College Green () is a three-sided plaza in the centre of
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
. On its northern side is the
Bank of Ireland building, which until 1800 was
Ireland's Parliament House. To its east stands
Trinity College Dublin. To its south stands a series of 19th-century buildings.
Streets leading onto College Green are
Dame Street to the west,
Grafton Street to the south, and
Westmoreland Street to the north. College Green has been used as an assembly point for major political rallies. In the mid-1990s, United States President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
addressed a crowd during his visit to Ireland. President
Barack Obama also spoke at the site in a major address during his visit in May 2011.
History and layout
The area was once known as Hoggen Green and named after the nunnery of Blessed Virgin Mary del Hogges constructed at this location in 1156 by
Diarmaid mac Murchadha
Diarmait Mac Murchada (Modern Irish: Diarmaid Mac Murchadha), anglicised as Dermot MacMurrough, Dermod MacMurrough, or Dermot MacMorrogh (c. 1110 – c. 1 May 1171), was a King of Leinster in Ireland. In 1167, he was deposed by the High Ki ...
. The name "Hoggen" derives from the
Old Norse word ''haugr'' meaning
mound, or
barrow. The cemetery at College Green consisted of several burial mounds, which are thought to have contained the remains of some of the
Norse kings of Dublin.
Between Church Lane and Suffolk Street, the Norse had their
Thing, an assembly and meeting place, which was still to be seen in the 17th century. All along College Green, called Hoggen Green by the English, lay their barrows. Hoggen gave its name to the convent of St Mary de Hogges, which stood roughly where the Bank of Ireland is now and was a major landowner in the area until the
Reformation. Originally laid out as a triangular green, it is now a rough trapezoid. The site has been historically used in celebration, with newly appointed Viceroys of Ireland being welcomed on the street.
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
was founded on the street's east side in 1592. The west front's facade was designed by
Theodore Jacobsen and added in 1751. Several public monuments stand in College Green, including a 19th-century statue facing the college of old Irish Parliament member
Henry Grattan, designed by
John Henry Foley.
A statue of King
William III of England on horseback was constructed in the centre of College Green in 1701 by
Grinling Gibbons. The statue was historically the site of celebrations marking the King's birthday on 4 November, with a procession through the city and a parade around the statue. These celebrations were recorded by
Mary Delany, who wrote that the King was "idolized here almost to superstition." After the formation of the Orange Order in 1795 and the Rebellion of 1798, the statue was a centre for fervour on both sides. The statue was routinely decorated with orange ribbons and lilies, with the railings painted orange, but it was also frequently defaced, painted with pitch and there was one attempt to remove the head. The statue also featured in
James Joyce's story ''
The Dead''. The statue continued to be attacked and defaced numerous times through the 19th and 20th centuries, leading to many repairs.
The annual parades and processions ceased in 1823. It was eventually taken down after 277 years when it was badly damaged in an explosion on 11 November 1928,
Armistice Day, with the head having been stolen in 1929. The area was the temporary site of an air raid shelter during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. The fountain, by Edward Delaney, features four figures with trumpets which represent the four provinces of Ireland.
In 1966, a statue of the poet and nationalist
Thomas Davis was constructed in the centre of College Green, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the
Easter Rising. The design includes a fountain designed by
Edward Delaney.
Architecture
Chichester House was constructed by
Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester in the early 17th century. It was subsequently adapted for the Irish Parliament around 1670, and replaced by a new Parliament House in 1729, designed by
Edward Lovett Pearce
Sir Edward Lovett Pearce (1699 – 7 December 1733) was an Irish architect, and the chief exponent of Palladianism in Ireland. He is thought to have initially studied as an architect under his father's first cousin, Sir John Vanbrugh. He is be ...
. It was later enlarged by
James Gandon in 1787 and
Edward Parke between 1804 and 1808. The site is now the Bank of Ireland.
Daly's Club, a gambling house and club founded by Patrick Daly in 1750, moved to the space on College Green between Foster Place and Anglesea Street at numbers 2–5 in 1769. It closed in 1823 and the centre portion is now taken up by shops.
Number 6-8 was formerly the site of the Jury's Hotel. It opened in 1839 as a commercial lodging house, and was rebuilt in 1859 and 1882. The premises was sold when Jury's relocated to
Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge () (from historic Ball's Bridge) is an affluent neighbourhood of the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The area is largely north and west of a three-arch stone bridge across the River Dodder, on the south side of the city. Th ...
. The contents were auctioned, with the ornate mahogany bar sold to a buyer in
Zurich. The site was bought by
Patrick Gallagher in July 1979, who demolished the hotel in 1980 and built a granite-clad office block designed by Burke-Kennedy Doyle and Partners in its place, which was used by
Telecom Éireann. The remodelled building now forms part of the
Central Plaza development by
Hines.
The Ulster Bank headquarters on College Green was built in the late 1970s. Despite objections from groups like the Dublin Civic Group, a collection of mostly Victorian buildings which faced onto College Green,
Suffolk Street and Church Lane were demolished in 1976 to make way for the new development. The high-domed Victorian façade on College Green was kept, but the interior was entirely remodelled.
Guinness Mahon
Guinness Mahon was an Irish merchant bank originally based in Dublin but more recently with operations in London.
History Formation
The firm was founded as a land agency in Dublin in 1836 by barrister Robert Rundell Guinness, a great-nephew of t ...
moved from
South Frederick Street to numbers 16–17 in 1854. The current building was constructed in 1931 by
G&T Crampton
G&T Crampton (founded 1879) is an Irish property development and construction company. It entered liquidation in 2021.
History
G&T Crampton was founded in 1879 by George J. Crampton. George Crampton formed a partnership with his nephew Tom Cra ...
for the Bank. The Bank subsequently moved to St Stephen's Green.
Politics
College Green is commemorated in
Francis Wheatley's painting ''Dublin Volunteers on College Green'', which shows the
Irish Volunteers demonstrating for independence on 4 November 1779.
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
, the
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...
visited Dublin in December 1995 and gave speech in College Green to 80,000 people. In May 2011, President
Barack Obama gave a speech at College Green in front of 100,000. During the speech, he praised Ireland for its economic opportunities, and said he was proud of his
Moneygall heritage.
Traffic restriction
Since July 2009, College Green, during peak times on working days, has been accessible only to pedestrians, buses, taxis and cyclists.
In 2016, plans were published for College Green to be fully pedestrianised, apart from a public-transport lane along the Trinity College side, to create a large public space in front of the Bank of Ireland. Dublin City Council announced that a joint team of
Dixon Jones
Dixon Jones was a British architectural practice established in 1989 and closed in September 2020.
History
Dixon Jones was founded by Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones in 1989 as a partnership and became a limited company in 2003. The founders first ...
and Paul Keogh Architects would be responsible for redesigning the space. The plans drew several protests from store owners, taxi drivers and bus operators. In October 2018
An Bord Pleanála
(; meaning "The Planning Board"; ABP) is an independent, statutory, quasi-judicial body that decides on appeals from planning decisions made by local authorities in the Republic of Ireland. As of 2007, An Bord Pleanála directly decided majo ...
, the state planning agency rejected the plan.
The
Green Party-led
Dublin City Council banned traffic for three Sundays in summer 2019 in order to test the feasibility of further traffic restrictions.
See also
*
Statues in Dublin
This is a list of public art on permanent public display in Dublin, Ireland. The list applies only to works of public art accessible in a public space; it does not include artwork on display inside museums. Public art may include sculptures, sta ...
*
List of streets and squares in Dublin
*
Dublin College Green (UK Parliament constituency)
College Green, a division of the parliamentary borough of Dublin, was a parliamentary constituency which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1922. From 1918 to 1921, it was als ...
References
Notes
Sources
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{{Squares of Dublin City
Squares in Dublin (city)
Streets in Dublin (city)