Résidence de France in Dublin - Open House Dublin 2017

On 14 October the French Ambassador to Ireland kindly opened his home on Ailesbury Road, the Résidence de France, to visitors for Open House Dublin 2017. I acted as a guide at the Résidence during the afternoon.

Photograph of the Résidence de France, 53 Ailesbury Road in 1930.

Originally known as Mytilene, 53 Ailesbury Road was built for the Bustard family in 1885. It was designed by Alfred Gresham Jones, who designed other buildings around Dublin city including the buildings that now contain the Davenport Hotel and the National Concert Hall. It sits on a plot of land about 2 acres in size. You can read more about the history of the house here.

The Bustard family put Mytilene up for sale in the 1920s. It was described in a newspaper advertisement as "a house built regardless of expense" and "a choice residence, leaving little to be desired, either in function, condition, or surroundings".

53 Ailesbury Road was acquired by the French government in 1930 for the Légation de France to the Irish Free State. It also housed the residence of the first French Minister to the Irish Free State, M. Charles Alphand. A chancery was located nearby for many years but was sold in recent years and a new Embassy was opened in Merrion Square in 2015. 53 Ailesbury Road continues to be the official residence of the French Ambassador to Ireland.

Richmond Barracks - Dublin

I was in Richmond Barracks in Inchicore, Dublin recently when I attended the Connexions 2017 forum on culture, education and digital technology (29 Sept. - 1 Oct. 2017). The forum brought together people involved with education, the arts, and business to discuss how they currently use digital technology and how they could get more benefit from digital technology. Big data, smart cities and e-education were some of the main themes discussed.

The venue, Richmond Barracks, was very interesting to me because of all the history it contains. I had not known anything about it before my visit, which made it all the more interesting as I learned little bits of information through the artifacts on display and the posters on the walls. As you can see below, I took a few photos to show some of the history of the place and the material on display.

The above photo explains that the barracks was built in response to 'A Threat from France'. The barracks welcomed its first British army troops in 1814. It was a British military barracks for 108 years and because Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom at the time, Richmond Barracks is important from the perspective of Irish history, British history, and also world history. Troops left from here to fight in the Crimean War, Boer War and the First World War.

As you can see from the photo of the plaque below (which is written in Irish), it was to Richmond Barracks that many of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, including Patrick Pearse, Eamon de Valera, WT Cosgrave and Constance Markeivicz, were taken after the Rising.

The building was taken over by the Free State government in 1922 and renamed Keogh Barracks. It was subsequently used as housing - Keogh Square and St. Michael's Estate (both now demolished). There was also a school on the site, which is now closed. Richmond Barracks was taken over by Dublin City Council and refurbished. It was opened in May 2016. Below are photos of a scale model of how it looked in 1916 and photos of how it looks today.

The restoration work is very impressive and I hope the "new" Richmond Barracks receives the attention it deserves.