General Post Office (GPO)
The rebels who declared Irish independence in 1916 chose this Georgian post office as their headquarters — and it still functions as a post office today.
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Dublin's last great Georgian public building, completed around 1817 at a cost of up to £80,000, stretches 67 metres along O'Connell Street. The Easter Rising leaders held it as their command centre against British rule. The royal arms that once filled the pediment were quietly removed during 1920s restoration — the absence tells the story as much as anything inside.
What to look for
- Three rooftop statues by John Smyth on the pediment acroteria: Hibernia at centre resting on her spear and holding a harp, Mercury to the left with his caduceus and purse, Fidelity to the right with a hound at her feet and a key in her hand
- Six fluted Ionic columns forming the portico in Portland stone — the rest of the building behind them is mountain granite, giving the facade two distinct materials
- The bare pediment tympanum above the portico, from which the royal arms were stripped after the 1920s restoration
Still a working post office on O'Connell Street; the main entrance is open during business hours and free to enter.
General Post Office (GPO) is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Dublin, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Dublin pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Dublin
- Aviva StadiumOne 51,711-seat bowl jointly owned by rugby and football — two governing bodies, one ground, no separate home for either.
- Dublin CastleThe river that gave Dublin its name still flows beneath your feet — and the building above it ran Ireland for 750 years.
- Croke ParkThe fourth-largest stadium in Europe holds 82,300 people — almost entirely for sports most of the world has never watched.
- National Library of IrelandIreland's paper memory — manuscripts, photographs, and newspapers free to open on the spot.
- St Patrick's CathedralIreland's national cathedral has never had a bishop — that role belongs to the rival church 400 metres up the road.
- Spire of DublinA 120-metre stainless-steel pin planted on the exact spot where an IRA bomb in 1966 — and a controlled demolition six days later — erased Nelson's Pillar.