The GPO: then and now

A new interactive visitor centre, GPO Witness History, has been built in the building that was at the centre of the rising.

The GPO in O’Connell street, Dublin. Photograph: Eric Luke

Darragh Murphy

Wed Jan 13 2016 - 06:00

In the first hours of the Rising the partitions between the public office and sorting office – situated on the ground floor corner with Henry Street–- were torn down. Today this corner is part of the entrance hallway for the new GPO Witness History exhibition.

In 1916, in the courtyard behind the main public office, horses and carts would have come in and out of the distribution centre office taking mail, along with some motorcars. This is where the new two-storey GPO Witness History building now stands, with an exhibition space in the basement and a landscaped courtyard space above.

At the time of the Rising three statues gazed down upon Sackville Street from atop the GPO. These were Mercury, the Roman messenger god; Fidelity, representing trust in the post; and, at the centre, Hibernia – the embodiment of Ireland.

The originals survived the 1916 Rising but, scarred by war and acid rain, they were replaced in the 1970s.

The balustrade on the roof was replaced in the 1990s to repair the repair work done in the 1920s after independence.

A royal coat of arms on the portico's central triangular pediment was removed by the Irish Free State in the 1920s.