The Protestant Ascendancy

Five years after his victory at the Battle of the Boyne, William III introduced the first set of Penal laws in 1695.  Although this legislation did not outlaw Roman Catholicism, Catholics were prohibited from holding state office, standing for elected office, joining the armed forces and practising law.

While William III’s Penal laws meant hard times for the Catholic population in the rest of Ireland, Dublin’s middle classes and aristocrats (many of them absentee landlords who came to Ireland during the entertaining season) lived very comfortably.   Throughout the 18th century they commissioned ostentatious homes such as Leinster House and Powerscourt House.  The owners of the grand town houses employed master craftsmen from around the world, such as the German-English architect Richard Castle and the Swiss-Italian stucodores Paolo and Filippo Francini.

Among the desirable addresses at the time were St Stephen’s Green, Marlborough Street to the north of the Liffey and Ely Place on the Southside.  If they were ill, the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham attended their needs.  Dublin also boasted the Rotunda Lying-In Hospital, the first maternity hospital in the British Isles.  Much of the funding for this venture came from the adjacent and ornate Rotunda Gardens (no longer in existence) where members of high society frequently met and attended concerts.

In Georgian times the privileged Protestants were able to patronise the arts: Handel premiered the Messiah in the city in 1742.  Eleven years earlier the still extant Royal Dublin Society was founded to promote the arts, science and agriculture.  Many great academics and novelists also emerged from Trinity College, including the philosopher Edmund Burke and Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels and the Dean of St Patrack’s Cathedral from 1713 to 1745.

Public Works in the 18th Century

Many of the most impressive sights in Dublin today were built during the Protestant Ascendancy, in the Georgian era.  Amongst the most splendid structures of this period are Castletownhouse, the Customs House and the Four Courts.  The two latter buildings were both designed by James Gandon.

Dublin was one of the first cities in the world to enjoy planned development with the inauguration of the Wide Streets Commission in 1751.   Further improvements came with the National Botanic Gardens in 1789.  Commerce also helped improve the fortune of the city.  The Grand Canal was built in the 1760s and Ireland’s most famous company started in 1759 when Arthur Guinness opened his brewery.