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| BANK OF IRELAND, FORMERLY PARLIAMENT HOUSE, DUBLIN.- No person of Irish race can look upon the splendid structure shown in the sketch, and which stands on the north side of College Green, without a mingled feeling of pride and sorrow-pride in the glory of its architecture and sorrow for the national tragedy which, in 1801, degraded the Irish Houses of Parliament from their high estate, and subsequently made them the offices of the National Bank of Ireland. "Did public virtue cease to animate the people," exclaimed Thomas Francis Meagher, the great Irish orator and subsequent American general, in 1847, "the Senate House, which, even in its desecrated state, lends an Italian glory to this metropolis, would forbid it to expire!" Although the most classical public building in Europe, without any exception, nobody knows who was the original architect, and, in fact, the history of its construction is wrapped in more or less mystery. It was begun under the administration of Lord Carteret in 1729, and, in 1785, a portice, with Corinthian columns, was added to the entrance of the House of Lords. As the other columns are of the Ionic order, the effect is incongruous, but the noble facade on College Green, having an extent of 147 feet, redeems every defect of detail. In the days of Ireland's independence, the eloquence of Grattan, Flood, Carran and Hussey Burgh, poured forth in the Irish House of Commons, rivalled that of the Greek and Roman masters. Although used solely for banking purposed, the building has been but little altered since 1802, when the Directors of the Bank of Ireland purchased it from the government for $200,000 and a nominal yearly rental. |
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