Mansion House, Dublin

The Mansion House (Irish: Teach an Ard-Mhéara) is a house on Dawson Street, Dublin, which has been the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin since 1715, and was also the meeting place of the Dáil Éireann from 1919 until 1922.

Mansion House
Teach an Ard-Mhéara
Mansion House in 2015
Location within Central Dublin
General information
Type	Official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin
Architectural style	Queen Anne (original house)
Location	Dawson Street, Dublin 2, D02 AF30
Coordinates	53°20′25″N 06°15′28″W / 53.34028°N 6.25778°W / 53.34028; -6.25778
Completed	1710
Inaugurated	1715
Owner	Dublin City Council

History

The Mansion House was built in 1710 by the merchant and property developer Joshua Dawson, after whom Dawson Street is named. It was constructed on a piece of poor quality marshy land outside the medieval city walls which was acquired by Dawson in 1705.^[1]

Dublin Corporation purchased the house in 1715 for assignment as the official residence of the Lord Mayor. It retains this purpose to this day.

In 1821, the Round Room was built in order to receive King George IV.,^[2] while the distinctive metal portico over the main door was erected for the visit of Queen Victoria in 1900.

The First Dáil assembled in the Round Room on 21 January 1919 to proclaim the Irish Declaration of Independence. Two years later, in 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was ratified in the same location.^[2]

In the 1930s and 1940s, plans were made to demolish the building, and all other buildings on the block on which it is located (which covered an area on Dawson Street, Molesworth Street, Kildare Street and the north side of St. Stephen's Green), to enable the building of a new Dublin City Hall. However the decision of the Government to erect a new Department of Industry and Commerce on a site on the same block, on Kildare Street, led to the abandonment of the plans.

On 21 January 1969, a special fiftieth-anniversary joint session of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann assembled in the Round Room and was addressed by the then President of Ireland, Éamon de Valera.

In August 2006, the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force claimed they had planted a bomb in the Mansion House in 1981, in an attempt to wipe out the Sinn Féin leadership at their party conference of that year.^[3] The claim led to a security alert at the house, as the Garda Siochana and army searched for a 25-year-old bomb, but none was found.^[4]

On 21 January 2019, the one-hundredth anniversary of the First Dáil, another special joint session of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann was held in the Round Room and was again addressed by the Irish President. This time, the President was Michael D. Higgins.

 

Lord Mayors House, Dublin taken from Charles Brooking's map of Dublin in 1728.

Occupants

Its most famous occupants included Lord Mayors:

• Daniel O'Connell, nineteenth-century nationalist leader
• Alfie Byrne (1930s), longest serving Lord Mayor in the 800-year history of the office
• Jim Mitchell (1976–77), the youngest Lord Mayor of Dublin, aged 29, in the history of the office

•  

  First Dáil Éireann at the Mansion House 21 January 1919.

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  Crowd outside Mansion House ahead of War of Independence truce 8 July 1921

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  Dáil Éireann meeting in the Mansion House, August 1921.

References

1. "The Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin 2". Buildings of Ireland. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
2. "Venue History". Conference & Events Venue and the Mansion House. from the original on 16 November 2018. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
3. Rowan, Brian (31 August 2006). "UVF Sinn Fein massacre plot". The Belfast Telegraph. from the original on 25 September 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
4. "Search at Mansion House is completed". RTÉ News. 31 August 2006. from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2006.

External links

• Mayoral info website
• Mansion House Dublin Website

 

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