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Customs House
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The Custom’s House
Designed by the Londoner James Gandon, and built between 1781 and 1791 the Custom’s House is one of the jewels in Dublin’s architectural crown. Built of granite and Portland stone at a cost of half a million pounds at the time, an enormous amount of money then. The central portico is surmounted by a statue of Commerce, with her anchor on an impressive dome. The tympaneum, over four Doric columns shows Hibernia embracing Britannia which must have seemed ironic in the 1840s. The rivers of Ireland are represented on the keystones on the ground floor. The four figures on the north elevation represent Europe , Asia, Africa and America. Australia officially was only a few years old at the time.
During the War of Independence in May 1921 the Custom’s House was set alight, in an effort to bring the Civil Administration to a halt. The IRA men arrived in trucks and ordered the staff to leave before setting the building ablaze. The time taken for the evacuation allowed the Black and Tans to arrive at the scene and a battle ensued during which five IRA men were killed and a further eighty were wounded. In the gardens on the north side of the building there is a memorial to the men who died.
Today the Custom’s House is home to the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government.