Downpatrick Courthouse is a judicial facility on English Street, Downpatrick,

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Northern Ireland. The courthouse, which served as the headquarters of

Down County Council Down County Council was the authority responsible for local government in County Down, Northern Ireland. History Down County Council was formed under orders issued in accordance with the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 which came into effect ...

from 1878 to 1973, is a Grade B+ listed building.

History

Downpatrick Courthouse (02), August 2009

The site currently occupied by the courthouse is thought to have been previously occupied by St John the Evangelist's Priory, sometimes referred to as "the Monastery of the Irish", which was established by Saint Malachy in the 12th century. The current building, which was designed by Hugh Darling of Dublin in the Neoclassical style, was completed in 1735. It was substantially rebuilt to the designs of the county surveyor, Henry Smyth, after a major fire in 1855. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of nine bays facing onto English Street; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forwards, featured a single-storey porch with a round headed window at the front, doorways on each side and urns on the top; there were

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s on the first floor and there was a carving depicting the Royal coat of arms flanked by two figures, carved in lead, depicting Justice and

Ceres Ceres most commonly refers to: * Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid * Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres may also refer to: Places Brazil * Ceres, Goiás, Brazil * Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás st ...

, on the parapet. A tunnel was built from courthouse to the basement of the town gaol (now part of Down High School), about to the north, in 1857. The building was originally used as a facility for dispensing justice but, following the implementation of the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, which established county councils in every county, it also became the meeting place for

. The county council continued to use the courthouse as its headquarters until the county council was abolished in 1973. In an incident in May 2003, two men being held at the courthouse overpowered a policeman and escaped from the building: both men were subsequently re-arrested. In May 2012 the justice minister, David Ford, said that he accepted an inspection report recommending that the Downpatrick Courthouse should close in a proposed rationalisation of the court system. In October 2017, it was the venue for the premier of a play, "Lives in Translation", written by the Irish playwright,

Rosemary Jenkinson Rosemary Jenkinson (born 7 September 1967) is an Irish poet, playwright, and short story writer. Biography Rosemary Jenkinson was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1967 and is a self-proclaimed "ex-civil servant". Her parents, James and Den ...

, about a woman, Asha, who was seeking political asylum after fleeing from conflict in Africa.

References

{{Reflist Buildings and structures in County Down Courthouses in Northern Ireland Grade B+ listed buildings Government buildings completed in 1735 County halls in Northern Ireland