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THE INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1977
VOL . 71
NO. 6
New life for the
by Terence i
THE Corporation of Dublin has at this moment an
opportunity to enhance the beauty of the city for all
time by leaving Christ Chruch Cathedral open to view.
The gain cannot be calculated in money terms; and
it can cite itself for a precedent. Maurice Craig, in his
classic book on Dublin, tells there how in the time of
the Viceroyalty of James, Duke of Ormonde, the
Dublin City Assembly was active, enclosing the
ancient Green of Oxmantown in the northern suburbs.
"Under the stimulus of these schemes, and of the
relatively settled times", Mr. Craig writes, "Dublin has
begun to grow again, and it was not long before growth
brought its attendant problems.
Since Mr. Craig wrote his book, the Hospital and
Free School of King Charles the Second (King's
Hospital) has been removed to Palmerstown and the
former school building awquired by the Incorporated
Law Society. It was about time. The Benchers of the
King's Inns acquired the site of their presen; palatial
building in Henrietta Street and the first stone was laid
by Lord Clare on August 1st, 1975. It was the last of
James Gandon's great architectural undertakings, in
which he was assisted by his pupil, Aaron Baker.
The solicitors' profession, then more commonly
denominated "attorneys" did not aspire to any
administrative centre of such magnificence. Their most
Bluecoat School
Vere White
recent home was in the Four Courts which, for all its
convenience to the fashion was from its physical
character unable to be more than strictly functional.
The new building is to be made available for public
functions and the old chapel will be particularly
suitable for entertaining in.
When King's Hospital became available, it was an
imaginative step to buy it, and the sum spent in
restoring the building to its former splendour amounts
to £1 million. A large investment; á great debt; but the
motives behind it can not be impugned. First of all, it
gives the profession something to be proud of, to live
up to. Secondly, it is one of the major acts of
conservation of the decade.
The first stone of the Blue Coat School (as King's
Hospital was formerly called) was laid in Blackhall
Place in June 1773 by the Viceroy Harcourt.
The architect was Thomas Ivory, a citizen of Cork.
Master of the Dublin Society's (R.D.S.) Architectural
School from 1759 until 1786, and he was responsible
for training the majority of those who built in Ireland at
that period. It was a time when to build with a sense of
design seemed innate.
(By courtesy of The Irish Times -
20 Sept. 1977).