Introducing the Dublin Lord Mayor
RedMum | February 21, 2008Dublin has had a Lord Mayor as its first citizen, only surpassed in authority by the President, since Sir Daniel Bellingham in 1665. However the first citizen of the city has been in place since 1229, just without the Lord part of the title. The Lord Mayor is elected at Dublin City Council once a year though there is a campaign for the term to be lengthened. The current Lord Mayor is Cllr Paddy Bourke. I imagine there are many highlights being Lord Mayor, one being getting to ride in the City’s coach for the St Patrick Day Parade.
The official residence of the Dublin Lord Mayor is the Mansion House which is located on Dawson Street and was built in 1710 by property developer Joshua Dawson. While Joshua lived in the house the powers that be decided to purchase the house for the city at a cost of £3,500 and a yearly rent of 40 shillings and a loaf of double-refined sugar weighing 6lbs each Christmas.
Joshua Dawson also agreed to build another room, the Oak room, to be used for civic receptions. The Oak Room is to this day still used for civic functions and is decorated with the crests of all the Lord Mayors. The bottom photograph shows the crest of Daniel O’Connell who was Lord Mayor between 1841 and 1842.
Most of this information was cogged together from the Dublin City Council website and you can find out lots more about Dublin’s history at the council website.
Photos: 1. Inside the Lord Mayor’s office, the chain. 2. Inside the Oak Room. 3. The front of the Mansion House. 4. The Oak Room crests showing Daniel O’Connell’s crest (top left). 5. Portraits of previous Lord Mayors including the current Taoiseach Bertie Ahern who can be seen in the image.
There’s no apostrophe in “its”, as in “its first citizen”. There’s only an apostrophe in “it’s” when it means “it is”.
This is symptomatic of our bad public notices and signage in Ireland; witness the recent accident and near-accidents by motorists driving the wrong way on the Naas Dual Carriageway, simply because of lack of care with signage.
If you can’t spell, don’t do signage;
If you can’t park your car properly, don’t drive it.
Id say it’s symtamatic of my own typeing more than anything’s else
Okay joking aside I hold my hand up to the mistake (changed now and thanks) and admit that I have probably done it more than once, I have even been known not to not put the apostrophe into don’t particularly in emails and IMs to friends.
But I disagree that it is symptomatic of anything other than my own typing; to couple that with car crashes on the Naas Dual Carriageway is going a little far methinks. Though if misplaced apostrophes have actually sent people into the wrong lane where they end up going around and around the Mad Cow I apologise profusely.
I hope my single apostrophe disaster didn’t take away from the interesting information about our first citizen or indeed the photographs, personally for me it wouldn’t in someone else’s post, an apostrophe in the wrong place wouldn’t also send me the wrong way round the Naas Dual Carriageway.
While pals I know are driven demented by things like ‘menu’s’ I have to say I save my umbrage for other things.
But thank you for that Karl, I shall go outside now, find a stick and beat myself with it, or is that its or it’s. Ah hell I can’t or is that cant work it out
Can you give some information on the Lord Mayor’s chain? Is this the D’Olier chain? I am researching a family name, D’Olier. I have reason to believe Isaac D’Olier, a goldsmith, made this chain.
Thank you for any information.
Harry Sherry
Happy to hear from you as we may be able to help.