It had a form of central heating powered by four furnaces, and provided a place for weavers to stretch their material in bad weather.

[10] Part of the area was redeveloped into affordable housing and parkland by the Iveagh Trust, the Dublin Artisans Dwellings Company and the City Council in the early to mid twentieth century.

The appalling slums, dire poverty and hazardous dereliction have now been wiped away, and only a few scattered pockets remain to be demolished.

The Ordnance Survey recorded the following areas within the county of the city of Dublin in the 1830s: In 1875 a fire broke out in a malt house and warehouse that caused 13 casualties entirely due to alcohol poisoning from the whiskey that flowed through the streets.

[14] The lack of significantly more casualties is attributed to the fact that one of the first buildings to be caught in the blaze was a pigsty that sent screaming livestock through the streets to warn residents.

[15] The Liberties holds a range of cultural centres, and forms part of the wider Dublin 8 area, home to five of Ireland's top visitor attractions,[16] with the Guinness Storehouse alone accounting for 1.2 million annual visits.

The college was founded in 1746 as a private drawing school, and has become a national institution educating over 1,500 day and evening students.

The Festival is a SICCDA project and is supported by DCC, the local community, and a range of private sponsors including Diageo.

The Liberties is the home of the iconic Guinness brewery, which continues to attract investment from parent company Diageo, including €130 million on the development of Brewhouse No.

Further, having seen most local breweries and distilleries close since the late 1800s, the area is currently undergoing a renaissance as a centre for craft distilling and brewing in Dublin.

The Liberties Business Area Improvement Initiative is a partnership between Dublin City Council and local businesses and stakeholders to transform the commercial heart of Dublin 8 through public and private sector investment, to create a more vibrant and attractive city neighbourhood.

John's Lane Augustinian Church, located on Thomas Street, was designed by Edward Welby Pugin and opened in 1874.

Dublin Bus run extensive services throughout the Liberties, with Real Time Passenger Information available at a number of stops.

[21] In September 2008, after many years of restorative work, the old Thomas Street Fire Station which is adjacent to the college was unveiled as a new wing of the existing campus.