General Post Office, Dublin

The General Post Office is a landmark public building whose story reaches from grand civic design into Ireland’s struggle for independence. Its architecture brings together Georgian and Greek Revival influences. The broad frontage is marked by a deep portico of fluted Ionic columns, with sculpted figures representing Mercury, Fidelity and Hibernia above it.

Designed by Francis Johnston, the building opened for postal business on 6 January 1818. In 1916, it became the headquarters of the Easter Rising leaders, and Patrick Pearse read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic outside on 24 April. Fire destroyed the building during the rebellion, leaving the granite façade standing; reconstruction was completed in 1929. In the main hall, Oliver Sheppard’s statue of the dying Cúchulainn commemorates the Rising, giving this working post office an intensely political interior story.