The Mansion House ( ga, Teach an Ard-Mhéara) is a house on Dawson Street,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, which has been the

official residence An official residence is the residence of a head of state, head of government, governor, religious leader, leaders of international organizations, or other senior figure. It may be the same place where they conduct their work-related functions. ...

of the

Lord Mayor of Dublin The Lord Mayor of Dublin ( ga, Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the honorary title of the chairperson ( ga, Cathaoirleach, links=no ) of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. Th ...

since 1715, and was also the meeting place of the Dáil Éireann from 1919 until 1922.

History

The Mansion House was built in 1710 by the merchant and property developer Joshua Dawson, after whom Dawson Street is named. It was constructed on a piece of poor quality marshy land outside the medieval city walls which was acquired by Dawson in 1705.

Dublin Corporation Dublin Corporation (), known by generations of Dubliners simply as ''The Corpo'', is the former name of the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin since the 1100s. Significantly re-structured in 1660-1661, even more sign ...

purchased the house in 1715 for assignment as the official residence of the Lord Mayor. It retains this purpose to this day. In 1821, the Round Room was built in order to receive King

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

., while the distinctive metal portico over the main door was erected for the visit of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

in 1900. The

First Dáil The First Dáil ( ga, An Chéad Dáil) was Dáil Éireann as it convened from 1919 to 1921. It was the first meeting of the unicameral parliament of the revolutionary Irish Republic. In the December 1918 election to the Parliament of the United ...

assembled in the Round Room on 21 January 1919 to proclaim the

Irish Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence ( ga, Forógra na Saoirse, french: link=no, Déclaration d'Indépendance) was a document adopted by Dáil Éireann, the revolutionary parliament of the Irish Republic, at its first meeting in the Mansion House, D ...

. Two years later, in 1921, the

Anglo-Irish Treaty The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty ( ga , An Conradh Angla-Éireannach), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the ...

was ratified in the same location. In the 1930s and 1940s, plans were made to demolish the building, and all other buildings on the block on which it is located (which covered an area on Dawson Street, Molesworth Street,

Kildare Street Kildare Street () is a street in Dublin, Ireland. Location Kildare Street is close to the principal shopping area of Grafton Street and Dawson Street, to which it is joined by Molesworth Street. Trinity College lies at the north end of the ...

and the north side of St. Stephen's Green), to enable the building of a new Dublin City Hall. However the decision of the Government to erect a new Department of Industry and Commerce on a site on the same block, on

, led to the abandonment of the plans. On 21 January 1969, a special fiftieth-anniversary joint session of Dáil Éireann and

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house). It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its memb ...

assembled in the Round Room and was addressed by the then

President of Ireland The president of Ireland ( ga, Uachtarán na hÉireann) is the head of state of Ireland and the supreme commander of the Irish Defence Forces. The president holds office for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms.Constitu ...

Éamon de Valera Éamon de Valera (, ; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was a prominent Irish statesman and political leader. He served several terms as head of govern ...

. In August 2006, the loyalist paramilitary

Ulster Volunteer Force The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaign ...

claimed they had planted a bomb in the Mansion House in 1981, in an attempt to wipe out the

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

leadership at their party conference of that year. The claim led to a security alert at the house, as the Garda Siochana and army searched for a 25-year-old bomb, but none was found. 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 was

Michael D. Higgins Michael Daniel Higgins ( ga, Mícheál Dónal Ó hUigínn; born 18 April 1941) is an Irish politician, poet, sociologist, and broadcaster, who has served as the ninth president of Ireland since November 2011. Entering national politics throug ...

Occupants

Its most famous occupants included Lord Mayors: *

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

, nineteenth-century nationalist leader * Alfie Byrne (1930s), longest serving Lord Mayor in the 800-year history of the office * Jim Mitchell (1976–77), the youngest Lord Mayor of Dublin, aged 29, in the history of the office File:First dail eireann 1919.jpg, First Dáil Éireann at the Mansion House 21 January 1919. File:Crowd at Mansion House Dublin ahead of War of Independence truce July 8 1921.jpg, Crowd outside Mansion House ahead of War of Independence truce 8 July 1921 File:Dáil Éireann meeting in the Mansion House, August, 1921 (17068860698).jpg, Dáil Éireann meeting in the Mansion House, August 1921.

References

External links

Mayoral info website

Mansion House Dublin Website
{{Authority control 1710 architecture 1710 establishments in Ireland Buildings and structures in Dublin (city) Government buildings in the Republic of Ireland Houses completed in 1710 Mayors' mansions Official residences in the Republic of Ireland