Leinster House

Leinster House stands on Kildare Street in central Dublin, built between 1747 and 1748 as a grand private townhouse for James FitzGerald, then Earl of Kildare and later the first Duke of Leinster, to a design by the German-born architect Richard Cassels. At the time of its construction it was the largest private house in Dublin, and its layout, with a formal entrance facing the city on one side and a more relaxed garden facade facing open countryside on the other, is said to have influenced the design of the White House in Washington. The Royal Dublin Society took over the building in the early nineteenth century and used it for scientific and agricultural exhibitions, before the newly formed Irish Free State purchased it in 1922 to house its parliament. Leinster House has served as the seat of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Ireland comprising the Dail and the Seanad, ever since.