| Mansion House | |
|---|---|
Teach an Ard-Mhéara | |
 Mansion House in 2015 | |
  Location within Central Dublin | |
| General information | |
| Type | Official residence of theLord Mayor of Dublin |
| Architectural style | Queen Anne style (original house) |
| Location | Dawson Street, Dublin 2, D02 AF30 |
| Coordinates | 53°20′25″N06°15′28″W / 53.34028°N 6.25778°W /53.34028; -6.25778 |
| Completed | 1710 |
| Inaugurated | 1715 |
| Owner | Dublin City Council |
TheMansion House (Irish:Teach an Ard-Mhéara) is a house onDawson Street,Dublin, which has been theofficial residence of theLord Mayor of Dublin since 1715, and was also the meeting place of theDáil Éireann from 1919 until 1922.
The first dedicated mayoralty house was built in 1665 bySir Daniel Bellingham, 1st Baronet at the corner of Castle Street andFishamble Street.[1]
The modern Mansion House was later commissioned by the merchant and property developerJoshua Dawson. The site he selected was a piece of poor-quality marshy land outside the medieval city walls which he acquired in 1705. The building was designed in theQueen Anne style, built in brick with a stucco finish and was completed in 1710. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of seven bays facing onto Dawson Street. The central section of three bays, which was projected forward, featured an opening formed by a pair ofIonic order columns supporting anentablature. The other bays on the ground floor and all the bays on the first floor were fenestrated withsash windows with stone surrounds andwindow sills. At roof level, there was abalustradedparapet with amodillionedpediment above the central section.[2]
Dublin Corporation purchased the house in 1715 for assignment as the official residence of the Lord Mayor.[2] In 1821, the Round Room was built in order to receive KingGeorge IV,[3] while the stained glass window on the staircase was made by Joshua Clarke and Sons for the visit ofQueen Victoria in 1900.[4]
TheFirst Dáil assembled in the Round Room on 21 January 1919 to proclaim theIrish Declaration of Independence. Two years later, in 1921, theAnglo-Irish Treaty was ratified in the same location.[3]
In the 1930s, plans were made to demolish the building, and all other buildings on the block on which it is located (which covered an area onDawson Street,Molesworth Street,Kildare Street and the north side ofSt Stephen's Green), to enable the building of a newCity Hall.[3] However the decision of the Government to erect a new Department of Industry and Commerce on a site on the same block, onKildare Street, led to the abandonment of the plans.[5]
On 21 January 1969, a special fiftieth-anniversary joint session ofDáil Éireann andSeanad Éireann assembled in the Round Room and was addressed by the thenPresident of Ireland,Éamon de Valera.[6]
In August 2006, the loyalist paramilitaryUlster Volunteer Force claimed they had planted a bomb in the Mansion House in 1981, in an attempt to wipe out theSinn Féin leadership at their party conference of that year.[7] The claim led to a security alert at the house, as theGarda Síochána and army searched for a 25-year-old bomb, but none was found.[8]
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 wasMichael D. Higgins.[9][10]
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Its most famous occupants included Lord Mayors:
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