It would be interesting to know if, in the rebuilding of the Four Courts, which must be nearing completion, any traces were found underground of the great Dominican Priory which formerly occupied this site. The first Priory was founded here in the year 1224, but was destroyed in 1316 to prevent Richard Bruce obtaining an entrance to the city, and the stones used for building a city wall, but Edward III. obliged the citizens to restore the church later. With the suppression of the monasteries under Henry VIII. the Priory suffered a like fate, and was subsequently used as a theatre and afterwards as a printing office, a rare edition of a prayer-book, dated 1760, adorned with quaint woodcuts, emanating from there. The monastery chapel was used by the French Huguenots until it was taken over for the purpose of erecting the present Four Courts, of which the foundation stone was laid in 1786. They took fourteen years to build and cost £200,000.
The Irish Times, June 21st, 1929.