The Tenter fields would have taken their name from where the weavers in the area would have their cloth stretched out for drying.
Here's a bit of history of the area:
The Tenters:
At a later stage in its history the Liberties became a Huguenot settlement. The Huguenots were French Protestants who suffered religious persecution and fled to Ireland in 1685. They were skilled weavers who created an industrial centre in the area. They started their business around the area now called Weaver’s Square. They taught the people of Dublin how to weave silk and poplin. At first, everything seemed to prosper and many more people came to live in the area. However, difficulties arose because of the Irish weather. The cloth needed to be stretched and dried on tenter hooks in the fields between what is now O’Curry Avenue and Clarence Mangan Road. In 1814 Thomas Pleasants built a stone Tenter House on the land between Cork Street, Brickfield Lane, Brown Street and Ormond Street. The success of Dublin poplin was disastrous for the English cotton and woolen industries. The English Government issued new rules (no material may come to Ireland without first coming through England) and new taxes. This eventually caused the weaving industry in Dublin to decline. This area was still an open field at the beginning of this century. After the decline of the linen trade, the land was used for market gardening until the houses in the Tenters were built around 1922; the year of construction has been marked on the front walls of some of the houses. Many of the street names in the Tenters have literary associations, e.g. Oscar Square (after Oscar Wilde), Clarence Mangan (after James Clarence Mangan, the poet), Ingram Road (after Sir John Kells Ingram, the poet). The houses in Rutledge Terrace were built between 1898 and 1910 by Robert and Andrew Rutledge, the same builder who built houses in Francis Street and Golden Lane.
On another note before the Lamplighter pub on the Coombe took that name it was known as The Weavers.
