Áras an Uachtaráin
| Áras an Uachtaráin | |
|
County Dublin | |
|---|---|
 North rear facade | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | O12053568 |
| Location: | 53°21’35"N, 6°19’3"W |
| City: | Dublin |
| History | |
| Address: | Phoenix Park |
| Built 1751 | |
| By: | Nathaniel Clements, Francis Johnston, Jacob Owen, Decimus Burton |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | Government of Ireland |
Áras an Uachtaráin formerly the Viceregal Lodge, is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of Ireland. It is located off Chesterfield Avenue in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.
The building design was credited to amateur architect Nathaniel Clements but more likely guided by professionals (John Wood of Bath, Sir Edward Lovett Pearce and Richard Castle)[1] and completed around 1751 to 1757.
Origins
The original house was designed by park ranger and amateur architect, Nathaniel Clements, in the mid-eighteenth century. It was bought by the Crown in the 1780s to become the summer residence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. His official residence was in the Viceregal Apartments in Dublin Castle. The house in the park later became the Viceregal Lodge, the "out of season" residence of the Lord Lieutenant (also known as the Viceroy), where he lived for most of the year from the 1820s onwards. During the Social Season (January to St Patrick's Day in March), he lived in state in Dublin Castle.
Phoenix Park once contained three official state residences. The Viceregal Lodge, the Chief Secretary's Lodge and the Under Secretary's Lodge. The Chief Secretary's Lodge, now called Deerfield, is the official residence of the United States Ambassador to Ireland. The Under Secretary's Lodge, now demolished, served for many years as the Apostolic Nunciature.
Some historians have claimed that the garden front portico of Áras an Uachtaráin (which can be seen by the public from the main road through the Phoenix Park) was used as a model by Irish architect James Hoban, who designed the White House in Washington, D.C.. However, the porticoes were not part of Hoban's original design and were, in fact, added to the White House at a later date by Benjamin Henry Latrobe.
Phoenix Park Murders
In 1882, its grounds were the location of the Phoenix Park Murders. The Chief Secretary for Ireland (the British Cabinet minister with responsibility for Irish affairs), Lord Frederick Cavendish, and his undersecretary, Thomas Henry Burke, were stabbed to death with surgical knives while walking back to the residence from Dublin Castle. A small insurgent group called the Irish National Invincibles was responsible. The 5th Earl Spencer, the then Lord Lieutenant, heard the victims' screams from a window in the ground floor drawing room.
Residence of the Governor-General
In 1911, the house underwent a large extension for the visit of King George V and Queen Mary. With the creation of the Irish Free State in December 1922, the office of Lord Lieutenant was abolished. The new state intended to place the new representative of the Crown, the Governor-General of the Irish Free State, Tim Healy, in a new, smaller residence, but because of death threats from the anti-treaty Irish Republican Army (1922–69), he was installed in the Viceregal Lodge temporarily. The building was at the time nicknamed "Uncle Tim's Cabin" after him, in imitation of the famous US novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by the US author Harriet Beecher Stowe.[2] It remained the official residence of the Governor-General of the Irish Free State until 1932, when the new Governor-General, Domhnall Ua Buachalla, was installed in a specially hired private mansion in the southside of Dublin.
Residence of the President
The house was left empty until 1938, when the first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, lived there temporarily while plans were made to build a new presidential palace on the grounds. The outbreak of the Second World War saved the building, which had been renamed Áras an Uachtaráin (meaning house or residence of the president in Irish), from demolition, as plans for its demolition and the design of a new residence were put on hold.[3] By 1945 it had become too closely identified with the presidency of Ireland to be demolished, though its poor condition meant that extensive demolition and rebuilding of parts of the building were necessary, notably the kitchens, servants' quarters and chapel. Since then, further restoration work has been carried out from time to time.
President Hyde lived in the residential quarters on the first floor of the main building. Later presidents moved to the new residential wing attached to the main house that had been built on for the visit of King George V in 1911. However, in 1990 Mary Robinson moved back to the older main building. Her successor, Mary McAleese, lived in the 1911 wing.
Though Áras an Uachtaráin is possibly not as palatial as other European royal and presidential palaces, with only a handful of state rooms (the state drawing room, large and small dining rooms, the President's Office and Library, a large ballroom and a presidential corridor lined with the busts of past presidents (Francini Corridor), and some fine eighteenth and nineteenth century bedrooms above, all in the main building), it is a relatively comfortable state residence.
It is in the Áras an Uachtaráin that every Taoiseach receives his seal of office from the president, as do senior ministers, judges, the Attorney General ad commissioned officers. It is also the venue for the meetings of the Presidential Commission and the Council of State.
Áras an Uachtaráin also houses the headquarters of the Garda Mounted Unit.
The Office of Public Works completely furnishes the private quarters of Áras an Uachtaráin for the presidential family.[4]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Áras an Uachtaráin) |
References
- ↑ History of Áras an Uachtaráin, p8
- ↑ Ayto, John; Crofton, Ian (2005). Brewer's Britain and Ireland. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 873. Consulted 5 April 2014.
- ↑ "7 things you probably didn't know about Áras an Uachtaráin". RTÉ News. 23 October 2018. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2018/1023/1006054-7-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-aras-an-uachtarain/.
- ↑ "Mammoth task of moving out done in military style". Irish Independent. 10 November 2011. http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/mammoth-task-of-moving-out-done-in-military-style-2930914.html.