area in 1757, the location of the
Central Bank of Ireland building The General Post Office in Ireland was first located in
High Street in Dublin moving to
Fishamble Street in 1689, to Sycamore Alley in 1709 and then in 1755 to Peter Bardin's Chocolate House at Fownes Court on the site where the Commercial Buildings used to be (later the
Central Bank building). It was afterwards removed to a larger house opposite the
Bank of Ireland building on
College Green. On 6 January 1818, the new post office in Sackville Street (now
O'Connell Street) was opened for business. During the
Easter Rising of 1916, the GPO served as the headquarters of the uprising's leaders. It was from outside this building on 24 April 1916, that
Patrick Pearse read out the
Proclamation of the Irish Republic. The building was destroyed by fire in the course of the rebellion, save for the granite facade, and not rebuilt until 1929, by the
Irish Free State government. An original copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic was displayed in the
museum at the GPO. In anticipation of the 80th anniversary of the Easter Rising, in 1996,
An Post commissioned a series of ten, large format, oil-on-canvas paintings by Irish artist Norman Teeling depicting key events of the Rising, including scenes at the GPO. The suite was displayed in the GPO's main hall until 2005. The museum was closed at the end of May 2015 and replaced by a new visitor centre to commemorate the 1916 Rising, "GPO Witness History", in March 2016. The building has remained a symbol of
Irish nationalism. In 1935, in commemoration of the Rising, a statue depicting the death of the mythical hero
Cúchulainn sculpted by
Oliver Sheppard in 1911 was installed at the command post in the centre of the GPO main hall and is now housed in the front of the building. The statue was featured on the
Irish ten shilling coin of 1966, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Rising. Despite its significance in the history of Irish independence, ground rent for the GPO continued to be paid to English and American landlords until the 1980s. The broadcasting studios of
2RN, which later became
Radio Éireann, were located at the GPO from 1928 until 1974. Draws for
Prize Bonds are held weekly, on Fridays, in the building.
Nelson's Pillar was located in the centre of O'Connell Street adjacent to the GPO, until it was destroyed by Irish republicans in an explosion in 1966. The
Spire of Dublin was erected on the site of the Pillar in 2003. The
Hibernia statue was depicted on the
obverse of a commemorative
2 euro coin marking the
Centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016. The postal service moved its headquarters from the General Post Office building to new premises at North Wall Quay in Dublin, in June 2023. ==Images==