Qualla: Cork Courthouse, Washington Street

Cork Courthouse, Washington Street: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. On 23 June 1917, ten thousand people gathered at Glanmire railway station to welcome the Cork prisoners who had been released from British internment after the Easter Rising. About two thousand of them formed an escort and marched the freed men into the city. Speeches were given on the Grand Parade. A crowd of about five hundred peeled off and walked to the men's prison on Western Road to shout encouragement to the inmates still inside. Then they walked to the courthouse on Washington Street. One man set a ladder against the building, climbed onto the roof, and ran an Irish tricolour up the flagpole. He then walked over to the statue of Lady Justice that crowns the portico, removed the bronze scales of justice she held, and threw them down into the street. They shattered on the pavement to the applause of the crowd. The British scales of justice had been broken in Cork. The story was being rewritten.

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Cork Courthouse, Washington Street: Fire and Rebuilding

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dylan, CC BY-SA 4.0. Almost nothing of the original courthouse remains except the front. A fire devastated the building in 1891, and a competition was held to rebuild it. William Henry Hill won the commission, and a contractor named Samuel Hill (no relation) carried out the reconstruction between 189...

Image: Dylan | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cork Courthouse, Washington Street: The County Council's Upper Floor

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kglavin, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 established county councils across Ireland, and Cork's needed somewhere to meet. The rear of the upper floor of the courthouse, previously used only for judicial business, became the meeting place of Cork County Council. For seventy years t...

Image: Kglavin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cork Courthouse, Washington Street: Three Pilasters, Three Orders

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Klabauter2, CC BY-SA 3.0. The interior that emerged from the 1891-95 reconstruction is one of the more elaborate civic spaces in Cork. The foyer is three storeys tall and crowned by the copper dome, with marble pilasters and piers running up the walls at each level. The classical orders are stacked: Doric...

Image: Klabauter2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cork Courthouse, Washington Street: Closure, Warehouse, Return

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The Speckled Bird, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the late 1990s the building had deteriorated so badly that it had to close. From 1998 to 2005 the courthouse underwent a major two-phase refurbishment - interior first, then exterior - to save it from outright dereliction. During this period a temporary courthouse was improvis...

Image: The Speckled Bird | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cork Courthouse, Washington Street: The Scales Never Returned

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lewis Glucksman Gallery, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cork has not replaced the bronze scales of justice that were thrown into the street in 1917. Lady Justice still stands above the portico. She still wears her blindfold. She still holds her sword. The scales are gone, and have been gone for more than a century. There is something ...

Image: Lewis Glucksman Gallery | CC BY-SA 4.0