The Four Courts in Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's main courts building. It is the location of the Irish Supreme Court, High Court and Central Criminal Court.
The Four Courts
along the River Liffey quayside.
Unfortunately in 1922 the Four Courts had been gutted as part of the Irish Civil War. Republican rebels who opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, seized the building. The new Irish government under the Chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Army, Michael Collins was forced to attack the building to dislodge the rebels. In the process of the bombardment the historic building was destroyed. Most dramatically however, when withdrawing, the rebels deliberately boobytrapped the Public Records Office which was located at the rear of the building. They also bobbytrapped its priceless Irish archives, which were stored in the basement of the Four Courts. Nearly one thousand years of priceless archives were destroyed by this act, which is still regarded with infamy.
Part of the original Gandon-designed
interior decoration of the dome,
lost in the 1922 destruction.
for a larger version.
In 1937 a new constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann, introduced a remodelled courts system. Again the highest court was called the Supreme Court, with a slightly changed High Court (minus the words 'of Justice'). Though in the early 1990s, the then Irish Chief Justice suggested building a new purpose-built building to house the Supreme Court, leaving the other courts in situ, the Supreme Court for the moment remains in the Four Courts.
Though one of Dublin's most spectacularly beautiful buildings, the Four Courts was for many decades poorly maintained, with unattractive additional buildings added on at the back. The interior also was poorly maintained and decorated. The recent establishment of the Irish Courts Service, which took over the running of the courts system and the maintenance of courts buildings from the Department of Justice, has raised hopes that the building may once again be restored to its true grandeur. Its exterior still shows the effects of the events of 1922, with its facade containing bullet holes, which deliberately were not removed to remind people of its complex history.