Peter Pearson recalls the history and highlights the interiors of Leinster House, home to the Irish parliament for the past hundred years
Leinster House, the largest and most important 18th-century townhouse in Ireland, has provided a home for such a noted family as the earls of Kildare, a society as significant as the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) and an institution as important as the national parliament. Even so, it has never really received the attention it deserves. This is perhaps partly because the public have had little opportunity to visit it. Although it is a public building, its use for the Dáil and Seanad requires a certain level of security and even, possibly, distance from the people. Leinster House is symbolic of the state. It stands alongside the General Post Office in O’Connell Street in that respect.
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