Former Taoiseach Charles Haughey came in for fair praise when junior Minister Martin Cullen launched the OPW's pamphlet A Journey Through Government Buildings in the Italian room on Wednesday. Haughey was right in restoring the building, Cullen said, and would be well vindicated for having the courage to see that it could represent Ireland.
Completed in 1922, the buildings were immediately taken over by the government, became UCD's School of Engineering for many years and, in 1989, were restored within 35 weeks at a cost of £17.4 million. They are now open to the public at weekends. As far as Quidnunc is aware, no portrait of the buildings' mentor, CJH, hangs there - although, along with other former Taoisigh, his image adorns Leinster House next door. Maybe the OPW would consider resurrecting one of the four portraits of the former Taoiseach that until very recently lay in the OPW vaults at Stephens' Green.
They were commissioned by the OPW from various artists as the official portrait but rejected by the subject because he didn't like them. Quidnunc understands, however, that they have recently found homes - in Kinsealy, Dublin Castle and in the National Portrait Collection.