City Hall's Art and Architecture

Dublin City Hall was built between 1769 and 1779 after a hotly contested competition to find a designer. In the end, Dublin’s top architect James Gandon, known for his work on the Custom House and the Four Courts, lost out to Thomas Cooley. The young architect from London undertook the project at the age of just 29.

The Rotunda

Cooley’s ideas were ambitious and daring. The stained glass dome in City Hall’s ceiling was originally designed to be left open, similar to the Pantheon in Rome. However, Ireland’s rainy weather soon put an end to that idea. Despite the change, the rotunda remains a key feature of his neoclassical design.

Surrounding the grand rotunda, visitors will see massive columns, beautiful mosaics and richly decorated stonework. German mason, Simon Vierpyl, was responsible for City Hall's stonework and stuccodore Charles Thorpe, who later became Lord Mayor, did all the original gilding.

The floor beneath the rotunda, including the coat of arms in mosaic, was relaid in 1898 to a design by the then City Architect, Charles J. McCarthy. The white marble surrounding it is Portland stone from the Isle of Wight; the light grey-blue marble is from Sicily; the black marble is from Kilkenny; the green marble is from Galway and the red marble is from Cork.

Each piece of marble is two inches thick and grouted with Portland cement. The work was carried out by H. Sibthorpe & Son of Dublin.

Our 12 Arts and Crafts Murals

Surrounding the rotunda are 12 murals - one between each column. They were painted between 1914 and 1919 by headmaster of the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, James Ward, and his pupils.

Ward was an important figure in the Irish and British art scene at the time and it was his idea to decorate the plain stone panels under the dome.

Although the paintings are often described as frescoes, they are in fact murals, as they are painted onto dry stone.

Each panel measures just over eight by four feet. Eight of them display legendary scenes, such as St. Patrick baptising the King of Dublin. The other four feature coat of arms for Ireland's four provinces - Ulster, Leinster, Connacht and Munster.

The central shield of each coat of arms is supported on either side by fanciful Celtic animals and interlaced designs that were inspired by the Book of Kells. The murals are striking examples of the Arts and Crafts movement in Dublin.

City Hall's Statues

Busts and statues are dotted throughout City Hall. In the centre of the main hall, directly under the rotunda, you'll find four statues representing figures that played important roles in the development of Irish society: Daniel O’Connell, Thomas Drummond, Thomas Davis and Charles Lucas.

Daniel "The Liberator" O’Connell is most noted as a Catholic emancipator, who worked to abolish laws discriminating against the Catholics of Ireland. He gave one of his most famous speeches opposing the Act of Union here in City Hall.

Thomas Drummond was an engineer and influential public servant. He is most famous for the design of a lighthouse light that is still used today. However, as a politician, he also abolished a law that required people to pay a tenth of all income to the Church of Ireland.

Thomas Davis was a famous poet and chief organiser of the Young Ireland movement, which advocated for an all-Ireland struggle for independence. His statue was sculpted in 1943 to mark his contribution to the arts.

Charles Lucas was a prominent figure in the development of Dublin city as we know it today. He was a member of the Wide Streets Commission, which developed the areas we now call O’Connell Street, d’Olier Street, Henry Street, Westmoreland Street and the College Green area.

Visit City Hall

City Hall's extravagant entrance hall, where you'll find the building's key architectural features and artworks, is open to visitors for free Monday-Saturday.