Leinster House

Leinster House
Teach Laighean
Main façade of Leinster House in August 2013
Location of Leinster House inDublin
General information
Architectural style	Georgian,Palladian
Location	Kildare Street,Dublin,Ireland
Coordinates	53.34055°N 6.254021°W/53.34055; -6.254021
Current tenants	Oireachtas
Construction started	1745
Completed	1748
Technical details
Material	Ardbraccanlimestone
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Richard Cassels
Developer	James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster

Leinster House(Irish:Teach Laighean) is the seat of theOireachtas,the parliament ofIreland.Originally, it was the ducal palace of theDukes of Leinster.Since 1922, it has been a complex of buildings of which the former ducal palace is the core, which houseOireachtas Éireann,its members and staff. The most recognisable part of the complex, and the "public face" of Leinster House continues to be the former ducal palace at the core of the complex.

Ducal palace

Leinster House was the formerducalresidence inDublinof theDuke of Leinster,and since 1922 has served as the parliament building of theIrish Free State,the predecessor of the modern Irish state, before which it functioned as the headquarters of theRoyal Dublin Society.The society's famous Dublin Spring Show and Dublin Horse Show were held on its Leinster Lawn, facingMerrion Square.The building is the meeting place ofDáil ÉireannandSeanad Éireann,the two houses of theOireachtas,and as such the term 'Leinster House' has become ametonymfor Irish political activities.

From home of a parliamentarian to home of a parliament

Ireland's parliament over the centuries had met in a number of locations, most notably in theIrish Houses of ParliamentatCollege Green,next toTrinity College Dublin.Its medieval parliament consisted of two Houses, aHouse of Commonsand aHouse of Lords.Ireland's senior peer, the Earl of Kildare, had a seat in the Lords. Like all the aristocrats of the period, for the duration of theSocial Seasonand parliamentary sessions, he and his family resided in state in a Dublin residence. (For the rest of the year, they used a number of country residences, notablyFrescati HouseinBlackrock.)

Leinster House in 1911

From the late eighteenth century Leinster House (then calledKildare House) was the Earl's official Dublin residence. When it was first built in 1745–48 byJames FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare,it was located on the unfashionable and isolated south side of the city, far from the main locations of aristocratic residences, namely Rutland Square (nowParnell Square) andMountjoy Square.The Earl predicted that others would follow; in succeeding decades Merrion Square andFitzwilliam Squarebecame the primary location of residences of the aristocracy, with many of their northside residences being sold (many subsequently deteriorating and ending up as slums). The building itself was designed by architectRichard Casselswhile some of the later elements and interior were designed byIsaac Ware.

Leinster House, view fromKildare Street,Dublin

In the history of aristocratic residences in Dublin, no other mansion matched Kildare House for its sheer size or status. When the Earl was made the firstDuke of Leinsterin 1766, the family's Dublin residence was renamed Leinster House.Its first and second floors were used as the floor model for theWhite Houseby Irish architectJames Hoban,while the house itself was used as a model for the original stone-cut White House exterior.

One famous member of the family who occasionally resided in Leinster House wasLord Edward FitzGerald,who became involved with Irish nationalism during the1798 Rebellion,which cost him his life. With the passage of theAct of Unionin 1800, Ireland ceased to have its own parliament. Without a House of Lords to attend, increasing numbers of aristocrats stopped coming to Dublin, selling off their Dublin residences, in many cases to buy residences in London, where the new united parliament met.

RDS headquarters 1815–1922

The 3rd Duke of Leinster sold Leinster House in 1815 to theRoyal Dublin Society.In 1853 theGreat Industrial Exhibitionwas hosted in its grounds.At the end of the nineteenth century, two new wings were added, to house theNational Library of Irelandand theNational Museum of Ireland.TheNatural History Museumwas built on the site. Part of this scheme intended to re-clad the house in more attractive Portland stone and extend the portico outwards (as opposed to being attached). This was not undertaken.

Oireachtas from 1922

Dáil Chamber, 2008

TheAnglo-Irish Treatyof 1921 provided for the creation of a self-governing Irishdominion,to be called the Irish Free State. As plans were made to bring the new state into being, the Provisional Government underW. T. Cosgravesought a temporary venue for the meetings of the new Chamber of DeputiesDáil Éireannand SenateSeanad Éireann.Plans were made to turnRoyal Hospital Kilmainham,an eighteenth-century former soldiers' home in extensive parklands, into a full-time Parliament House. However, as it was still under the control of theBritish Army,who had yet to withdraw from it, and the newGovernor-General of the Irish Free Statewas due to deliver the Speech from the Throne opening parliament within weeks, Michael Collins decided to hire the Leinster House complex for use from September 1922 as a temporary Dáil chamber as it housed a large lecture theatre that could easily be adapted to the needs of the Oireachtas.

Former monument to Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith on Leinster Lawn, shown here in 1923 and removed in 1939

In 1924, due to financial constraints, plans to turn the Royal Hospital into a parliament house were abandoned; Leinster House, instead becoming the chapel of democracy, was bought,pending the provision of a proper parliament house at some stage in the future. A new Senate or Seanad chamber was created in the Duke's old ballroom, while wings from the neighbouringRoyal College of Sciencewere taken over and used as Government Buildings. The entire Royal College of Science, which by then had been merged withUniversity College Dublin,was subsequently taken over in 1990 and turned into state of the art Government Buildings. Both the National Library and National Museum wings next to Leinster House remain used by as a library and museum and are not attached to the parliamentary complex. While plans were often made to provide a brand-new parliament house (sites considered included thePhoenix Parkand theCustom House), the Oireachtas has remained permanently located in Leinster House.

Since then, a number of extensions have been added, most recently in 2000, to provide adequate office space for 166TDs,60 senators, members of the press and other staff. Among the world leaders who have visited Leinster House to addressjoint sessions of the Oireachtasare U.S. presidentsJohn F. Kennedy,Ronald ReaganandBill Clinton;British Prime MinisterTony Blair;Australian prime ministersBob Hawke,Paul Keating,andJohn Howard;and French PresidentFrançois Mitterrand.

The statue of Prince Albert

Cenotaph dedicated to the leaders of Irish independence

A number of monuments stand, or have stood, around Leinster House. Its Kildare Street frontage used to be dominated byQueen Victoria,a large seated bronze statue byJohn Hughes,first unveiled byKing Edward VIIin 1908. Considering it inappropriate to have the British Queen overlooking the Irish parliament it was relocated to theRoyal Hospital Kilmainhamin 1948, as part of moves by the Irish state towardsdeclaring a Republic.It was re-erected in 1987 in front of theQueen Victoria BuildinginSydney,Australia. Facing the garden front on its Merrion Square side, stands a large triangular monument commemorating three founding figures of Irish independence,President of Dáil ÉireannArthur Griffith,who died in 1922,Michael Collins,who was shot and killed in an ambush by anti-treaty forces in 1922, andKevin O'Higgins,the Chairman of the Provisional Government and the Vice-President of the Executive Council (deputy prime minister), who was assassinated in 1927. Another statue commemorates the Prince Consort,Prince Albert,husband of Queen Victoria, who held his major Irish Exhibition on Leinster Lawn in the 1850s.

Extensions

The main building has undergone regular extensions fromVictoriantimes, through to a major extension to create offices for TDs in the 1960s, to most recently the building ofLeinster House 2000,a new block of offices built to the north of the original ducal palace.

The main extensions are:

• the Victorian additions to the complex which contain the Dáil Chamber
• a 1930s addition which housesLabour PartyTDs and Senators
• the so-calledBlock 66a five-storey office block which was built circa 1966 and which housesFine GaelTDs and senators, with two restaurants and two bars at ground-floor level and which houses the office suite of the leader of the largest party in the Oireachtas (currently Fianna Fáil) and the party's meeting rooms.

One of the bars is for visitors while the other is reserved for parliamentarians, theteachtaí dálaand senators.

• Leinster House 2000,a new wing erected in 2000, which houses members of all parties, committee rooms and contains the office suites of the leaders of Labour andFianna Fáil
• some modern offices acrossKildare StreetinKildare House
• the top floors ofAgriculture House,the Department of Agriculture building which on those floors house offices for independent TDs and independent senators
• offices onMolesworth Streetwhich are used also by some members of the Oireachtas, most notably the office provided for formertaoisigh.

Leinster House 2000complex

To facilitate the building of Leinster House 2000, and so the temporary closure of the parking spaces at the Kildare Street side of Leinster House which was needed for access to the new wing's site by builders, Leinster Lawn on the Merrion Square side of the building was partially turned into a temporary car park.

Though the Kildare Street side car park was restored for use quickly, a considerable increase in staff numbers and media numbers working in the Leinster House required that the temporary car park on Leinster Lawn remain in use. Plans to replace parking at both sides of Leinster House with an underground car park fell through. Despite this the lawn on the Leinster House side has been reinstated, though not to the same specifications as the original which has led to some anger from conservationists.

Safety in the building

The entrance gate

Victorian-era extension

A commissioned report delivered to theCeann Comhairle's office in 2008 cast serious doubts on the safety of Leinster House without major remedial work. Warning that the building presented a risk to the safety and health of occupants and the public, the report outlined nine serious risks to the building, due to a combination of factors, including:

• the age of the building
• renovations over the centuries to the ducal palace made by its various owners which were substandard
• significant overloading of floors on upper levels
• inadequate and outdated wiring

If repairs were not carried out it outlined as a worst-case scenario "The facility is damaged/contaminated beyond habitable use. Most items/assets are lost, destroyed or damaged beyond repair/restoration."

The Irish government chose not to close the building for immediate renovation, partly due to cost and partly due to the difficulty the Oireachtas would have in functioning, given that Leinster House is a central point through which members and staff have to travel to access other parts of the complex. Instead, an ongoing process of renovation was commenced, with the upper floor of the building cleared of journalists, due to the floor's overloading. The many journalists previously based on that floor were moved to parliamentary offices outside the complex on Molesworth Street.

Buildings modelled after Leinster House

• Charleston County Courthouse,Charleston, South Carolina
• White House,Washington, D.C.

Further reading

• David J. Griffin and Caroline Pegum,Leinster House 1744–2000 An Architectural History.The Irish Architectural Archive in association with The Office of Public Works (2000)

External links

• Leinster House Website
• Media related toLeinster Houseat Wikimedia Commons