The General Post Office (GPO; ) is the former headquarters of — the Irish Post Office. It remains its

registered office A registered office is the official address of an incorporated company, association or any other legal entity. Generally it will form part of the public record and is required in most countries where the registered organization or legal entity ...

and the principal

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

An Post moves headquarters from GPO to new premises
RTÉ News, 2023-06-22. — the capital city of Ireland — and is situated in the centre of O'Connell Street, the city's main thoroughfare. It is one of Ireland's most famous buildings, not least because it served as the headquarters of the leaders of the

Easter Rising The Easter Rising (), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an ind ...

against

British rule in Ireland British colonial rule in Ireland built upon the 12th-century Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland on behalf of the English king and eventually spanned several centuries that involved British control of parts, or the entirety, of the island of Irel ...

. It was the last great Georgian public building to be erected in the capital.

Architecture

The foundation stone of the building, which was designed by Francis Johnston, was laid by the

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the K ...

, Charles Whitworth, 1st Earl Whitworth, on 12 August 1814, attended by the Post-Masters-General,

Charles O'Neill, 1st Earl O'Neill Charles Henry St John O'Neill, 1st Earl O'Neill, Order of St Patrick, KP, Privy Council of Ireland, PC (I) (22 January 1779 – 12 February 1841) was an Irish politician, peer and landowner. He was born in 1779 to John O'Neill, 1st Viscount O'N ...

and Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse. The structure was completed in the short space of approximately three years at a cost (depending on sources) of between £50,000 and £80,000. The front

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

is 67.1 metres (220 ft) long. It features a

portico 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 cu ...

(24.4 metres (80 ft) wide) of six fluted Ionic columns, 137.16 centimetres (54 inches) in diameter. The

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

of the

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

is highly enriched. The tympanum of the

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

originally carried the royal arms; following restoration in the 1920s, they were removed. On the acroteria of the pediment are three statues by John Smyth: when facing the building Mercury on the left, with his

Caduceus The caduceus (☤; ; , ) is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology. The same staff was borne by other heralds like Iris (mythology), Iris, the messenger of Hera. The s ...

and purse;

Fidelity Fidelity is the quality of faithfulness or loyalty. Its original meaning regarded duty in a broader sense than the related concept of '' fealty''. Both derive from the Latin word , meaning "faithful or loyal". In the City of London financial m ...

on the right, with a hound at her feet and a key held in her right hand (due to these features it is possible that the statue is in fact of Hecate); and

Hibernia () is the Classical Latin name for Ireland. The name ''Hibernia'' was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe (), Pytheas of Massalia called the island ''Iérnē'' (written ). In his book ''Geogr ...

in the centre, resting on her spear and holding a

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

. The entablature, with the exception of the architrave, is continued along the rest of the front; the frieze, however, is not decorated over the portico. A balustrade surmounts the

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

of the building, which is 15.2 metres (50 ft) from the ground. With the exception of the portico, which is of Portland stone, the main building is of mountain

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

. The elevation has three stories, of which the lower or basement is rusticated. The portico occupies the entire height of the structure. The GPO Arcade is an art deco style shopping arcade at the rear of the complex, with access from Henry Street and Princes Street North. It was built by the

Office of Public Works The Office of Public Works (OPW) (; legally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland) is a major Government of Ireland, Irish Government agency, which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including hundreds of owned and ren ...

following the Rising. Local radio station, Millennium 88FM was based here.

History

1757 map Post Office in Cope Street Dublin

The General Post Office in Ireland was first located in High Street in Dublin moving to Fishamble Street in 1689, to Sycamore Alley in 1709 and then in 1755 to Peter Bardin's Chocolate House at Fownes Court on the site where the Commercial Buildings used to be (later the Central Bank building). It was afterwards removed to a larger house opposite the

Bank of Ireland Bank of Ireland Group plc () is a commercial bank operation in Ireland and one of the traditional Big Four Irish banks. Historically the premier banking organisation in Ireland, the bank occupies a unique position in Irish banking history. At ...

building on College Green. On 6 January 1818, the new post office in Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street) was opened for business. During the

of 1916, the GPO served as the headquarters of the uprising's leaders. It was from outside this building on 24 April 1916, that

Patrick Pearse Patrick Henry Pearse (also known as Pádraig or Pádraic Pearse; ; 10 November 1879 – 3 May 1916) was an Irish teacher, barrister, Irish poetry, poet, writer, Irish nationalism, nationalist, Irish republicanism, republican political activist a ...

read out the

Proclamation of the Irish Republic The Proclamation of the Republic (), also known as the 1916 Proclamation or the Easter Proclamation, was a document issued by the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rising in Ireland, which began on 24 April 1916. ...

. The building was destroyed by fire in the course of the rebellion, save for the granite facade, and not rebuilt until 1929, by the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

government. An original copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic was displayed in the

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

at the GPO. The museum was closed at the end of May 2015 and replaced by a new visitor centre to commemorate the 1916 Rising, "GPO Witness History", in March 2016. The building has remained a symbol of

Irish nationalism Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cult ...

. In 1935, in commemoration of the Rising, a statue depicting the death of the mythical hero Cúchulainn sculpted by Oliver Sheppard in 1911 was installed at the command post in the centre of the GPO main hall and is now housed in the front of the building. The statue was featured on the Irish ten shilling coin of 1966, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Rising. Despite its significance in the history of Irish independence, ground rent for the GPO continued to be paid to English and American landlords until the 1980s. The broadcasting studios of 2RN, which later became Radio Éireann, were located at the GPO from 1928 until 1974. Draws for Prize Bonds are held weekly, on Fridays, in the building. Nelson's Pillar was located in the centre of O'Connell Street adjacent to the GPO, until it was destroyed by Irish republicans in an explosion in 1966. The Spire of Dublin was erected on the site of the Pillar in 2003. The

statue was depicted on the

obverse The obverse and reverse are the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ''obverse'' ...

of a commemorative 2 euro coin marking the Centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016. The postal service moved its headquarters from the General Post Office building to new premises at North Wall Quay in Dublin, in June 2023.

Images

File:DV405 no.196 Post Office, Dublin (brightened).png, The General Post Office c. 1830 File:DUBLIN(1837) p095 POST OFFICE.jpg, The GPO in an engraving from about 1831 File:Dublin UK.PNG, Before independence with a British flag flying. The adjacent Hotel Metropole was destroyed in 1916 during the

. File:The shell of the G.P.O. on Sackville Street after the Easter Rising (6937669789).jpg, The shell of the GPO after the Rising; Nelson's Pillar can be seen on the right. File:Tostal1954.jpg, New Garda recruits march past the GPO, Tóstal 1954. File:GPO Easter Rising Plaque.jpg, A plaque commemorating the Easter Rising at the GPO File:Dublin General Post Office in 1964.jpg, 1964 view from Nelson's Pillar File:GPO-dublin-sign.jpg, A sign on the external wall of the General Post Office, with the building's name () in traditional Gaelic script and using an older spelling that predates Irish orthography reforms of the 1960s File:The General Post Office, Dublin - geograph.org.uk - 302291.jpg, The General Post Office in 2006

References

External links

An Post History and Heritage – The GPO Museum
* —A ten-painting suite of events of the

acquired for permanent display at the GPO {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Dublin (city) Easter Rising Government buildings completed in 1818 Headquarters in Ireland History of Ireland (1801–1923) Post office buildings Republic of Ireland postal system 20th-century architecture in the Republic of Ireland 19th-century architecture in the Republic of Ireland Georgian architecture in Dublin (city)