The ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the new Four Courts took place in May 1786 and was presided over by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Charles Manners, Duke of Rutland. The below account of the ceremony from an American newspaper indicates that it was accompanied by the characteristic Irish legal wordplay of the time:

It took ten years to finish the building, and the Duke did not survive to see it completed. He passed away at the Viceregal Lodge in September 1787 due to liver damage caused by a lifetime of claret drinking, exacerbated by a strenuous tour of the Irish Midlands.

There was already in 1786 a recently constructed structure on the site, designed by the late Thomas Cooley as a Public Records Office. Cooley’s successor James Gandon added to this structure a central portion incorporating a Round Hall and courts and topped it with a dome to create the original of the Four Courts we know and love today.

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