Leinster House (Irish Parliament) | Dublin, Ireland

[Kampflamm]

The history of Leinster House the building that now houses the National Parliament of Ireland evolved in stages.

The house was originally known as Kildare House after James Fitzgerald, the Earl of Kildare, who commissioned it to be built between 1745-47: James Fitzgerald set out to create the stateliest of Dublin Georgian Mansions to reflect his eminent position in Irish society. It is told that the Earl had said that fashion would follow in whatever direction he led. In succeeding, he caused an unfashionable area of the city to become a desirable one. On becoming the Duke of Leinster in 1776 (Dublin and Kildare are in the province of Leinster) the house was renamed Leinster House.

The designer of Leinster House was the architect Richard Cassel (or Castle), who was born in Hesse-Cassel in Germany about 1690. The design is characteristic of buildings of the period in Ireland and England. It has been claimed that it formed a model for the design of the White House, the residence of the President of the United States. This claim may have its origins in the career of James Hoban, who in 1792 won the competition for the design of the White House. He was an Irishman, born in Callan, County Kilkenny in 1762, and studied architecture in Dublin, and consequently, would have had an opportunity of studying the design of Leinster House.

Supporter of the United Irishmen, who advocated complete separation of Ireland from England, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, fifth son of the first Duke of Leinster, was arrested shortly before the insurrection of May 1798 and died of wounds received during his capture. No doubt it was beyond his wildest dreams that many years later the Irish Parliament would be located in his family home.

In 1815, Augustus Frederick, the third Duke of Leinster, sold the mansion to the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) for £10,000 and a yearly rent of £600 which was later redeemed. The purpose of the society was to improve the wretched conditions of the people.

Many important public institutions of the present day owe their origins to the RDS:


the National Botanic Gardens (Glasnevin),
the National College of Art and Design,
the Dublin Veterinary College,
the National Library,
the National Gallery,
and the National Museum.

The Society made extensive additions to the house, most notably the lecture theatre, later to become the Dáil Chamber.

A number of historic events took place in Leinster House. The first balloon ascent in Ireland was made in July 1783 by Richard Crosbie from Leinster Lawn. The Great Industrial Exhibition was opened on Leinster Lawn on 12 May 1853.

After the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, the Government secured a part of Leinster House for parliamentary use. The entire building was acquired by the State in 1924.

Today, Leinster House is the seat of the two Houses of the Oireachtas (National Parliament), comprising Dáil Éireann (the House of Representatives) and Seanad Éireann (the Senate).

The purpose which it now serves may put off to some distant time the "unhappy day" referred to in the inscription on the foundation stone, which in translation from the original Latin reads:


The house,
of which this stone is the foundation,
James, twentieth Earl of Kildare,
caused to be erected in Molesworth's field,
in the year of our Lord 1747.
Hence learn, whenever, in some unhappy day,
you light on the ruins of so great a mansion,
of what worth he was who built it,
and how frail all things are,
when such memorials of such men cannot outlive misfortune.
By Richard Castle, Architect



Kildare Street Entrance

Leinster House has two main entrances. The better known entrance is on Kildare Street. Viewed from here, to the left is the National Library with the National Museum to the right.

The original building comprises three storeys over a basement, is rectangular in shape, with a circular bow projecting on the north (Trinity College) end. All the ornamental parts and the Kildare Street front of Leinster House are of Portland stone. The greater part of the building is of Limestone from Ardbraccan, County Meath.








Members' Restaurant




Merrion Street Entrance

The official entrance is the Garden Front - the original main door of the building, where distinguished visitors are received.

This entrance faces across a broad lawn, Leinster Lawn, to Merrion Square. Viewed from here, to the left is the National Gallery with the Natural History Museum to the right.

A number of Monuments and memorials are located in the garden of Leinster House. They include the obelisk raised to the first Executive Council (Government) of the Irish Free State and plaques commemorating Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and Kevin O'Higgins.






Entrance Hall

Portraits of two of the leading soldiers and statesmen from the 1916-22 period, Michael Collins and Cathal Brugha, hang on opposite walls. An original framed copy of the Easter 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, hangs in the entrance hall.






The Dáil Chamber

The Dáil Chamber was originally the lecture theatre of the Royal Dublin Society. The room is octagonal in shape and its original seating capacity was 700. Little alteration was needed to adapt it for parliamentary purposes - the floor was raised and the seating capacity reduced.






Dáil staircase






The Seanad Chamber

Originally the Seanad Chamber was used as a ballroom when owned by the Duke of Leinster, its proportions are the same as those of the library underneath on the ground floor. The walls of the chamber are plain, reflecting its use by the Royal Dublin Society as a picture gallery.








The Library

This elegant room was originally the dining room of the Fitzgerald family. The library extends the width of the building. overlooking the lawn at one end and the courtyard at the other.

Two fine marble fireplaces with the arms of the Royal Dublin Society in their hearths adorn the library.

Preserved in a case above one fireplace is the ruler used by Speaker John Foster (b. 1740, d. 1828), the last Speaker (1785-1800) of the House of Commons, of the pre-Union Irish Parliament (c.1264*-1800), which met at Parliament House, College Green, Dublin (the first purpose built Parliament House in the world, constructed between 1729 and 1739, now the Bank of Ireland).




Leinster House 2000 (latest extension to the building...notice the garden in the first pic)









Committee Room

[JoseRodolfo]

edit

[DamienK]

7.5/10

[andypandy]

9/10 Great to see these pictures !!!

[Kampflamm]

[Phobos]

8/10
elegant building

[Fabio]

8/10

it looks nice

[forvine]

7.5/10

[Sinjin P.]

9/10

[Mosaic]

8/10

[marpa]

8/10

[gutooo]

8/10

[delmaule]

8/10

[erbse]

Gorgeous parliament rooms, dull exterior. But the fine interior architecture made it for me, so let's say 8.5

[LMCA1990]

8.5/10

[SYDNEYAHOLIC]

Nicely done but not too special.

7.5/10

[roen]

9/10

[Astralis]

5/10

[W!CKED]

8/10

[Nikkodemo]

8/10