Leinster House, National Museum & Library complex
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@Peter Fitz wrote:
If I recall, i think the flag pole is also nicely uplit which is a nice touch, though shame about the postage stamp sized tri-color that seems to be the state standard. Superquinn have the right idea 😉
The Superquinn flag in Sutton is like something you’d see floating over the DMZ…
Here’s the view of LH from the National Library cafe. Pity you can’t stroll across the courtyard between two of the country’s most important civic institutions. I’ve definitely started to come around to the idea of ejecting the Oireachtas from the campus. If the Seanad is abolished, Leinster House itself will be a parliament building in which no legislating is done. A uniquely Irish situation.
It would be wonderful to have Leinster House open for temporary exhibitions, lectures and evening events. The National Gallery, National Museum, National Library and Natural Galley could all be linked and accessed from within the one hub. The lawn would be a city treasure in the summer. And the Natural Museum would have some room behind it to be significantly enlarged without damaging the appearance of the original building. To say nothing of the space that would become available for the Library and Gallery.
You’re not going to see that day happening any time soon.
@fergalr wrote:
I’ve definitely started to come around to the idea of ejecting the Oireachtas from the campus. If the Seanad is abolished, Leinster House itself will be a parliament building in which no legislating is done. A uniquely Irish situation.
Abolish the Seanad, concentrate all power in one chamber, and before you can say, ‘somebody’s burned the Reichstag’, we just have one leader with slicked over hair, and we’re dive bombing the Isle of Man.
No, there must be other options, could we not keep them for heritage value, as an attraction, maybe thin out the numbers a bit by making new rules, make them wear togas or something, that would get rid of the less committed, but it should keep the stately plump one on board.
@fergalr wrote:
It would be wonderful to have Leinster House open for temporary exhibitions, lectures and evening events. The National Gallery, National Museum, National Library and Natural Galley could all be linked and accessed from within the one hub.
I think we’re back where we started with the great johnglas idea of building a new parliament building on Leinster Lawn and returning Leinster House to it’s Victorian role as the hub of an unrivalled cultural complex – still a great idea IMO!
@gunter wrote:
I think we’re back where we started with the great johnglas idea of building a new parliament building on Leinster Lawn and returning Leinster House to it’s Victorian role as the hub of an unrivalled cultural complex – still a great idea IMO!
But then we’d lose the lawn and the view of LH from Merrion Square.
Eject the National Concert Hall from Earlsfort Terrace and take over the large site for the Oireachtas.
Oh oh, and the NCH can move to the GPO as well! Perfect!
@GrahamH wrote:
Oh oh, and the NCH can move to the GPO as well! Perfect!
Lol, okay… so there might be a bit of Pass the Parcel to this. But the NCH should’ve had a purpose-built building years ago. Sure we could put it and the Abbey in the same complex.
If the railings in front of Leinster House were to be removed, where would they put the €1Million “Siopa” and all the Connemara Marble in the place. Sales of Kit Kats would plummet if our TDs had nowhere to go while taking a break. Fuk the national Library / Museum. There are issues of national importance at stake.
Carry on with this talk and we’ll be knocking Buswells next.
God forbid.
Hey Paul
Just spotted your post now. Where do you find all the Unbuilt proposals? Some of them really are gems. I’m slightly wistful that we didn’t actually build a few of them.
The new National Library Digital Photography archive is great. Some lovely shots of the House, minus cars and tarmac!
http://digital.nli.ie/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/glassplates&CISOPTR=14287&CISOBOX=1&REC=19
http://digital.nli.ie/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/glassplates&CISOPTR=31820&CISOBOX=1&REC=16
http://digital.nli.ie/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/glassplates&CISOPTR=25583&CISOBOX=1&REC=15
And a final absolute gem
http://digital.nli.ie/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/glassplates&CISOPTR=12699&CISOBOX=1&REC=2The problem is that the people that lead our country are largely teachers and solicitors, how can you possibly expect them to understand style, symmetry, elegance apart from actually running the country without bankrupting it!
Dublin is a very poor relation in European city terms, as Yeats said we are obsessed about our greasy till. Im afraid the only way we will ever get a city with beautiful buildings looked after carefully is if we emigrate.
@pulp wrote:
The problem is that the people that lead our country are largely teachers and solicitors, how can you possibly expect them to understand style, symmetry, elegance apart from actually running the country without bankrupting it!
Dublin is a very poor relation in European city terms, as Yeats said we are obsessed about our greasy till. Im afraid the only way we will ever get a city with beautiful buildings looked after carefully is if we emigrate.
It’s starting to worry me that fatalism and self-deprication are becoming the new Irish state of mind.
Today I noticed a statue I had never spotted before in Leinster Lawn (adjacent to the National Gallery). I am well aware of the sadly obscured bronze statue of Prince Albert, but there is another 19th century marble statue on the gallery side. Anyone know who this is of? Or what its details are?
I will try get a photo while passing tomorrow.
Dunno, is it the TH Parke statute in the third link from my last post?
Nope, it is actually in the Leinster House compound. Not the Gallery of Natural History Museum. It is tucked in against western exterior wall of the Gallery on Leinster Lawn, with politicians cars parked right up next to it. It is a marble statue about 12 feet high.
Even the police at the gate do not know what it is!
Any ideas?
Oireachtas website has a decent page on the artwork on the campus. It’s probably in there.
Checked the website, nothing there either I’m afraid.
Heres a photo. From sifting through a few old (pre-1922) books, its seems to match the description (and general location) of HM GEORGE III. A marble standing figure, by van Nost the younger, commissioned by the Earl of Northumberland I wonder?
I see one in dia.ie
CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, CORK HILL, ROYAL EXCHANGE
Date: 1765
Nature: Statue of George III, presented to merchants of Dublin by Duke of Northumberland, 1765.
Refs: J. Warburton, J. Whitelaw and R. Walsh, History of the City of Dublin (1818), I, 522; W.G. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists (1913), II, 484,487This looks like an interesting read
Journal of Historical Geography, 28, 4 (2002) 508±533
doi:10.1006/jhge.2002.0441The construction and destruction of a colonial
landscape: monuments to British monarchs in
Dublin before and after independence
Y. Whelanhttp://www.ggy.bris.ac.uk/personal/YvonneWhelan/HistoricalGeographyArtice.pdf
It suggests Robert Stewart according to a map in the article
@Paul Clerkin wrote:
I see one in dia.ie
CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, CORK HILL, ROYAL EXCHANGE
Date: 1765
Nature: Statue of George III, presented to merchants of Dublin by Duke of Northumberland, 1765.
Refs: J. Warburton, J. Whitelaw and R. Walsh, History of the City of Dublin (1818), I, 522; W.G. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists (1913), II, 484,487That was also a statue there. Apparently a magnificent edifice in brass sat between the columns in the Royal Exchange. But this is a different one. Could it be the lost Van Nost marble statue of George III
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