THE OLD HOUSE IN COLLEGE GREEN

New Zealand Tablet, 20 July 1916, Page 12

THE OLD HOUSE IN COLLEGE GREEN

The following particulars of the old Irish Parliament House will be of special interest at the present time, when there is every prospect' of Home Rule be- - coming a practical reality : The foundation of the Irish Parliament House was laid by Lord Carteret, the then Viceroy of Ireland, in the year 1729, but it was not completed till ten years later, the cost of the structure being between £40,000 and £50,000. But as the original building was not sufficiently large to accommodate both the Lords and the Commons, a new extension leading to the House of Lords was added at the eastern end, fronting College street. This structure, leading towards Westmoreland street, and the door of which is now walled up, was the work of the famous architect, James Gandon, who among other Dublin buildings completed the erection of the handsome Four Courts after the death of the original designer, Mr. Cooley. The cost of this extension, made in 1775, came to £SOOO, and two years later a further extension reaching '"to Foster Place was designed and executed by Mr. Parker, architect, at a cost of £30,000 more. On the apex of the central building, in front, stands a wellexecuted figure of Hibernia, with a figure of Commerce on her left hand and Fidelity on her right; while on the eastern front, facing College street, is the figure of Fortitude, with Justice on her right hand and Liberty on her left. That old volume, The Picture of Dublin, remarks that ‘ the entablature of the central portico being continued round to the eastern front, exhibits an architectural impropriety, the columns of one being of the lonic, while the others are of the Corinthian order ; but this is not very obvious, from the great extent of the building, and from the shape, which does not admit of both porticos being seen together.’ Within the building are many spacious and splendid apartments, the former House of Lords remaining practically unaltered. The House of Commons was considered an extremely beautiful apartment, and some of the smaller rooms designed for other business hardly less so, the former Court of Requests (now given up to banking business) being a splendid apartment of very handsome design. In the House of Lords are two specimens of tapestry, brought from Holland, and extremely well executed ; one represents the Battle of the Boyne and the other the Siege of Derry. fa In the earlier years of its existence fires repeatedly place in the .building, one very disastrous one, which occurred in 1792, while the House was sitting, resulting in the entire demolition of the House of Commons, which, however, was afterwards built up on precisely the same style. To guard against similar dangers huge water tanks were set up, with quite an elaborate system of fire hose and engines'capable of inundating the whole building, if necessary. A fire occurring in 1804 was believed to be the work of incendiaries; and perhaps it is as much on this account as for the purpose

of guarding the coffers that the military guard was provided. There was also provided an armory, well supplied and arranged. The building stands , on an acre and a-half of ground, the grand front has a width of 147 feet, and for elegance of design is unrivalled. Yet oddly enough the name of the architect of the original design is uncertain. Some say the work was carried out under the inspection of Sir Edward Lovel Pearce, but the design is generally supposed to have been given by Cassells, who was also the architect of Leinster House in Kildare street and Merrion street. Among the most frequent visitors to the gallery of the old House of Commons were the students of Trinity College, whose gowns were in themselves sufficient passports to the hearing of the debates. Needless to say, however, the custom was much abused, and many unauthorised persons got admitted by the simple device of borrowing a student’s gown. The students ultimately lost their privilege through a too boisterous exhibition of cheering and applause after a speech of Grattan’s against the Government. Sir John Foster, the last Speaker of the House of Commons, ordered the student’s gallery to be cleared by a sergeant-at-arms and a posse of attendants. And as one of the students described it ‘We were pushed out in a heap without the slightest ceremony, and were never again _ suffered to enter- as privileged persons.’ Many a penitent -memorial was presented, and solemn promises were made of better manners in future, but Foster was inexorable. No students ever after found his gown a passport to the House, till the Union removed the Parliament and extinguished forever the hope of recovering the lost privilege.