From the Dublin Morning Register, 4 September 1838:

“CITY SESSIONS

Catherine Johnstone and Mary Whittaker were arraigned for stealing several items of wearing apparel, the property of Esther Lennon.

Esther Lennon being sworn, deposed that she was in the Fruit-market, and was taken very ill with a tooth-ache, when the prisoner (Whittaker) came up to her, and commiserated on her sufferings – she told her that, if she would accommodate her, she would relieve her pain; she did so, and the prisoner prevailed on her to go into a house in Church-street, where they found the other prisoner in a room; they made her sit down, and gave her a cup of coffee to drink, which had a peculiarly bitter flavour; soon after, the witness fell asleep on the chair and in some time after was awakened by the prisoner (Johnstone), who was sister to the other prisoner; on awakening, she found herself stripped of all her clothes, which she was informed had been taken to a pawn-office by the prisoner, Whittaker.

Johnstone gave her some blows to keep her from crying, and said she would go and look for the clothes; a woman who lived in the opposite room took pity on her, and sent for a policeman, who recovered some of the articles; she did not like the appearance of the place, but was induced to enter it from the very compassionate manner in which Whittaker spoke to her, when suffering from the tooth-ache.

A policeman deposed that he arrested the prisoners on the day following the occurrence alluded to, and found the duplicates of some of the articles in their possession.

The prisoners were found guilty, and were sentenced to be imprisoned for six months in Grangegorman-lane prison, and kept to hard labour.

The prosecutor applied to the court for remuneration for the losses she had sustained.

The court granted her 10s.”

According to the Appendix to the First Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Municipal Corporations of Ireland, published in 1836, there were two fruit markets at the time; one in the part of the Little Green in Halston Street and the other the Northumberland Market on Eden Quay, (a private speculation of a gentleman by the name of Classon). It sounds like the Fruit Market in this case was the one in Halston Street, close to Green Street Courthouse where Ms Johnstone and Whittaker were subsequently tried.

There were also, among others, an Egg and Fowl Market in the Little Green, a Potato Market in Petticoat Lane, close to the Little Green, a Fish Market in Pill Lane and a Pig Market in May Lane, beside what is now the Law Library building in Church Street.

The location of these markets was handy for lawyers working in the Four Courts, as it allowed them to purchase food on their way home or during their lunch break, but, as this story shows, by the early 19th century this district, once so prosperous, had become a disreputable one, with prudence required to navigate the many petty thieves lurking in its streets!