| Ennis Town Hall | |
|---|---|
Halla Baile Inse | |
.jpg) Ennis Town Hall | |
  Ennis Town Hall Location within County Clare | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Neoclassical style |
| Location | O'Connell Street,Ennis,Ireland |
| Coordinates | 52°50′33″N8°58′59″W / 52.8425°N 8.9831°W /52.8425; -8.9831 |
| Completed | c.1850 |
Ennis Town Hall (Irish:Halla Baile Inse) is a municipal building in O'Connell Street,Ennis,County Clare, Ireland. The building accommodated the offices of Ennis Urban District Council until 1965 but is now used as the banqueting suite of a local hotel.
In the mid-19th century civic leaders decided to commission a town hall for Ennis. The site they selected was occupied by the local police barracks which itself had been formed by converting the old county gaol.[1][2] In the early 19th century, the county gaol had been used as a holding facility for prisoners who were about to be transported to parts of Australia such asTasmania.[3] The new building was designed in theneoclassical style, built in brick with acement render and was completed in around 1850.[4]
The design involved a broadly symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto Jail Street (now O'Connell Street). The central and outer bays contained round headed doorways witharchivolts andkeystones, while the second and fourth bays contained segmental headed windows with archivolts and keystones. The first floor was fenestrated by six square-headed recessedsash windows witharchitraves and keystones. There was afrieze decorated by a series of barbedquatrefoils above the ground floor and a frieze decorated by a series ofroundels above the first floor. At roof level, there were prominenteaves supported bybrackets. Internally, the principal room was the assembly room on the first floor (now known as the Banner Room).[5]
Ennis was grantedtown commissioners under theTowns Improvement (Ireland) Act 1854, and the commissioners and their successors, theurban district council, formed under theLocal Government (Ireland) Act 1898, met in the town hall.[6] During theFirst World War, films were shown in the town hall: theBishop of Killaloe,Michael Fogarty, complained about the "pictures shown in the town hall", or as he put it, "in that hell shop".[7] The building also became an important venue for public events. The political leader,Éamon de Valera, was a regular visitor to the town hall. He gave a briefing in the town hall on the political situation just two days before the signing of theAnglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921.[8]
In 1963, the Regan family, who owned a town house at No. 1 Bindon Road, entered into an asset swap with the urban district council whereby the council acquired No. 1 Bindon Road for use as their new headquarters, and the Regan family acquired the town hall for use as a banqueting suite for the Old Ground Hotel, which they already owned and which was located just to the south of the town hall.[9] The Old Ground Hotel, and the town hall, subsequently changed hands three times being acquired by Kingston Windsor Hotels in 1967,Strand Hotels in 1970, and Flynn Hotel Group in 1995.[10]
The professional boxer,Muhammad Ali, having discovered that his maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ennis to the US in the 1860s,[11][12] toured the town and visited the town hall in September 2009.[13]
The contents of their report is not known, but two days following de Valera's speech in Ennis, the treaty was signed. One wonders if in that speech in Ennis, President de Valera was trying to minimise the blow to his audience.