r/IrishHistory

Lets visit the tunnels underneath Leinster House! Some of the underground areas are historic but many are distinctly modern constructions. The seat of our Oireachtas was originally called Kildare House, and it was a grand ducal palace of James FitzGerald, 20th Earl of Kildare, between 1745 and 1748.

Designed by architect Richard Cassels, the building was tragically left unfinished when Castle died in 1751, supposedly at his desk at Carton House writing instructions to a carpenter at this very site. Isaac Ware stepped in to complete the interiors, with James Wyatt later finishing the grand public rooms in the 1770s.

Its name changed to Leinster House in 1766 when the Earl FitzGerald was elevated to the first Duke of Leinster. He was a bit of a gobshite. After the Act of Union in 1800, the building's importance as a ducal residence greatly diminished.

Which reminds me of the White House connection. The Kilkenny-born architect James Hoban had studied at the Dublin Society's School of Architectural Drawing nearby on Grafton Street. When he won the competition to design the presidential mansion in Washington in 1792, he used Leinster House as a model. The front facade, the triangular pediment, the arrangement of windows, all lifted wholesale from Cassels' Dublin masterpiece.

In 1815, the 3rd Duke of Leinster sold the gaff to the RDS (Royal Dublin Society). Eventually the equally elegant National Museum, the National Library, and the often-overlooked Natural History Museum wings were added around the complex. This period facilitated wider integration of sub basements across the whole historic neighborhood.

The next great evolution of Leinster House came in 1922, when Michael Collins arranged to lease the building from the RDS as a temporary home for the Irish Free State's parliament. The Dáil took over the large lecture theatre, the Seanad was installed in the Duke's old ballroom, and the rest is history. The building was formally purchased in 1924.

But back to them tunnels. A 2008 OPW report, delivered to the Ceann Comhairle's office, warned that Leinster House presented a serious risk to the safety and health of its occupants without major remedial work. The building underwent massive restoration from December 2017 until August 2019. Periods of maintenance like this are ideal opportunities for sub rosa construction. An observant eye may find this view of our temple of democracy interesting oireachtas.ie/en/visit-and-l…

The most recently publicly disclosed addition to the system was labelled as connecting the campus to the Department of Agriculture headquarters down the street and cost about €1m around 2012. Much of Agriculture House was vacated when the bulk of its staff were decentralised to Portlaoise, allowing the Houses of the Oireachtas facilities to take over.

Rumour has it other subterranean corridors were also added when Leinster House was being made disability compliant by the end of 2011, and again during a period of extensive conservation of stonework and roofing in the last decade.

The usually undiscussed underground system got a rare mention in the news in 2022 when staff and politicians were asked to travel via underground tunnels after Fine Gael Minister of State Peter Burke became unwell addressing the Seanad on the Water Environment Abstractions Bill. The Seanad was suspended for several hours and multiple corridors leading to the front of the building were closed off while an ambulance brought him to hospital were he recovered.

William Joyce AKA “Lord Haw-Haw,” was an Irish-American fascist who became infamous for broadcasting Nazi propaganda from Germany to Britain during World War II.

His radio speeches made him one of the most recognisable voices Nazi Germany. After the war, he was captured, tried for treason and executed in 1946.

Got sidetracked and found Patrick Kavanagh's entry in the 1926 census. Kavanagh senior is recorded as a shoemaker and himself as a farm labourer. Many of the census records are annotated with confusing amendments - there's some uncertainty here over the farm acreage. Any idea what the green numbers indicate? Do they estimate the proportion of the farm each person will inherit? Or something else?

I created this map based on Paul MacCotter's book Medieval Ireland: Territorial, Political and Economic Divisions which presents a detailed reconstruction of the political divisions of immediately pre-invasion Ireland. At this time the country was divided into 9 or 10 major provincial or semi-provincial kingdoms which competed for the title of King of Ireland. These were in turn divided into smaller regional and local kingdoms, arranged in a basically feudal hierarchy. The lowest level, the local kingdoms, were the basis for the primary administrative division of the time, the trícha cét, which was adopted by the invaders under the name 'cantred' and used as the basis for the granting and colonising of conquered lands. These units are the primary focus of MacCotter's excellent book, which I would highly recommend for anyone interested.

I'm only an ammateur and this is the first map I've ever made so any suggestions on how to improve either the visuals or the historical information would be really appreciated!

Edit 1: For those interested, here's a cool map from the Atlas of Irish History showing the ruling families in the major kingdoms and sub kingdoms at around the same time: https://imgur.com/a/15722qg

Edit 2: For those who commented on it, using 'English Invasion' was a deliberate choice on my part, and not in any way a political one. Modern scholarship is shifting back to calling it the English Invasion, as it was called by contemporaries at the time. See historian Seán Ó Hoireabhárd's book Medieval Irish Kings and the English Invasion

Hello all! I am not sure if this is the correct thread for my request (please direct me elsewhere, if not!), however, I would be very grateful if anyone here is willing and able to help me figure out what the erased handwriting from this document says. I ran it through a handwriting OCR already, to no avail, as well as attempted to darken/enhance it on my own, with minimal success. Thank you so much for your time and consideration!

I’ve created this map showing the location of all recorded stone circles across the whole of Ireland. The map is populated with a combination of National Monument Service data (Republic of Ireland) and Department for Communities data for Northern Ireland. I've included an image of one from Ballynoe in County Down.

These are distinct from standing stones which I've mapped separately and are categorised by the number of stones, their placename, and surrounding features.

I previously mapped a load of other ancient monument types, the latest being prehistoric mines across Ireland.

I present to you the festival of Lir, held for his children who have been transformed into swans through a scornful spell. They are: Fionnuala, Aodh, Fiachra, and Conn. 🦢🦢🦢🦢

The tragedy of the children of Lir is the most popularly known Gaelic myth. I was recently commissioned to create an ink and watercolor illustration using this myth, and I chose this moment to illuminate.

Without a doubt the largest crowd of individuals I have illustrated. Sometimes it’s necessary for lack of time, but I hesitate to drawn faceless crowds of generic bodies. I love the quality of seeing somebody and their soul or essence is manifest in their costume and action.

See more of my work adapting Irish mythology: https://oreganillo.org/irish-mythology

I am open to commissions in this mythic tradition and subjects far beyond, the sky is the limit: https://oreganillo.org/commission