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Áras An Uachtaráin
The residence of the Irish president is a Palladian lodge that was built in 1751 and enlarged a couple of times since, most recently in 1816. It was home to the British viceroys from 1782 to 1922, and then to the governors-general until Ireland cut ties with the British Crown and created the office of president in 1937. Queen Victoria stayed here during her visit in 1849, when she appeared not to even notice the Famine.
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Arbour Hill Cemetery
Just north of Collins Barracks, this small cemetery is the final resting place of all 14 of the executed leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. The burial ground is plain, with the 14 names inscribed in stone. Beside the graves is a cenotaph bearing the Easter Proclamation, a focal point for official and national commemorations.
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Bank Of Ireland
Facing Trinity College across College Green, this sweeping Palladian pile was built to house the Irish parliament and was the first purpose-built Parliament House in the world. The original building, the central colonnaded section that distinguishes the present-day structure, was designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce in the first half of the 18th century.
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Belvedere House
Great Denmark St runs northeast towards Mountjoy Sq and passes the 18th-century Belvedere House at No 6. This has been used as the Jesuit Belvedere College since 1841, and one James Joyce studied here between 1893 and 1898, describing it later in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man .
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City Hall
One of the architectural triumphs of the Dublin boom was the magnificent restoration of City Hall, originally built by Thomas Cooley as the Royal Exchange between 1769 and 1779, and botched in the mid-19th century when it became the offices of the local government. In the 2000 restoration, the internal walls were cleared and the building was returned to all its gleaming Georgian glory.
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Dublin Castle
The stronghold of British power for 700 years is principally an 18th-century creation that is more hotch-potch palace than turreted castle. Only the Record Tower survives from the original Anglo-Norman fortress built in the 13th century on Viking foundations. The most fascinating part of the castle is underground - a chunk of the old city walls and moat.
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Farmleigh House
Situated in the northwest corner of Phoenix Park, this opulent house is the state's official B&B, where visiting dignitaries rest their very important heads - at least in theory. The truth is that after spending more than around €52 million on purchasing and restoring the house, it was used to provide accommodation for just three weeks in the first two years after it opened in mid-2001.
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Four Courts
Impossible to miss if you're up this end of town, James Gandon's (1743-1823) masterpiece is a mammoth complex stretching 130m along Inns Quay. Construction on the Four Courts began in 1786, soon engulfing the Public Offices (built a short time previously at the western end of the same site), and continued until 1802. By then it included a Corinthian-columned central block connected to flanking wings with enclosed quadrangles.
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General Post Office (GPO)
Imagine trying to post a letter at the country's main post office, only for a bunch of armed and most serious men interrupting your chore by declaring an Irish republic from the doorways before barricading themselves inside in anticipation of a week-long bombardment by the British Army?
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Glasnevin Cemetery
Make sure your visit coincides with one of the free tours ( Wednesday and Friday), which are provided by Dublin's most entertaining, informative and irreverent tour guide, the inimitable Lorcan Collins, who'll bring you around all the most interesting sights in Ireland's largest cemetery - sometimes referred to as 'Croak Park'.
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Government Buildings
This gleaming Edwardian pile was the last building (almost) completed by the British before they were booted out; it opened as the Royal College of Science in 1911. When the college vacated in 1989, Taoiseach Charlie Haughey and his government moved in and spent a fortune refurbishing the complex. Among Haughey's needs, apparently, was a private lift from his office that went up to a rooftop helipad and down to a limo in the basement.
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King's Inns
Home to Dublin's legal profession, King's Inns occupies a classical building on Constitution Hill, which was built by James Gandon between 1795 and 1817, with Francis Johnston chipping in with the cupola. In 1541, when Henry VIII staked his claim to be King of Ireland as well as England, the country's lawyers took the title the Honourable Society of King's Inns and moved into a Dominican Monastery on the site of the modern-day Four Courts.
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Leinster House - Irish Parliament
All the big decisions are made - or rubber- stamped - at Oireachtas na Éireann (Irish parliament). It was built by Richard Cassels in the Palladian style between 1745 and 1748, and was considered the forerunner of the Georgian fashion that became the norm for Dublin's finer residences. Its Kildare St façade looks like a town house (which inspired Irish architect James Hoban's designs for the US White House), whereas the Merrion Sq frontage was made to resemble a country mansion.
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Mansion House
Built in 1710 by Joshua Dawson - after whom the street is named - this has been the official residence of Dublin's mayor since 1715, and was the site of the 1919 Declaration of Independence and the meeting of the first parliament. The building's original brick Queen-Anne style has all but disappeared behind a stucco façade added in the Victorian era.
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Newman House
Cardinal Newman established the Catholic University of Ireland here in 1865. To see one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture currently open to the public, you'll need to take one of the guided tours, Tuesday to Friday from June to August (the house isn't open to general admission).
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Oscar Wilde House
In 1855 the surgeon William Wilde and his wife 'Speranza' Wilde moved into 1 North Merrion Sq - the first residence built on the square (1762) - with their one-year-old son Oscar. They lived here until 1878 and we imagine that the young Oscar's genius was stimulated by the famous literary salon hosted here by his mother. The family lived in the house right through Oscar's education at nearby Trinity.
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Rathfarnham Castle
Less castle and more fortified house, this was originally built by Adam Loftus, the archbishop of Dublin, around 1583 and is most interesting as a restoration in progress. Several of the rooms - including 18th-century interiors by William Chambers - have been returned to their original splendour, while others are clearly struggling under the ravages of time. The guides have an infectious enthusiasm for the project. It's 6km south of the city centre.
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Rotunda Hospital
Irish public hospitals aren't usually attractions, by any stretch of the imagination, but this one makes for an interesting walk-by or an unofficial wander inside if you're interested in Victorian plasterwork. It was the first maternity hospital in the British Isles - and once the world's largest - and was established by Dr Bartholomew Mosse in 1748, at a time when the burgeoning urban population was enduring shocking infant mortality rates.
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Shaw Birthplace
Close to the Grand Canal, the birthplace of playwright George Bernard Shaw is now a restored Victorian home that is interesting even to non-literary buffs because it provides an insight into the domestic life of the 19th-century's middle classes. Shaw's mother held musical evenings in the drawing room, and it is likely that her son's store of fabulous characters was inspired by those who attended.
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War Memorial Gardens
Hardly anyone ever ventures this far west, but they're missing a lovely bit of landscaping in the shape of the War Memorial Gardens, by our reckoning as pleasant a patch of greenery as any you'll find in the heart of the Georgian centre. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the memorial commemorates the 49,400 Irish soldiers who died during WWI - their names are inscribed in the two huge, granite bookrooms that stand at one end. A beautiful spot and a bit of history to boot.
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