The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1913-06-14

till Poyning's Act was passed by the
Parliament held at "ogheda, in
+ Henry Wis reign tha' 1I; IT, .~ish Par
lament finally abando. "3 ,-ht toI
independence. Thencefo., cLs< ,ctI
could be passed till it had .E7fo S.
submitted to the English king a. c.
council; and both houses remained u.
tutelage to the Parliament of Eng,
land from that date till Grattan broke
the chain in 1882.
Housed Within the Castle.
The chief governors, as a rule, kept
their court at Kilmainham Castle,
though sometimes they were held in
the archbishop's palace at st. Sepul-
chre's, or at Thomas street court.
Parliament, when summoned in Dub
lin, met either in Dublin Castle or in
the Commons hall at Christchurch.
This hall was finally abandoned after
an accidental explosion of large
quantity of gunpowder in the neigh
borhood, which injured the building.
Once Parliament sat in the hall of the
Carmelites in Whitefriar street; but
the Irish Government did not appoint
a permanent place for it's sessions till
the middle of Elizabeth's reign. Kill
mainham Castle had been damaged so
badly by a storm that had blown over
Dublin in 1859 that the Queen issued
an order for Dublin Castle to be re-
paired and enlarged, desiring it
thenceforth to be the royal seat of
her government in Ireland. The i'm
provements were completed by Sir
Henry Sidney, and the Irish Parlia-
ment at last found a resting place for
a number of years within it's walls.
The most memorable of the Parlia-
ments held there was in April, 1885,
made so by the presence for the first
time of large number of the Irish
chiefs. The Munster war was over,
the Earl of Desmond's head was i'm
paled on London BRIDGE and the Lord
Deputy, Perrot, who had been sent
across to conciliate the Irish noble
men, had invited them to attend this
Parliament. In q record it is stated
!. that he presented them with gowns
and cloaks of velvetFarnd satin made
in the English fashion in order to in
duce them to forego their own ma
tional costume.
Its Second Home.
The last Parliament held in the Cas-
tie was in 1641. The government o.
Ireland was then centered in the two
Lord Justices, Parsons and Borlase,
creatures of the English Parliament.
ary party. 1t was the year when the
north rose and the strongholds of Ul-
ster were in the hands of Phelim
O'Neill. Twenty years elapsed before
Dublin saw another Parliament. Then,
when it met, it met for the first time
in the course of the four centuries of
it's existence in home of it's own.
In the eastern suburb of Dublin stood
Chichester House. Built for hos
pital by Sir George Carey towards the
close of Elizabeth's reign, "a large
mansion with a gate-house, a garden
and plantation" it passed in few
years into the possession of the Lord
Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester The
Crown took it on lease for the use
of the Irish Parliament on the Res
toration, and there the members met
on the sth of May, 1861. 1t contained
a large room for the Lords and two
committee rooms on the same floor
for their use; also "a stair-foot and
a conference room below stairs, where
, in the Commons sat-" The Patriot
: Parliament did not meet here, sitting
in the Kings Inns; but the first Irish
Parliament of William Ills reign met
at Chichester House in 1892, when the
test act was applied to prevent Cath
olics from attending. Richard Butler,
Lord Mountgarret tried to assert his
right to sit as peer but refusing the
test after taking the oath of allegiance,
his claim was disallowed.
Its Third and Last Home.
The Irish Parliaments continued to
meet in Chichester House till we'll
into the eighteenth century. In 1909
the House was found to be in a bad
condition, but not till fourteen years
later committee was formed to re-
port on its state. Estimates were
given for new House of Parliament,
but no further step was taken till 1921
Then the crown took lease Of the
ground for nine hundred years and an
ex-dragon, Captain Edward Pearse,
submitted a plan for a new building,
! which the Government accepted. We
have list of his materials; so many
tons of oak timber. so many of fir,
1