The Four Courts Building
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Miler’s Sabbath Caresses of the Four Courts Railings, c. 1900
From Robert Gahan’s wonderful article ‘Old Street Characters of Dublin,’ published in Vol 2 No 3 of the Dublin Historical Record (March 1940), this gentle and poignant account of the obsessive-compulsive ballad-singer Miler, one of several non-legal eccentrics associated with… Continue reading
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The Man Who Decided the Location of the Four Courts, 1773-1783
The above gentleman, Welbore Ellis MP, was the person ultimately responsible for deciding the location of today’s Four Courts, Dublin. In so doing, he was motivated primarily by the possibility of personal profit. By the 1770s, all were agreed that… Continue reading
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Before the Four Courts: The Intended Public Offices on Inns Quay, c.1780
The building we now know as the Four Courts as it was originally meant to be – a building housing offices for the courts rather than the courts themselves, as well as providing a repository for public records. An extended… Continue reading
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The Four Courts, as Depicted in Shell’s ‘Everywhere You Go’ Series, 1932
This 1932 poster for Shell Oil, part of its ‘Everywhere You Go’ series, features a beautiful depiction of the Liffey and Inns Quay and Ormond Quay, Dublin, with the dome of the newly reconstructed Four Courts in the background. The… Continue reading
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‘Patrick Whack’ Visits the Four Courts, 1872
The above poem is from the publication ‘Zozimus,’ 16 March 1872. Persons referred to therein include Judge William Nicholas Keogh, barrister and politician Isaac Butt, barristers Francis McDonogh and Richard Armstrong and John Rea, solicitor. The reference to ‘the divvle’s… Continue reading




