Oriel House was the address at which a US pneumatic tyre patent was drafted in 1893 'for the wheels of
Velocipedes and other Vehicles'. The house served as headquarters for the
Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company, for which it was known as the
Dunlop Oriel House. During the
Irish Civil War, under
Frank Thornton, it became the base for the
Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Irish Free State - but separate from
An Garda Síochána, the national police force. It was used by the
Department of Lands in the late 1940s, and
Gaeltarra Eireann had its head office there in the 1950s. It was later purchased by Trinity College Dublin. ==References==