Visit to
Dáil Éireann

by Frank Corr
Tuesday 24th Octoner 2006

On a sunny Tuesday morning in October, members of CAR mingled with politicians, lobbyists and constituents in the lobby of Buswells Hotel.

Like the majority of those present, they had business just across the road, where CAR was invited to visit Leinster House as guest of Senator Shane Ross.

Having cleared the friendly yet efficient security check, the group was met by Guides Irene McNamara together with Peter Daly who happened to have worked for many years in the motor trade.

Peter extended a 'Cead Mile Failte' to all and began to reveal to us the fascinating history of Leinster House, home of the Dáil and Seanad.

The history of the building 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.Ý In succeeding, he caused an unfashionable area of the city to become a desirable one. When he became the Duke of Leinster in 1776, the house was renamed Leinster House.

The designer of Leinster House was the architect Richard Cassels (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 in Washington, USA., 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. He studied architecture in Dublin, and consequently, would have had an opportunity of familiarising himself with 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. The Society made extensive additions to the house, most notably the lecture theatre, later to become the Dáil Chamber.

The first balloon ascent in Ireland was made in July 1783 by Richard Crosbie from Leinster Lawn and 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, comprising Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann.

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 houseof which this stone is the foundation, James, twentieth Earl of Kildare,caused to be erected in Molesworth's fieldin 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"

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.

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

This entrance faces across Leinster Lawn, to Merrion Square. A number of Monuments and memorials are located in the garden of Leinster House. They include the obelisk raised to the first Executive Council of the Irish Free State and plaques commemorating Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and Kevin O'Higgins. Portraits of two of the leading soldiers and statesmen from the 1916-22 period, Michael Collins and Cathal Brugha, hang on opposite walls of the Entrance Hall which also features a portrait of President Mary McAleese. A framed copy of the Easter 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic also hangs here.

Having spoken about the history of the house , Peter took us up to the D·il Chamber which 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 to accommodate 166 TDs. A dais in the centre of the Chamber is reserved for the Ceann Comhairle who brings the House to Order by ringing a bell.

This bell is a half size reproduction of the ancient bell of Lough Lene Castle, presented to D·il Šireann in 1931 by the widow of a former member of the House, Major Bryan Cooper.

The original bell was found at Castle Island, Lough Lene, Castlepollard, County Westmeath in 1881 and is now in the National Museum. We were shown where the TDs from different parties sit, and the desks used for electronic voting as well as the lobbies through which TDs pass when they are voting 'by division'. 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 and air conditioning has only recently been installed. The Cathaoirleach of the Seanad also has a bell which stands on his table during sittings. It was first placed there for the sitting of 6th March 1940. This bell is a reproduction in somewhat less than half size of a bronze bell formerly known as the Clog Beannaighthe (blessed bell) and now more generally as the Bell of Armagh.

Our next stop was The Library, an elegant room which 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. 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).

Corridors linking the various rooms are hung with portraits of the Ceann Comhairle and Cathaoirleachs of previous Dáils and Seanads while a fine portrait of Countess Markievitz overlooks the stairwell at rhe end of which is the Flag of the 'Fighting 69th' New York Regiment which was presented by President John F. Kennedy.

CAR members found the tour fascinating and many were encouraged to visit Leinster House again when the Dáil or Seanad is sitting. A few, including Bob Waddell, are regular visitors to the Chamber.

Bob Prole, on our behalf, thanked Senator Shane Ross for arranging the tour and we all posed with the Senator for a 'family picture' before returning to Buswells.

CAR members who would like to learn more about Leinster House should look out for the following books:
Tithe an Oireachtas
The Irish Parliament
Democracy at Work,
The Stationery Office, Dublin (1996)

Leinster House
Seat of Dáil Éireann Seanad Éireann,
John R. Tobin, Clerk of Seanad Éireann,
The Stationery Office Dublin (1985)

Leinster House
1744 - 2000 An Architectural History
David J. Griffin and Caroline Pegum

The Irish Architectural Archive, 73 Merrion Square, Dublin 2
in association with
The Office of Public Works, 51 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2 (2000)