The Royal Hospital Kilmainham

The Royal Hospital, Kilmainham in Kilmainham, Dublin is one of the finest 17th-century buildings in Ireland. The hospital was built in 1684 by James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to King Charles II, as a home for retired soldiers and continued in that use for over 250 years. The style is based on Les Invalides in Paris with a formal facade and a large elegant courtyard. The Royal Hospital in Chelsea, London was completed two years later and also has similarities in style.

Following the creation of the Irish Free State the Royal Hospital was considered as a potential home for Oireachtas Eireann, the Irish national parliament. Eventually it was decided to keep parliament in its temporary home in Leinster House. The Hospital remained the home of a dwindling number of soldiers, before being variously used by the Garda Siochana (the Irish police force) and as a storage location for property belonging to the National Museum of Ireland. The large statue of Queen Victoria which used to stand in the forecourt of Leinster House, before its removal in 1947, was stored in the main courtyard of the Hospital, as were various state carriages, including the famously spectacular State Coach of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. The Royal Hospital in Kilmainham was finally restored by the Irish Government in 1984 (its 300th anniversary) and controversially opened as the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). Some people working in heritage organisations criticised the decision to demolish the eighteenth century barrack rooms in one section of the quadrangle to create open spaces for the IMMA.

Every year on the National Day of Commemoration - the Sunday nearest July 11th - the anniversary of the Truce that ended the Anglo-Irish War - the President of Ireland, in the presence of members of the Government of Ireland, members of Dáil Éireann and of Seanad Éireann, the Council of State, the Defence Forces, the Judiciary and the Diplomatic Corps, lays a wreath in the courtyard in memory of all Irishmen and Irishwomen who have died in past wars and on service with the United Nations.

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