IT’S ONE OF the best known homes in Dublin and today it’s celebrating it’s 300th birthday.
Last night, Lord Mayor Christy Burke and several previous Lord Mayor’s of Dublin gathered for an anniversary reception, to celebrate the house’s rich history. (There was cake and all).
While you have probably walked past it a million times, there a few things you might not know about it.
1. Dublin’s Mansion House was built in 1715, that’s pretty old. It is actually older than the the Mansion House in Britain.
2. The council got a good deal as it was sold to them for just £3,500 (between €350,000 and €500,000 in today’s money). Prior to the purchase of the house the Lord Mayor of Dublin was given £100 annually from the British Monarchy to allow him to rent a house for entertaining.
Part of the sale agreement between Dublin Corporation included an annual rent of 40 shillings and an agreement to provide two fat capons (male hens) and a loaf of double refined sugar weighing six pounds at Christmas.
In return, it was agreed to build on an extra room to the house which could be used for civic receptions – the famous Oak Room.
3. It has some amazing rooms, one of which was built to receive a King. The Round Room at the Mansion House was built in 1821 to receive King George IV as it was deemed that there was no room grand enough in the city to receive royalty. It was in this room, in 1919, that the first Dail Eireann was held.
The Oak Room contains the coats of arms of all former lord mayors since Daniel O’Connell, in 1841. He was the first Roman Catholic Lord Mayor of Dublin since 1690.
4. The previous owner of the Mansion House was Joshua Dawson (whom Dawson Street is named after).
Dawson purchased a tract of land east of Grafton Street in 1705 which was described at the time as “a piece of marshy land without even a lane crossing it”. Within two years he had drained the ground and laid out Dawson Street. Construction started in 1705 and it was built to be a townhouse for Joshua Dawson, the developer of Dawson Street and Nassau Street.
Dawson was making a statement about his position and wealth in choosing the style of his townhouse with its Baroque forecourt and classical façade with regular and large windows, possibly modelled the design of Buckingham House (1706 but subsequently absorbed into Buckingham Palace).
5. It’s had some pretty famous guests over the years, including U2 and Mother Teresa.
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