First National Museum of Ireland Competition

The results of the architectural competition to build a National Museum for Dublin led to a backlash which had the initial results set aside to the dismay of the architects who had entered. A second competition was held.

“The Dublin Royal Institute of Architects has suddenly discovered that the sum mentioned in the instructions for the proposed museum is inadequate to produce a building worthy of the purpose. How much should be advanced is not stated.
Considering that Kildare Street, where the museum is to be located, is not one of the principal streets in the city, and that the building will generally be visited at night by art students and craftsmen, the sum of 110,000 is more suggestive of liberality than stinginess, especially when it is known that the decoration and furnishing of the museum and library will entail further expenditure under a new grant. The people of Edinburgh have somehow contrived to make profitable use of a museum that has cost the country a smaller sum. The objections that are raised against the arrangements will of course embarrass architects in England who are disposed to take part in the competition. They find the societies that are to use the building professing to be dissatisfied with the division of the space, their brethren in Dublin say the building is an impossibility unless there is an undefined amount of money forthcoming, and the Dublin newspapers, which create what is called public opinion in Ireland, are preparing the way for indignation meetings when the designs arrive in Dublin. Encouraged by their success in the first competition, when they monopolised the prizes, English architects might be indifferent to local agitation, but they cannot forget that the Government once, succumbed to clamour, and may do so again. In fact, it may be said that the Irish genius for perplexing things has prevailed and has added new risks to the competition system.

The Dublin architects also consider “that the late competition was not satisfactory in the matter of an independent architectural assessor not having been engaged, as in other late important competitions; and that the result cannot be satisfactory to architects under the arrangements proposed as intimated in Mr. Courtney’s letter of June 26, 1883.” But for an architectural assessor there could be no better man than Mr. McCurdy, who was one of the five Irishmen who selected the designs in the last competition. His practice extends back for a great many years, and thus he should be more qualified than a stranger to understand what is and what is not suited for Dublin. Sir ROBERT KANE, who was another member of the Irish committee, has been teaching in museums and Super intending them for nearly half a century. Would an architectural assessor from England have been more likely to select Irish designs It is also forgotten by the Dublin Institute that architectural assessors do not always give general satisfaction. There has been much grumbling at the awards in Glasgow, Birkenhead, Birmingham, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Hawick, and other places, where there were no committees of selection.” The Architect, October 27 1883.