Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BANK OF IRELAND
( 01-671 1488; College Green; 10am-4pm Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm Thu; all city centre)
A sweeping Pal-
ladian pile occupying one side of College Green, this magnificent building was the Irish
Parliament House until 1801 and is the first purpose-built parliament building in the
world. The original building, the central colonnaded section that distinguishes the present-
day structure, was designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce in 1729 and completed by James
Gandon in 1733.
When the parliament voted itself out of existence through the 1801 Act of Union, the
building was sold under the condition that the interior would be altered to prevent it ever
again being used as a debating chamber. It was a spiteful strike at Irish parliamentary as-
pirations, but while the central House of Commons was remodelled and offers little hint of
its former role, the smaller
House of Lords
(admission free) chamber survived and is much
more interesting. It has Irish oak woodwork, a mahogany longcase parliament clock and a
late-18th-century Dublin crystal chandelier. Its design was copied for the construction of
the original House of Representatives in Washington, DC, now the National Statuary Hall.
There are tours of the House of Lords (10.30am, 11.30am and 1.45pm Tuesday), by Dub-
lin historian and author Éamon MacThomás, which include a talk as much about Ireland
and life in general as the building itself, whose exterior was the inspiration for the British
Museum in London.
NOTABLE BUILDING
WHITEFRIARS STREET CARMELITE CHURCH
CHURCH
( 01-475 8821; 56 Aungier St; 8am-6.30pm Mon & Wed-Fri, 8am-9.30pm Tue, 8am-7pm Sat, 8am-7.30pm
Sun; 16, 19, 19A, 83 or 122 from Trinity College)
If you find yourself mulling over the timing of a
certain proposal - or know someone who needs some prompting - walk through the auto-
mated glass doors of this church and head for the remains of none other than St Valentine,
donated by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836.
The Carmelites returned to this site in 1827, when they re-established their former
church, which had been seized by Henry VIII in the 16th century. In the northeastern
corner is a 16th-century Flemish oak statue of the Virgin and Child, believed to be the
only wooden statue in Ireland to have escaped the Reformation unscathed.
CITY HALL
(
www.dublincity.ie
;
Castle St; adult/student/child €4/2/1.50; 10am-5.15pm Mon-Sat; all city centre)
One of
the architectural triumphs of the Dublin boom was the magnificent restoration of City
MUSEUM
