Green Street Courthouse () is a
courthouse between Green Street and Halston Street in the
Smithfield area of Dublin, Ireland.
It was the site of many widely discussed
criminal trials from 1797 until 2010, when the
Criminal Courts of Justice building opened.
Under British rule
The Dublin City Sessions House, which was designed in the
neoclassical style
Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing sty ...
and built in
ashlar stone, was completed in 1797, on part of the "Little Green", which had been owned by
St. Mary's Abbey before the
Dissolution of the Monasteries, and was later used as a graveyard.
The previous sessions house was the
Tholsel
Tholsel was a name traditionally used for a local municipal and administrative building used to collect tolls and taxes and to administer trade and other documents in Irish towns and cities. It was at one stage one of the most important secular bu ...
, beside the
Church of St. Nicholas Within. The architect of the new Sessions House is believed to have been Whitmore Davis.
The design involved a symmetrical main frontage facing Smithfield; the central section featured a large
hexastyle
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
portico with
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...
columns supporting an
entablature and a
modillioned
pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedim ...
.
The building held different courts, including the
Dublin Commission Court (for the city and county, similar to the
assizes held in other
Irish counties
The counties of Ireland ( Irish: ) are historic administrative divisions of the island into thirty-two units. They began as Norman structures, and as the powers exercised by the Cambro-Norman barons and the Old English nobility waned over time ...
), the city
quarter sessions
The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...
, and the courts of the
Lord Mayor, the
Sheriff, and the
Recorder
Recorder or The Recorder may refer to:
Newspapers
* ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper
* ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
* ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...
.
The courthouse was part of a complex which also included three prisons —
Newgate (completed 1781), the Sheriff's Prison (completed 1794), and the
City Marshalsea (completed 1804) — and the Governor of Newgate's residence.
The Newgate prison replaced the original county gaol of the
county of the city
A county corporate or corporate county was a type of subnational division used for local government in England, Wales, and Ireland.
Counties corporate were created during the Middle Ages, and were effectively small self-governing county-empowere ...
of Dublin, which was located at the New Gate of the
city wall
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...
. Which prison a convict or
remanded defendant stayed in depended on the court and crime; besides those on Green Street there was
Richmond Bridewell south of the Liffey,
and
Kilmainham Gaol
Kilmainham Gaol ( ga, Príosún Chill Mhaighneann) is a former prison in Kilmainham, Dublin, Ireland. It is now a museum run by the Office of Public Works, an agency of the Government of Ireland. Many Irish revolutionaries, including the lead ...
west of the city took prisoners from the County Commission Court. (Kilmainham Courthouse held the county quarter sessions). Because the courthouse held Commission Courts for both
County Dublin
"Action to match our speech"
, image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg
, map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...
and the county of the city, it was legally treated as part of both counties.
Green Street Courthouse was the venue of trials of noted
Irish republican rebels, including
Robert Emmet
Robert Emmet (4 March 177820 September 1803) was an Irish Republican, orator and rebel leader. Following the suppression of the United Irish uprising in 1798, he sought to organise a renewed attempt to overthrow the British Crown and Prote ...
in 1803,
John Mitchel
John Mitchel ( ga, Seán Mistéal; 3 November 1815 – 20 March 1875) was an Irish nationalist activist, author, and political journalist. In the Famine years of the 1840s he was a leading writer for ''The Nation'' newspaper produced by the ...
in 1848, and
Fenian
The word ''Fenian'' () served as an umbrella term for the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and their affiliate in the United States, the Fenian Brotherhood, secret political organisations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries dedicated ...
leaders later. As well as holding trials, the Sessions House was the venue for election of
members of the UK parliament for the
Dublin City constituency.
Independence
After the 1922 creation of the
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...
, Green Street housed the
Central Criminal Court established by the
Courts of Justice Act 1924
The Courts of Justice Act 1924 ( ga, Acht Cúirteanna Breithiúnais, 1924) was an Act of the Oireachtas (No. 10 of 1924) that established a new system of courts for the Irish Free State (now Ireland or the Republic of Ireland). Among the new c ...
to try murder and other serious crimes. Except during the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
(1922–23) and
the Emergency (1939–45),
all death sentences were handed down in Green Street.
The
Special Criminal Court
The Special Criminal Court (SCC; ga, Cúirt Choiriúil Speisialta) is a juryless criminal court in Ireland which tries terrorism and serious organised crime cases.
Legal basis
Article 38 of the Constitution of Ireland empowers the Dáil to ...
(SCC), for terrorism and organised crime, was revived in 1972 in response to
the Troubles
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...
in Northern Ireland, and thereafter sat in Green Street. People convicted there include republicans
Martin McGuinness
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness ( ga, Séamus Máirtín Pacelli Mag Aonghusa; 23 May 1950 – 21 March 2017) was an Irish republican politician and statesman from Sinn Féin and a leader within the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during ...
in 1973,
Colm Murphy
Colm Murphy (born 18 August 1952) is an Irish republican who was the first person to be convicted in connection with the Omagh bombing, but whose conviction was overturned on appeal. in 2001, and
Michael McKevitt
Michael McKevitt ( ga, Mícheál Mac Dhaibhéid) (4 September 1949 – 2 January 2021) was an Irish republican and paramilitary leader. He was the Provisional Irish Republican Army's Quartermaster General. Due to the Provisional IRA's involvem ...
in 2009; anarchists
Marie and Noel Murray in 1976; and gangster
John Gilligan in 2001. The Courthouse was modified for the February 1976 trial of the kidnappers of
Tiede Herrema
In October 1975, Dutch businessman Tiede Herrema (21 April 1921 – 24 April 2020) was kidnapped by the Provisional IRA in Castletroy, near Limerick. This triggered a large police investigation and a two week siege, after which Herrema was relea ...
. On 16 July 1976, three IRA bombs exploded at the Courthouse, breaching a sidedoor and allowing the escape of five on trial for bombmaking.
Four were apprehended in the vicinity.
The courthouse was one of only two in the state to have a dock for the accused. The last criminal trial at Green Street was on 11 December 2009, with the newly opened
Criminal Courts of Justice building hosting trials from the start of 2010. The Green Street Courthouse building is still used by the
Courts Service
The Courts Service is the national council of the judiciary of Ireland. It is a statutory corporation which provides administration and support services to the Courts of the Republic of Ireland. It was established in 1999 by the ''Courts Servi ...
for juvenile custody
summary
may refer to:
* Abstract (summary), shortening a passage or a write-up without changing its meaning but by using different words and sentences
* Epitome, a summary or miniature form
* Abridgement, the act of reducing a written work into a sho ...
hearings, and for administration, including the Drug Treatment Court Programme Office and the Reform and Development Office.
See also
*
Debtors' Prison Dublin
*
Newgate Prison, Dublin
Newgate Prison () was a place of detention in Dublin, Ireland. It was initially located at Cornmarket, near Christ Church Cathedral, on the south side of the Liffey and was originally one of the city gates before being moved to a new purpose ...
References
Citations
Sources
*
{{Judiciary of the Republic of Ireland, state=collapsed
Buildings and structures in Dublin (city)
Courthouses in the Republic of Ireland
Government buildings completed in 1797
1797 establishments in Ireland