A very lovely view by Samuel Brocas depicting the Four Courts, Dublin, Ireland c.1820, which originally appeared in his Topography of Ireland of that year. It will be noted that the dome of the Four Courts stands noticeably higher than today. Its phallic appearance was alluded to obliquely in AM Sullivan’s ‘Zozimus’ of 1872 which described it as ‘not nice’.

In contrast, the current dome, reconstructed after its predecessor’s destruction in the 1922 Battle of the Four Courts, was compared by JP Donleavy to a ‘prostate bub.’

Image via Virtual Treasury – zoom in here.