Dublin Castle

Entry to the State Apartments

Dublin Castle has fulfilled a number of roles throughout its history. Originally built as a defensive fortification for the Norman city of Dublin, it later evolved into an official residence, used by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or Viceroy of Ireland, the representative of the Monarch. The second-in-command in the Dublin Castle administration, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, also had his offices there. Over the years parliament and certain law courts met at the castle before moving to new purpose-built venues. It also served as the base for a military garrison and later also intelligence services.

Upon the formation of the Irish Free State in December 1922, the castle temporarily assumed the role of the Four Courts, the legal complex badly damaged during the Civil War; this arrangement would last for a decade.

It was decided in 1938 that the inauguration of the first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, would take place in the castle, and the complex has been host to this ceremony ever since. The castle is also used for hosting official State visits as well as more informal foreign affairs engagements, State banquets, including that for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 2011, and Government policy launches. It also acts as the central base for Ireland's hosting of the European Presidency, approximately every 10 years. Two dedicated conference facilities, The Hibernia Conference Centre and The Printworks were installed for the European Presidencies of 1990 and 2013, and are made available for rental by the private sector too.

The castle's State Apartments and their associated collection of historic materials form an accredited museum, and the castle complex is also home to a Garda Síochána unit and the Garda Museum, some parts of the Office of Public Works, some functions of the Irish Revenue Commissioners – and the Revenue Museum – and the Chester Beatty Library.

Soldiers at Dublin Castle in 1830

Dublin Castle and Black Pool

The Record Tower, the sole surviving tower of the medieval castle dating from c. 1228. To its left is the Chapel Royal.

Dublin Castle was first founded as a major defensive work by Meiler Fitzhenry on the orders of King John of England in 1204,[3] sometime after the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169, when it was commanded that a castle be built with strong walls and good ditches for the defence of the city, the administration of justice, and the protection of the King's treasure.[4] Largely complete by 1230, the castle was of typical Norman courtyard design, with a central square without a keep, bounded on all sides by tall defensive walls and protected at each corner by a circular tower. Sited to the southeast of Norman Dublin, the castle formed one corner of the outer perimeter of the city, using the River Poddle as a natural means of defence along two of its sides. The city wall directly abutted the castle's northeast Powder Tower, extending north and westwards around the city before rejoining the castle at its southwestern Bermingham Tower. In 1620 the English-born judge Luke Gernon was greatly impressed by the wall: "a huge and mighty wall, foursquare, and of incredible thickness".[5] In the 17th century, the Earl of Arran described the Castle as "the worst castle in the worst situation in Christendom".[6]

The Poddle was diverted into the city through archways where the walls adjoined the castle, artificially flooding the moat of the fortress's city elevations. One of these archways and part of the wall survive buried underneath the 18th-century buildings, and are open for public viewing.[7]

Soldiers at Dublin Castle, c. 1905

Through the Middle Ages the wooden buildings within the castle square evolved and changed, the most significant addition being the Great Hall built of stone and timber, variously used as Parliament house, court of law and banqueting hall. The building survived until 1673, when it was damaged by fire and demolished shortly afterwards. The Court of Castle Chamber, the Irish counterpart to the English Star Chamber, sat in Dublin Castle in a room which was specially built for it about 1570. The Castle sustained severe fire damage in 1684. Extensive rebuilding transformed it from a medieval fortress to a Georgian palace. No trace of medieval buildings remains above ground level today, with the exception of the great Record Tower (c. 1228–1230); it is the sole surviving tower of the original fortification, its battlements an early 19th-century addition.[8]

In 1764, an English traveller named John Bush visited Dublin and had the following to say about the castle: "The Castle, as it is called from its having been the situation of one, I suppose, of which at present there are very few remains, is the residence of the lord lieutenant when in Ireland, but has very little of grandeur in its external appearance besides the large square court-yard, which it encloses. But the rooms, some of them, are large and elegant".[9]

United Irishmen General Joseph Holt, a participant in the 1798 Rising, was incarcerated in the Bermingham Tower before being transported to New South Wales in 1799.

In 1884 officers at the Castle were at the centre of a sensational homosexual scandal incited by the Irish Nationalist politician William O'Brien through his newspaper United Ireland.[10]

In 1907 the Irish Crown Jewels were stolen from the Castle. Suspicion fell upon the Officer of Arms, Sir Arthur Vicars, but rumours of his homosexuality and links to socially important gay men in London, may have compromised the investigation. The jewels have never been recovered.[11]

Plan of Dublin Castle and grounds with pedestrian entrance highlighted

Carved head of Saint Patrick on the Chapel Royal

Panorama

At the very beginning of the Easter Rising of 1916, a force of twenty-five Irish Citizen Army members were able to seize the entrance and guard room of the Castle before reinforcements for the small garrison arrived.[12] During the Anglo-Irish War the Castle was the nerve centre of the British effort against Irish separatism. On the night of Bloody Sunday in 1920, three Irish Republican Army members Dick McKee, Conor Clune and Peadar Clancy, were tortured and killed there.[13][14][15]

When the Irish Free State came into being in 1922, Dublin Castle ceased to function as the administrative seat. It served for some years as temporary Courts of Justice (the Four Courts, the home of the Irish courts' system, had been destroyed in 1922). After the courts vacated the premises, the Castle was used for state ceremonies. As President of the Executive Council, Éamon de Valera received credentials there from newly arrived ambassadors to Ireland on behalf of King George V in the 1930s. In 1938, Douglas Hyde was inaugurated as President of Ireland at the Castle. All inaugurations of subsequent presidents have taken place there since. President Erskine Hamilton Childers' lying-in-state took place there in November 1974, as did that of former President Éamon de Valera in September 1975.

The complex houses, among other things, some offices of the Revenue Commissioners, including a Stamping Office in a 20th-century building at the end of the Castle Yard. The modern office block was designed by Frank du Berry, a senior OPW architect, in the late 1960s. The design was denounced by many groups, citing the unsympathetic nature of the four-storey block and the placement, which disrupted the rectangular layout of the Castle. Among the groups that objected were the Irish Georgian Society, An Taisce, and the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. Construction began anyway in 1970.[25]

Some elements of the OPW are based in an old stables area, and some functions of the Garda Síochána are also based at the Castle.

The complex of buildings is usually open to the public, except during certain state functions. The crypt of the Chapel Royal is now used as an arts centre, and occasional concerts are held in the grounds of the Castle.

The castle complex also hosts the Chester Beatty Library, in a purpose-constructed facility, with a café, the Garda Museum, in the Treasury Building, and the Revenue Museum.

The former site of the "dark pool" on the Poddle was remodelled into a garden, with a water feature that commemorates fallen Gardaí, and a helipad.

Opposite the garden is a sculpture and plaque commemorating the volunteers of the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games.[26]

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  Panorama view of Dublin Castle showing from left to right, gateway to the Dubhlinn Gardens, Chapel Royal, Record Tower, gateway to the upper yard, Treasury Building, visitor reception centre, and Palace Street Gate
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  Panorama view. The upper yard of the Dublin Castle, Dublin, Republic of Ireland. The view shows, from left to right: Conference Centre, Bedford Hall flanked by the Gates of Fortitude and Justice, Revenue Commissioners, entranceway from the Chapel Royal/Record Tower yard, and finally States Apartments and Dubhlinn Tearooms.
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  Panorama view of the Dubhlinn Gardens, showing the Coach House (centre) and the Chester Beatty Library (right)

Dublin Castle is maintained and managed by the Office of Public Works (OPW).

The west part of the south outside wall of Dublin Castle includes these colourfully painted buildings, including the blue Bermingham Tower at far left.

• Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
• Chapel Royal
• Dublin Castle administration in Ireland
• List of castles in Ireland

Media related to Dublin Castle at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Official Tourist Board Website for Dublin
• Archiseek.com, entry on Dublin Castle (including pictures)