It has been 300 years since Dublin’s Mansion House, the home of the city’s Lord Mayor, was bought for a song at just £3,500.
Even in today’s money – between €350,000 and €500,000 – that’s not a bad deal for an opulent townhouse with baroque forecourt, classical facade and its own (long since gone) wooded grounds.
At an anniversary reception there last night, Lord Mayor Christy Burke and several of his predecessors gathered to consider the rich history instilled in the bricks and mortar of the capital's most famous city centre abode.
It is a celebration of three centuries of residence for those who donned the chains of office, and which replaced a former system through which they rented their own, leading to many pocketing most of the £100 annual allowance in favour of more modest accommodations – in one case a tent in St Stephen’s Green.
Dr Mary Clark, Dublin City archivist said the house might not even have existed today if plans for a far larger one in the centre of that park had proceeded in 1812.
“The city treasurer ran off with the money,” she said. “He went to England and they never caught up with him.”
In 1705 Joshua Dawson purchased a tract of "marshy land without even a lane crossing it" and within two years had built his townhouse.
Ten years later he sold the property to Dublin Corporation. Aside from his princely sum, his terms included an annual rent of 40 shillings, two fat capons (male hens) and a six-pound loaf of double-refined sugar for Christmas.
Prestigious guests
The “Round Room” was added in 1821 to host King George IV as there was no other considered grand enough for visiting royalty. Just less than a century later, that same room held Ireland’s first Dáil.
In more modern times, there have been few better witnesses to its history than Clare Ennis, secretary to about 30 lord mayors since 1972. She welcomed every dignitary to the premises, including Mother Teresa, Prince Charles and even Yasser Arafat.
“You would want to have seen the security: the sniffer dogs and the guards. There was a huge fuss,” she recalled. “But Yasser Arafat himself was stunning. He had stunning eyes and a firm handshake.”
