Leinster House
A private ducal palace built on Dublin's wrong side of town in 1745 — the gamble paid off, and now it is Ireland's parliament.
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James FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare, built this palace in 1745–48 on Dublin's isolated, unfashionable south side, predicting the aristocracy would follow. They did — Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square became the new elite addresses. Since 1922 it has housed both chambers of the Oireachtas, and "Leinster House" has become a metonym for Irish politics itself.
What to look for
- Leinster Lawn facing Merrion Square, where the Royal Dublin Society once held its Dublin Spring Show and Dublin Horse Show
- The original ducal palace at the core of the complex, designed by architect Richard Cassels in the 1740s
- The dual-chamber layout: Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann both meet here
Faces Merrion Square in central Dublin; the building was originally called Kildare House after the earl who commissioned it, before the title was elevated to Duke of Leinster.
Leinster House 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.