The Department of Environment is to be decentralised to Wexford. What will become of the Department's home for all those years, the Custom House, the jewel in Dublin's architectural crown, asks Eoin Ryan
Over the past week I have had many a conversation with constituents, party colleagues, friends and family to debate the Custom House's future. Art gallery, concert venue, cultural centre, banqueting hall? But I have my own suggestion.
It has witnessed the comings and goings of Irish people who have left these shores since the 1790s and there is now a timely opportunity to remember the emigrants who have made Ireland's mark on the world - I believe the Custom House is uniquely suited to house a museum dedicated to the achievements of the Irish Diaspora.
Designed by James Gandon, Dublin's finest 18th-century building was built in 1791. In 1840 it became the Irish headquarters of the Poor Law Commissioners who carried a major responsibility for relief during the Famine. The Local Government Board of Ireland was housed there in 1872 and it would also become home to the Revenue Commissioners.
In May 1921, during the War of Independence, the IRA attacked the building and set it on fire, hoping to destroy the main tax and local government records as part of its campaign to undermine British administration. The fire lasted for five days, and all that survived was the shell.
Subsequent political administrations have supervised the refurbishment of Gandon's masterpiece.
The Custom House has more than one claim to significance: it is the work of a highly-distinguished architect, the first major public building built in Dublin as an isolated structure with four monumental facades, and, most importantly, it has meaning for many people associated with Dublin as part of the economic and employment history of the city. It is essential that the building is promoted for uses to which the public has access, enhancing public appreciation of this magnificent building.
The best possible option, I believe, is a specific museum dedicated to honouring the Irish Diaspora, the millions who left to embark on their journey across many continents and who have never been honoured in a significant way.
America is the most populated country with Irish stock, with around 40 million claiming Irish ancestry. Argentina has a tradition of emigration from the Longford-Westmeath area. Newfoundland has seen many emigrants from Wexford and Waterford. Closer to home, France and Spain became home to thousands of Irish, expelled or forced to flee during the Jacobite wars and the subsequent repressions. Many of them became prominent in the armies of their adopted countries.
A museum could exhibit examples of the huge contribution the Irish have made in all walks of life overseas: artworks of Irish-born painters and sculptors overseas; inventions of Irish scientists; artefacts of the lives and campaigns of many prominent soldiers and sailors; the companies founded by Irish merchants.
Photographs of the pioneer photographer Mathew Brady (USA - 1823-1896) could also be on show; wines and spirits of the many "Wild Geese" families that founded drink businesses (Hennessy, Lynch, Barton, and Patrick Murphy who founded the Domecq Sherry business in 1730); uniforms and equipment of the soldiers who served France, Spain, and Britain, and in the Independence movement of America, Mexico, Chile and many other countries.
It should also celebrate other aspects of Ireland overseas, such as the missionary movement, peacekeeping activities, charitable organisations and government aid programmes, and Irish involvement in international sports events.
Such a Museum of the Diaspora could represent for us and to our visitors the realities of our mark on the world in all of its immense variety and depth.
Eoin Ryan TD (Fianna Fáil) represents Dublin South East.