Take a look at this curving, columned building that looks like a temple. It is the old Irish Parliament House, the world's first building designed specifically for a two-chamber parliament, with a House of Commons and a House of Lords.

1An architect in Parliament

It was designed by Edward Lovett Pearce, an architect who was also an MP. The foundation stone was laid on 3 February 1729, and the building was completed in the 1730s, after Pearce's death in 1733. Between 1782 and 1789 James Gandon added the Lords' portico facing Westmoreland Street. The blind, windowless screen walls came later, to tie the different parts of the building together.

2The end of a parliament

The Parliament of the Kingdom of Ireland sat here for much of the 18th century. In 1782, under Henry Grattan, it won greater independence from London. But after the 1798 rebellion the British government pushed through the Act of Union, and in 1800 the parliament voted itself out of existence. From 1 January 1801, Ireland was ruled from Westminster.

In 1803 the Bank of Ireland bought the building, on condition, so the story goes, that it could never again be used as a parliament.

The old House of Lords chamber survives inside. The Commons chamber became the bank's main banking hall.

3What to look for

  • The three statues on the portico: Hibernia, Fidelity and Commerce.
  • The windowless walls, which give the building the air of a classical fortress.
  • The statue of Henry Grattan, in the middle of College Green, facing his parliament.

Documented

The foundation stone was laid in 1729, the parliament was abolished by the Act of Union of 1800 and the Bank of Ireland bought the building in 1803.

Oral tradition

The supposed condition that the building should never house a parliament again is an oft-repeated explanation, not a confirmed fact.

Sources and credits

Bank of Ireland, history of the College Green building; Edward McParland, Public Architecture in Ireland 1680–1760 (Yale University Press, 2001); Dictionary of Irish Architects (Irish Architectural Archive), entry for Edward Lovett Pearce.

Photos:

  • Curved colonnade of the old Irish Parliament House, now the Bank of Ireland, on College Green: dronepicr, CC BY 2.0.

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