Day 3 - 3/10

In 1922 Ireland gained its independence, to celebrate they had a ton of green paint and painted the post office boxes green. As well as having 1901-1910 King George the 7th insignia on them, Queen Victoria and various other ones. 

The Dublin City Hall council still have meetings at the City Hall, in the middle of the building there is a seal of the code of Ireland that pictures 3 castles burning. The saying on the seal says “be obedient and you can be happy”. Daniel O’Connell has a statue dedicated to him in the hall and he was a famous lawyer and a politician that fought for a repeal of the 1800 Act of Union, when he died his last words were “my heart to Rome my body to Ireland and my soul to god”. 

Dublin City council were restoring their office building in the 1970s and found artifacts from the Viking period, they took pictures of the artifacts and incorporated some of the symbols in front of the building on the sidewalk.

1776-1802 they built the 4 courts of chancery and opened in 1796. The 4 courts are court of King’s bench, court of common law, court of common pleas, and exchequer. This building operated as the primary court building up until now. Originally this building was occupied by the anti-treaty/IRA, you can still see the bullet holes on the side of the building. This was completely destroyed and rebuilt since a fire broke out from an explosion and it destroyed two buildings and most of the archives of the public records office. They were able to get some records copies restored and because of this incident they created a firewall in the new building. 

Irish Supreme Court 1924, the high court use to be the highest court and after its independence the new court system was established. There is one chief Justice and several judges that sit. They can grant “leapfrog” hearings, which are instead of the defendant having to go through multiple courts of appeals, they can go straight to the Supreme Court and they could take the case only if it’s of public importance. 

King’s inns park has a tree called the hungry tree since it’s eating a bench. Next door to the park there is a King’s Inn training school for barristers to obtain their law degrees. Typically they go to school for 1-2 years. After obtaining their degree, they have to be an apprentice of a known barrister to learn the ropes and are often referred to as “devils”.

General post office (gpo) The gaelic revival began in the end of the 19th century, bringing back Irish culture. Starting with its own Irish language, sports, music, etc. 1884 The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) promoted more Irish sports and no English/foreign sports til the 1970s it was abolished. The general post office was headquarters for the rebellion and first day of the rebellion started Easter Monday and lasted only a week.

- Alexis & Annabelle