Dublin Dossier
New Visitors Centre opens at the Custom House It is the longest-serving purpose-built government building in Ireland, it took ten years to build and when opened in 1791 it became the headquarters of the Commissioners of Custom and Excise. Not surprisingly it was called The Custom House. The name stuck even though in more recent times it became the headquarters of local government in Ireland. Along the way it also gathered a fair share of history. Now it shares its 230 year of rich history through many interactive exhibits in the Custom House Visitor Centre. The new Visitor Centre occupies the entire central area of the building. The exhibition chronologically takes us through the years from Dublin in the late 1700s through to the present times giving an authentic experience of being inside one of the Dublin’s most iconic buildings through momentous times in Irish history, the 1916 Easter Rising, the birth of the Irish Free State, the declaration of the Republic and the Civil War, Seen as a stronghold of British rule in Ireland, it was targeted and burnt by the IRA in 1921 Later the government of a free independent Irish state committed to fully restore the building. It was completed in 1928. The building itself is described in detail. One exhibit shows us some of the fine decorative stonework carvings by Edward Smyth,
particularly noteworthy the carved heads of 14 Irish river gods. Another exhibit tells of the controversy surrounding the building of the Customs House itself. Dubliners may now love their iconic Customs House but this was not always so. Exhibits show an anger in Dublin toward James Gandon’s plans and tells of firebrand James Napper Tandy, ironmonger and elected member of the City Assembly, a champion of the Dublin poor and the man that
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stood between Gandon and his new Custom House. He famously led what the power that be called a Dublin 'rabble' (ie. aggrieved Dublin workers) onto the building site, more than once bringing the development to a standstill. Heritage Ireland have a useful website at www.heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/ custom-house-visitor-centre/
