Blackrock Town Hall, Library and Technical Institute

After significant population growth, largely associated with its development as a residential suburb of Dublin, the township of Blackrock appointed town commissioners in 1863.{{cite web |title=Blackrock Township Act 1863 |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Vict/26-27/121/contents/enacted |website=legislation.gov.uk |date=13 July 1863 |access-date=24 December 2023}} The town commissioners decided to erect a town hall at an early stage: the site they selected was on the north side of Main Street. The building was designed in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone at a cost of £3,500 and was completed in 1865.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Vn4HAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA467 |title=Brief sketches of the parishes of Booterstown and Donnybrook |first= Beaver Henry|last= Blacker|year= 1860|page=467|publisher=George Herbert}}{{cite web|url=http://www.askaboutireland.ie/show_narrative_page.do?page_id=2413 | title=Around Blackrock|publisher=Ask about Ireland|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060508235058/http://www.askaboutireland.ie/show_narrative_page.do?page_id=2413 |archive-date=8 May 2006 |url-status=dead}} The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto Main Street. The central bay, which was slightly projected forward, featured a round headed opening flanked by pairs of Ionic order pilasters supporting a cornice. The other bays on the ground floor were fenestrated with round headed windows installed within recesses, while the first floor was fenestrated by sash windows with architraves and segmental pediments supported by brackets. At roof level, there were prominent eaves supported by brackets, and an open pediment in the central bay with a clock in the tympanum.{{cite web|url=https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000339069 |title=Town Hall, Blackrock, Co. Dublin|publisher=National Library of Ireland| access-date=24 December 2023}}

The local Presbyterian Church, which had established its local congregation in 1895, met in the town hall until St. Andrew's Church on Mount Merrion Avenue was completed in 1899.{{cite web|url=http://standrewsblackrockpc.org/history.htm|title=History|publisher= St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110728053817/http://standrewsblackrockpc.org/history.htm |archive-date=28 July 2011 |url-status=dead}} In 1899, the town commissioners were replaced by an urban district council, with the town hall becoming the offices of the new council.{{cite web |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1898/en/act/pub/0037/print.html |title=Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 |date=1909 |work=2nd revised edition of the statutes}} During her visit to Dublin in April 1900, the route taken by Queen Victoria's carriage took her past the town hall on her journey from Kingstown, now Dún Laoghaire, to central Dublin.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=GIGVZ95-B0YC |title= Her Majesty passing Blackrock Town Hall|publisher=Black and White |volume=19|page=588|year=1900}}

In the early 20th century, following a consultation,{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=fT9FAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA50 |title=Library Notes and News|page=50|publisher=The Library Chronicle|volume=4|year=1887}} the new council decided to extend the building to the southeast with the creation of a library, financed by a grant of £3,000 from the Scottish-American philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, and with the creation of a new Technical Institute. The site was donated by the member of parliament, William Field.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=YDdJAQAAMAAJ |title= Proposed Workingmen's Institute at Blackrock |page=86|publisher=The Irish Builder and Engineer|date=1 June 1889|quote=They should, he thought, feel deeply indebted to Mr. Field for the handsome gift he had presented to the ratepayers.}}

The library, at the centre of the extended frontage, was slightly projected forward and was more elaborate than the town hall, with an ornate open pediment above the front door, full-height pilasters flanking each of the bays, panels containing swags above the first floor windows, and a long balustraded parapet at roof level, broken by a round-headed pediment above the central bay. Conversely, the technical institute, on the right of the extended frontage, exactly mirrored the style of the town hall, on the left of the extended frontage. The extension was carried out by a local contractor, C. T. Jolley, to a design by George Luke O'Connor.{{cite web|url=https://www.dia.ie/works/view/32375/building/CO.+DUBLIN%2C+BLACKROCK%2C+NEWTOWN+AVENUE%2C+CARNEGIE+LIBRARY+%26+TECHNICAL+INSTITUTE |title=County Dublin, Blackrock, Newtown Avenue, Carnegie Library and Technical Institute |publisher=Dictionary of Irish Architects| access-date=24 December 2023}}

The town hall continued to be an important venue for public events: in August 1927, the Irish republican and leader of Fianna Fáil, Éamon de Valera, gave a speech in the town hall on his intention "to broaden and widen the Free State Assembly".{{cite book|title= Speeches and Statements by Eamon de Valera 1917–73 |location=Dublin|pages=151–2|first=Maurice|last=Moynihan |year=1980|publisher= Gill and macmillan St. Martin's Press}}{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cSmiEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT648 |title=De Valera Long Fellow, Long Shadow |first= Tim Pat |last=Coogan|year= 2015|publisher=Head of Zeus|isbn=978-1784975371}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ucd.ie/archives/t4media/p0150-devalera-eamon-descriptive-catalogue.pdf|title=Éamon de Valera Papers|publisher=University College Dublin|page=674|access-date=31 December 2023}} It ceased to be the local seat of government in 1930 when Blackrock became part of the borough of Dún Laoghaire.{{Cite Irish legislation|name=Local Government (Dublin) Act 1930|section=3|stitle=Formation of the Borough of Dun Laoghaire|year=1930|number=27|parl=ifs|date=17 July 1930}} In the 1950s, a Basque-Irish language activists, Deasún and Lucy Bhreatnach, established an Irish language school (gaelscoil) in the town hall.{{cite web |last1=Lunney |first1=Linde |title=Lucy Bhreatnach In Breatnach, Deasún |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/breatnach-deasun-a9506 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography |publisher=Royal Irish Academy |access-date=24 December 2023}} By the early 1970s, the town hall was becoming dilapidated:{{cite web|url= https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1974-10-31/6/|title=Oral Answers – Blackrock (County Dublin) Town Hall| access-date=24 December 2023}} it served as the home of Dublin City Ballet and the Irish National College of Dance from 1982 to 1988.{{cite web|url= https://stillslibrary.rte.ie/indexplus/image/2131/028.html |title= Young dancer at the Irish National College of Dance |year=1983|publisher= RTÉ| access-date=24 December 2023}}

In the early 21st century, a major programme of refurbishment works, involving the remodelling of much of the interior of the complex to accommodate the Blackrock Further Education Institute, was initiated and financed by the Department of Education.{{cite news | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/new-beginning-campus-for-blackrock-further-education-institute-unveiled-1.2351213 | title=New Beginning campus for Blackrock Further Education Institute Unveiled | newspaper=Irish Times | date=15 September 2015 | access-date=24 December 2023}} The works, which cost €9.5 million, were carried out by Collen Construction to a design by architects, McCollough Mulvin,{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LemGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT99 |title=The Little Book of Blackrock |first= Hugh|last= Oram|year= 2019|publisher=The History Press|isbn=978-0750991629}}{{cite web|url=https://www.oldstone.ie/project/blackrock-further-education-institute/ |title= Blackrock Further Education Institute|publisher=Oldstone| access-date=24 December 2023}}{{cite web|url=https://mcculloughmulvin.com/projects/blackrock-further-education-institute-and-blackrock-public-library |title= Blackrock Further Education Institute and Blackrock Public Library|publisher= McCollough Mulvin| access-date=24 December 2023}} and the completed building was handed over by the Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore, in May 2014.{{cite news|url= https://dublinpeople.com/news/entertainment/articles/2014/05/24/tanaiste-marks-handover-of-further-education-campus-in-blackrock/ |title= Tánaiste marks handover of further education campus in Blackrock|date=24 May 2014|newspaper=Dublin People| access-date=24 December 2023}}

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{{City and town halls in Ireland|state=collapsed}}

Category:City and town halls in the Republic of Ireland

Category:Government buildings completed in 1905

Category:Blackrock, Dublin