Parliament House, Dublin
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (January 2018) |
Parliament House | |
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Location | College Green, Dublin |
Coordinates | 53°20′42″N 6°15′41″W / 53.3449167°N 6.2612647°W |
Built | 1729 |
Rebuilt | 1796 |
Architect | Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, James Gandon |
Architectural style(s) | Palladian architecture |
Owner | Bank of Ireland |
Parliament House (
History
Originally it was the site of
The current parliament building is Leinster House.
Plans for the new building
In the 17th century, parliament settled at Chichester House, a townhouse in Hoggen Green (later College Green) formerly owned by
Chichester House was in a dilapidated state, allegedly haunted and unfit for official use. In 1727 parliament voted to spend £6,000 on a new building on the site. It was to be the world's first purpose-built two-chamber parliament building.
The then ancient Palace of Westminster, the seat of the English (before 1707) and, later, British Parliament, was a converted building; the House of Commons's odd seating arrangements were due to the chamber's previous existence as a chapel. Hence MPs faced each other from former pews.
The design of this building, one of two purpose-built Irish parliamentary buildings (along with Parliament Buildings, Stormont), was entrusted to an architect, Edward Lovett Pearce, who was a member of parliament and a protégé of the Speaker of the House of Commons, William Conolly of Castletown House. During construction, Parliament moved into the Blue Coat Hospital on Dublin's Northside. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 3 February 1729 by Thomas Wyndham, 1st Baron Wyndham, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Design
Pearce's design was revolutionary. The building was effectively semi-circular in shape, occupying nearly 6,000 m2 (1.5 acres). Unlike Chichester House, which was set far back from Hoggen Green, the new building opened directly onto the Green. The principal entrance consisted of a colonnade of Ionic columns extending around three sides of the entrance quadrangle, forming a letter E (see picture below). Three statues, representing Hibernia (the Latin name for Ireland), Fidelity and Commerce (later carved by Edward Smyth) stood above the portico. Over the main entrance, the royal coat of arms was cut in stone.
The building underwent extensions by architect James Gandon, as Pearce had died. Gandon was responsible for three of Dublin's finest buildings, the Custom House, the Four Courts and the King's Inns. Between 1785 and 1789 he added a new peers' entrance at the east of the building, facing onto Westmoreland Street. Unlike the main entrance to the south, which came to be known as the House of Commons entrance, the new peers' entrance used six Corinthian columns, at the request of peers who wished their entrance to be distinct from the Ionic columns of the main entrance.[3] Over this, three statues by Edward Smyth were placed, representing Fortitude, Justice and Liberty. A curved wall joined the Pearce entrance to Gandon's extension. This masked the uneven joins of some of the extension, as shown below. The wall, built of granite with inset alcoves, bears little resemblance to the building as it was in its parliamentary days.
Another extension was added on the west side into Foster Place, designed in 1787 by architect Robert Parke; while matching Gandon's portico, he tried a different solution, linking the other portico to the main Pearce one by a set of Ionic pillars. The result proved unattractive. When the Bank of Ireland took over the building, it created an architectural unity by replacing this set of Ionic columns by a curved wall similar to Gandon's east wall. Ionic columns were then added to both curved walls, giving the extensions an architectural and visual unity that had been lacking and producing the building's ultimate exterior.
The interior contained one unusual and highly symbolic feature. While in many converted parliamentary buildings where both houses met in the same building, the houses were given equality or indeed the upper house was given a more prominent location within the building, in the new Irish Houses of Parliament the
The original, domed House of Commons chamber was destroyed by fire in the 1790s, and a less elaborate new chamber, without a dome, was rebuilt in the same location and opened in 1796, four years before the Parliament's ultimate abolition.
Pearce's design copied
Pearce's designs came to be studied and copied both at home and abroad. The
The uniqueness of the building, the quality of its workmanship and its central location in College Green, across from Trinity College Dublin, made it one of Dublin's most highly regarded structures.
Public ceremonies
Much of the public ceremonies mirrored those of the British Houses of Parliament. Sessions were formally opened by a
As in the English and British parliaments, the House of Lords was presided over by the Lord Chancellor, who sat on the Woolsack, a large seat stuffed with wool, which was seen as a symbol of economic success and wealth. At the State Opening of Parliament, Members were summoned from the nearby House of Commons chamber by White Rod, (as opposed to Black Rod in Westminster).
In the Commons, business was presided over by the Speaker, who in the absence of a government chosen from and answerable to the Commons was the dominant parliamentary figure. Speaker Conolly remains today one of the most widely known figures ever to be produced by an Irish parliament, for his role in Parliament and for the wealth that allowed him to build one of Ireland's greatest Georgian houses, Castletown House.
Sessions of parliament drew many of the wealthiest of Ireland's
The abolition of
The draw of the Viceregal Court and its social season was no longer enough to encourage most
Abolition
In the last thirty years of the Irish parliament, a series of crises and reforms changed its role. In 1782, following agitation by major parliamentary figures, but most notably
The
After 1800: Bank
Parliament House Act 1802 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 22 June 1802 |
Initially, the former Parliament House was used for a variety of purposes, including as a military garrison and as an art gallery. In 1803 the fledgling
Continuing symbolism
Some of the building's contents survived. The ceremonial mace of the House of Commons remained in the family of the last Speaker of the House of Commons, John Foster, MP. The Bank of Ireland bought the Mace at a sale in Christie's in London in 1937. The Chair of the Speaker of the House of Commons is now in the possession of the Royal Dublin Society, while a bench from the Commons is in the Royal Irish Academy. Two original tapestries remain in the House of Lords. Designed by Dutch landscape painter William Van der Hagen, and woven by John Van Beaver, dating from circa 1733, the tapestries are unique. One represents the "Battle of the Boyne" and the other the "Defence of Londonderry". Each tapestry has five portrait and narrative medallions around the central scene that depict, narrate and name central characters and events in the battles. Both also have "trophies of arms and figures of Fame below enclosed by fringed curtains". The chandelier of the House of Commons now hangs in the Examination Hall of Trinity College Dublin. The Woolsack, on which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland sat when chairing sessions of the House of Lords, is now back on display in the chamber. Copies of debates of the old Irish Parliament are now kept in Leinster House, keeping a direct link between the two eras.
Re-establishment of a Parliament in Dublin
From the 1830s under
Their advocacy resulted in several legislative attempts to re-establish an Irish Parliament. The first attempt in
However, the
The Dáil
In January 1919, Irish republican MPs elected in the 1918 general election assembled to form the First Dáil and issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence. They chose the Round Room of the Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin for their home. (The Round Room had more royal connections than the old Parliament House; it had been built for the visit of King George IV in 1821.)
It is highly unlikely that the
In 1922, when the Provisional Government under W. T. Cosgrave made its plans for independence, it gave little thought to the old Parliament House. In addition to dealing with the bank, it lacked room around it for additional buildings to be used for governmental purposes. Directly behind it, was a major street called Fleet Street. In front of it, at both the Lords and Commons entrances, were major thoroughfares, College Green and Westmoreland Street, leaving the only space for expansion on its Foster Place side, which also had little space for offices. Finally, in the Ireland of 1922 with a civil war raging, the building was not secure enough to be used as a modern-day parliament.
As a result, the Free State initially hired Leinster House from its then owner, the Royal Dublin Society, in 1922, before buying it in 1924. Longer-term plans either to convert the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, into a national parliament, or to build a new parliament house, all fell through, leaving Leinster House as the accidental result.
Modern view
The house is seen generally with affection by Dubliners. It was used as a symbol by generations of nationalist leaders from O'Connell to Parnell and Redmond in their own quest for Irish self-government. In a particular irony,
To this day some still lobby for the re-establishment of the College Green House of Parliament. In 2006, the
Other suggestions included that the building be used to house the bank's former art collection, that it be used as an office for an elected
References and sources
Notes
- ^ Casey 2005, p. 377-386.
- ^ Maxwell 1997, p. 59.
- ^ Maxwell 1997, p. 59-60.
- ^ Unsourced eighteenth-century quotation used in the Bank of Ireland, College Green, an information leaflet produced by the Bank of Ireland about the Irish Houses of Parliament.
- ^ JSTOR 41331440.
- British Parliamentat Westminster fluctuated slightly during Ireland's membership of the United Kingdom but generally remained in or around the 100 mark
- ^ a b "Bank rejects call to donate historic building". Irish Independent. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
- ^ Paul Cullen (14 May 2011). "Government wants to repossess landmark College Green bank". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 May 2011.
- ^ "Bank of Ireland should gift Grattan's Parliament to the people of Ireland – Kevin Humphreys". kevinhumphreys.ie. 2 November 2012. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
Sources
- Casey, Christine (2005). Dublin: The City Within the Grand and Royal Canals and the Circular Road with the Phoenix Park. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30010-923-8.
- Maxwell, Constantia (1997). Dublin Under the Georges. Lambay Books. ISBN 0-7089-4497-3.
- History of the Irish Parliament 1692–1800 by E.M. Johnston-Liik (Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002) ISBN 1-903688-09-4
- Volume 2 of "The Unreformed House of Commons" by Edward and Annie G. Porritt (Cambridge University Press, 1903)
External links
Media related to Parliament House, Dublin at Wikimedia Commons