Custom House opens visitor centre for Easter

In addition to the festivities for St Patrick’s Day and the Easter 1916 Commemorative Programme, the Visitor Centre at the Custom House will open to the public from 17th March to 3rd April 2016. The Custom House was the architectural masterpiece of James Gandon and was completed in 1791 after a ten-year construction period. The re-opening of the Visitor Centre is part of a longer term project to provide improved public access to one of the finest buildings in Dublin in the context of the Decade of Centenaries.

The building is currently home to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.  John McCarthy, Secretary General of the Department welcomed visitors to the building and expressed the Department’s delight at being able to make the building accessible to the public once again. “The Department is delighted to reopen this wonderful building to the public and to introduce visitors to some of its rich and varied history in this special centenary year. The Custom House has been a Dublin landmark for over two hundred years and is an iconic building, which has been at the heart of delivering public services to communities in Ireland for generations.”

The current exhibition outlines the history of the Custom House with a new focus on the “Decade of Centenaries”. It describes events in the building during Easter Week 1916 and considers the history of the Custom House and its occupants from then until 1921, when the building was completely destroyed by fire during the War of Independence.

The location and status of the Custom House would suggest a significant role in the Easter Rising. It stands directly across from Liberty Hall (which was the base of the Irish Citizen Army) and beside Butt Bridge (the then last crossing-point of the Liffey), it’s a short walk from Trinity College and it’s less than 400m from the GPO itself. Nevertheless the Custom House does not feature strongly in the historical narrative. The exhibition considers this and other fascinating links between the Custom House and a variety of historical events of the period.

In addition to the exhibition, the visitor centre itself is an example of some of finest neo-classical architecture in Europe and a series of events in the coming months will ensure that this wonderful space can be enjoyed by all citizens and visitors. It is intended to expand the exhibition throughout the decade to illustrate the prominent role of the Custom House during that particular period in Ireland’s history.

Additional information:

- Opening dates/times: Thursday 17 March to Sunday 3 April, 10:00 to 16:30

- Accessibility: Wheelchair users can access the Visitor Centre through the main reception of the Custom House on Beresford Place. Arrangements should be made in advance by contacting the Department’s Disability Access Officer (Physical Access) at 01 888 2411 or by email at accommodation@environ.ie or CHvisitorcentre@environ.ie

- The four main elements of the exhibition are:

Gandon, telling the story of the architect James Gandon and the construction of the Custom House;

The Custom House and 1916, including the story of some Local Government staff dismissed for participating in the Rising, Bureau of Military History statements of prisoners held in the Custom House after the Rising, and activity in the area of the Custom House during the Rising;

Met Éireann’s ‘weather-themed’ room looks at the development of scientific meteorology in Ireland with a special focus on the weather of Easter Week 1916 and the weather on 25 May 1921, when the Custom House was attacked. It highlights the unfailing commitment of weather observers who took daily weather readings, sometimes against significant odds; and

The Custom House Fire 1921, covering the events of 25 May 1921 and the subsequent restoration.

[1] http://www.decadeofcentenaries.com/