Kilkenny-based James Hoban group supports Oireachtas commemoration initiative

The 'Leinster House: A House with Three Lives' project is a joint enterprise of the James Hoban Societies of Ireland and the United States with the Irish Architectural Archive to mark the 100th anniversaries of the first sittings  in Leinster House of Dáil Éireann (September 1922) and Seanad Éireann (December 1922) as the Oireachtas or parliament of an independent Ireland.

The archive is mounting an exhibit featuring original drawings of Leinster House as a residence of the Dukes of Leinster, together with plans and illustrations of the site and buildings during their occupancy by the Royal Dublin Society from 1815, a tenure remarkable for the growth of an extensive complex of institutions around its core, including three national museums, a national library, a national college of art, a 700-seat lecture theatre (which became the Dáil chamber), a radium laboratory and a national college of science.

It also features a series of specially commissioned illustrations by Ron Wilson of the complex at each stage of its usage down to the present day, when its footprint encompasses the six separate buildings of the Oireachtas establishment and the adjacent Government Buildings.

Sponsored by the Archive in conjunction with the Hoban Societies, the RDS and the Office of Public Works, the exhibit is open until November 25 at the Archive's headquarters, 45 Merrion Square, Dublin D02 EV90

To accompany this exhibit, the archive is joining with the Irish Georgian Society, the RDS, the OPW-Maynooth University Archive at Castletown House, and the James Hoban Societies in sponsoring a day-long symposium on October 13, 2022 on the House with Three Lives theme.

The programme for the symposium, which is free to participants and accessible to a wide range of interests, is available at https://lnkd.in/eDjzcVT8.