Mansion House

The Mansion House on Dawson Street, Dublin, has been the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin since 1715, and was also the meeting place of the Dail Eireann from 1919 until 1922. The Mansion House was built in 1710 by the merchant and property developer Joshua Dawson, after whom Dawson Street is named. Dublin Corporation purchased the house in 1715 for assignment as the official residence of the Lord Mayor. The First Dail assembled in the Round Room on 21 January 1919 to proclaim the Irish Declaration of Independence. In the 1930s and 1940s, plans were made to demolish the building, and all other buildings on the block on which it is located, to enable the building of a new Dublin City Hall. However the decision of the Government to erect a new Department of Industry and Commerce on a site on the same block, on Kildare Street, led to the abandonment of the plans. On 21 January 1969 a special fiftieth anniversary joint session of Dail Eireann and Seanad Eireann assembled in the Round Room and was addressed by the then President of Ireland, Eamon de Valera.