Kildare Street () is a street in
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
,
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
.
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 street while
St Stephen's Green
St Stephen's Green () is a garden square and public park located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current landscape of the park was designed by William Sheppard. It was officially re-opened to the public on Tuesday, 27 July 1880 by ...
is at the southern end, with the well-known
Shelbourne Hotel on the eastern corner.
History
Kildare Street is named after
James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster and 20th Earl of Kildare, who built
Leinster House
Leinster House () is the seat of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Originally, it was the ducal palace of the Duke of Leinster, Dukes of Leinster.
Since 1922, it has been a complex of buildings which houses Oirea ...
. The street was previously known as Coote Street up to 1753, earlier as Coote Lane, with the area was historically known as Molesworth fields or "lands of Tib and Tom".
In 1972, in advance of Ireland joining the then
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...
the then
Chief Justice, and later
President of Ireland
The president of Ireland () is the head of state of Republic of Ireland, Ireland and the supreme commander of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Irish Defence Forces. The presidency is a predominantly figurehead, ceremonial institution, serving as ...
,
Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh
Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (; 12 February 1911 – 21 March 1978) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician, judge and barrister who served as the president of Ireland from December 1974 to October 1976.
His birth name was registered in English as ' ...
wrote to the
Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Patrick Hillery
Patrick John Hillery (; 2 May 1923 – 12 April 2008) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as the sixth president of Ireland from December 1976 to December 1990. He also served as vice-president of the European Commission and Europea ...
, also later
President of Ireland
The president of Ireland () is the head of state of Republic of Ireland, Ireland and the supreme commander of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Irish Defence Forces. The presidency is a predominantly figurehead, ceremonial institution, serving as ...
, seeking for the street to be renamed Rue de l'Europe.
Architecture
On the corner with Leinster Street is the former
Kildare Street Club, which before the
partition of Ireland
The Partition of Ireland () was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK) divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland (the area today known as the R ...
was at the heart of the
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...
Protestant Ascendancy
The Protestant Ascendancy (also known as the Ascendancy) was the sociopolitical and economical domination of Ireland between the 17th and early 20th centuries by a small Anglicanism, Anglican ruling class, whose members consisted of landowners, ...
. The building now houses the Dublin offices of
Alliance française
(; "French Alliance", stylised as ''af'') is an international organization that aims to promote the French language and francophone culture around the world. Created in Paris on 21 July 1883 under the name ''Alliance française pour la propa ...
.
Some Irish government departments have their offices on this street but Leinster House, the current seat of the
Oireachtas
The Oireachtas ( ; ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of the president of Ireland and the two houses of the Oireachtas (): a house ...
(Irish parliament), built by
Richard Cassels in 1745 is Kildare Street's most important building.
The
National Library of Ireland
The National Library of Ireland (NLI; ) is Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The mission of the National Library of Ireland is "To collect, preserve, promote and make accessible the ...
and the Archaeology branch of the
National Museum of Ireland
The National Museum of Ireland () is Ireland's leading museum institution, with a strong emphasis on national and some international archaeology, Irish history, Irish art, culture, and natural history. It has three branches in Dublin, the arch ...
are located on either side of the Leinster House and were built in 1885.
The 1935 Department of Industry and Commerce government buildings are a rare and largely unaltered Art Deco public building. The building features relief sculptures by
Gabriel Hayes.
In 1969, the Irish government announced it would be building the largest office block built in Dublin to that date on a plot of land on Kildare Place behind the
Shelbourne Hotel. The plan was to build an 8-storey block providing the
Department of Agriculture
An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...
with 4 acres of office space. Named Agriculture House, it was designed by Stephenson Gibney and Associates. It is constructed using Armagh limestone aggregate which helped the building sit in its surroundings.
See also
*
List of streets and squares in Dublin
This is a list of notable streets and squares in Dublin, Ireland.
__NOTOC__
References Notes
Sources
*
External linksStreetnames of DublinaArchiseekArchitecture of Ireland– English-Irish list of Dublin street names aLeathanach baile Sh ...
References
External links
Buildings in Kildare Street
{{Streets in Dublin city, state=autocollapse
Streets in Dublin (city)
St Stephen's Green