Leinster House

“With the setting up of the Irish Free State, part of Leinster House was secured for parliament”

Speaker’s Corner
Michael Duffy

THE revolving door on the Kildare Street entrance to Leinster House is at its busiest on Wednesday when Dáil Éireann is a hive of activity and last Wednesday I and other journalists from Mayo were afforded the opportunity of a tour of one of Dublin’s most recognisable buildings.
Most of the TDs in the 30th Dáil have now settled into their offices after May’s election and it was an invitation by one of the new TDs, Ballina’s Dara Calleary, that saw us pay a visit to the corridor of powers.
Our day in the Dáil began with a visit to Deputy Calleary’s office which is located in the Fianna Fáil wing of the myriad of offices that occupy three floors of the newly-built section of Leinster House.
We were then treated to a video in the press conference centre which explained the history behind the building and how it eventually ended up housing the country’s parliament.
The house was originally known as Kildare House, named after James Fitzgerald, the Earl of Kildare, who commissioned it to be built between 1745 and 1747. Mr Fitzgerald set out to create the stateliest of Dublin Georgian mansions to reflect his eminent position in Irish society and his grand plan succeeded in rejuvenating the whole area, with many buildings sprouting up all around it. On becoming the Duke of Leinster in 1776 (Dublin and Kildare are in the province of Leinster), the house was renamed Leinster House.
It has been claimed that the house formed a model for the design of the White House. This claim is thought to 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, and studied architecture in Dublin, and consequently, he would have had an opportunity of studying the design of Leinster House.
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 society made extensive additions to the house, most notably the lecture theatre, later to become the Dáil chamber. 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.
On our tour of the building, our guide informed us that 26 groups had already been given the tour that day, mostly secondary school students who had come from the four corners of the country to visit the Dáil.
The chamber itself is a hugely impressive site and during our time listening to the ongoing debate, Minister for the Environment John Gormley was being grilled by opposition TDs.
We also paid to a visit to the Senate chamber in the company of former TD, and current senator, John Carty, who seems to have settled in well to his new surroundings.
While the Upper House receives much less coverage in the media, some of the more fiery debates can take place in the Senate and during our time in the viewing gallery, Mayo’s other senator, Paddy Burke, was in the Cathaoirleach’s seat, trying to keep control on some robust exchanges between Senator Terry Leyden and Jerry Buttimer.
We were also afforded the opportunity of visiting the Garden Room which is located on the Merrion Street side of the house. The entrance on this side of the house is only used when heads of state arrive and the Garden Room houses pictures of such luminaries as John F Kennedy and Tony Blair on their famous visits to the Dáil chamber. Our day concluded with a visit to the Dáil bar, where many of the deputies were relaxing after another hectic day.
Leinster House is certainly a hugely impressive building and the current 166 deputies are following in the footsteps of some illustrious predecessors.