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Meet the team who installed the fixed Trinity College Front Gate

The 140-year-old gate was damaged during an early-morning incident in April.

TWO MONTHS AFTER a car driven by a 68-year-old man careened into it, the Front Gate of Trinity College is back in business.

And you can thank these guys for their role in installing it:

Trinity’s Front Gate Mark Corcoran, Mark Money, Colm Guturie, Jonney King and Ian Picket from Dunwoody & Dobson. Paul Sharp / Sharppix Paul Sharp / Sharppix / Sharppix

The brand new gate is a far cry from April 2, at 6.30am, when it was left looking like this:

img_20140402_072712-310x415-2-310x415 Stephen Coyle Stephen Coyle

The Front Gate was erected in the early 1870s during refurbishment in the College, replacing the original 1759 gates.

Trinity Front of College before damage Before the damage Paul Sharp / Sharppix Paul Sharp / Sharppix / Sharppix

But an early-morning drive by a 68-year-old man led to their premature removal. He was subsequently arrested by gardaí.

Thankfully, the damage didn’t mean the gate was written off.

Trinity’s Front Gate Paul Sharp / Sharppix Paul Sharp / Sharppix / Sharppix

Craftsmen from the Trinity College Buildings Maintenance Department took down the damaged wooden gate, bringing it to the joinery workshops of Dunwoody & Dobson, who are specialist heritage building contractors.

Trinity’s Front Gate Paul Sharp / Sharppix Paul Sharp / Sharppix / Sharppix

They sourced matching timber for the gate, and used this to repair or replace the damaged sections of framing and panels.

Trinity’s Front Gate PAUL SHARP PAUL SHARP

They also replaced the original door frames with new oak posts that were re-made to the same design.

Notice the change in colour? That’s because the surface finish of the remaining timber was stripped back to bare wood.

photo 1 (6) Aoife Barry / TheJournal.ie Aoife Barry / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

To finish off the job, the entire gate was French polished.

The gate was hung in seven pieces this week, which is why the front gate was blocked off to pedestrians for a few days (they also fixed the cobbled stones outside the main gate while they were at it).

Trinity’s Front Gate Paul Sharp / Sharppix Paul Sharp / Sharppix / Sharppix

Read: Trinity College Dublin’s Front Gate is to be repaired this week>

Read: Car driven by 68-year-old crashes into the front gate of Trinity College>

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Aoife Barry
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