My thanks to David and Barry, who are active within the very important campaign to save 16 Moore Street, for bringing these images to my attention of the demolition of Liberty Hall in the 1950s. This was a very different Liberty Hall to the one we know today.
Back in May of last year, I posted this great little story on a banner that was draped over this Liberty Hall in 1917.
In it, Rosie Hackett of the Irish Citizen Army noted that:
“Historically, Liberty Hall is the most important building that we have in the city. Yet, it is not thought of at all by most people. More things happened there, in connection with the Rising, than in any other place. It really started from there”
It’s true that the old Liberty Hall was of immense political importance, but to be fair, the current Liberty Hall is one of the only large 20th Century buildings in Dublin of any architectural merit.
@ Mark P
Irony, I hope.
Not at all, Póló. Liberty Hall is a competently executed large scale Modernist building, something Dublin has very few of.
It’s not in the same league in terms of 20th Century Architecture as Busaras or the Berkeley Library, but Dublin has relatively little else to compare it with.
@Mark P
Have to disagree with you then. I think it is an appalling building, totally out of keeping with its surroundings and demeaning of the Custom House. It reminds me of 72-76 St. Stephen’s Green, in which I worked. A shoddy and ill conceived piece of architecture and if I could get the guy who removed Nelson to do the needful I’d jump at it in the morning. It was a piece of status building (Ireland’s first skyscraper!), a portent of many of the things that were yet to come.
Anyway it is not my call and no doubt it will gain a few floors in the future.
PS: tomorrow (8/3/11) is the anniversary of Nelson’s tumble.
http://www.photopol.com/nelson_show/index.html
“Disrespectful” to a building that’s been hidden behind a gigantic railway bridge since 1891?
Fundamentally, I think that the notion that buildings should always be “in keeping” with their surroundings is profoundly conservative.
Some of the most interesting, beautiful and exciting built environments are so precisely because of the juxtaposition of very different buildings. The desire to always have new buildings “in keeping” with all that has gone before and all that surrounds them has been one contributing factor (amongst many) in blighting Dublin with hideous redbrick and magnolia Georgian pastiche tat.
Do you dislike the Berkeley or Busaras in the same way?
Don’t have a problem with Busaras, or Irish Life, or Ulster Bank.. Haven’t looked at the Berkeley. Just think Liberty Hall is crap.
As far as the loop line bridge is concerned, the sooner it goes underground the better.
[…] from the roof of Liberty Hall, the tallest building in the city centre. Earlier this week we had these images of Liberty Hall being demolished in the […]