just at that time he got an invitation to go to dublin. he was asked to give a concert to get money for charity. the main charity for which money was being raised was the debtor’s prison. in those days people who ran into debt (meaning that they owed lots of people money but had no money to pay them) were sent to prison. there they were fed by charity (people who fed them out of kindness). if no one fed them they just starved to death. handel had nearly been sent to a debtor’s prison himself a few years earlier.