General Post Office (Dublin)

Facade (2006)

Destroyed main post office on Sackville Street (later O'Connell Street) after the 1916 uprising (Nelson's Pillar in the background)

Capt Eoin O Sullivan reads the Easter proclamation at the Easter Sunday 2010 commemoration outside the General Post Office.

The General Post Office ( GPO , Irish Árd-Oifig an Phoist ) is the main post office of Dublin and the headquarters of An Post , the Irish Post Office . It is on the corner of Henry Street and O'Connell Street , with the main entrance on O'Connell Street.

history

The building went down in history as the headquarters of the 1916 Easter Rising : On April 24, 1916, an Easter Monday, members of the Irish Volunteers Force and the Irish Citizen Army stormed the post office and occupied it and other official buildings in the city. They proclaim the Republic of Ireland before succumbing to British repression.

The building designed by the Irish architect Francis Johnston (1760–1829) was badly damaged on this occasion. It was then restored by the Irish Free State . A statue of Cúchulainn , the most famous hero of Irish Celtic mythology , stands in front of the building to commemorate the uprising.

General Post Office (left) and Nelson's Pillar (ca.1830)
Memorial plaque to the Easter Rising (1916)
Text of the Easter Proclamation of 1916 announced by Patrick Pearse to the General Post Office