Sir, - As one who has the privilege of introducing our beautiful country to French visitors each summer, it saddens me to find how few of our native population are aware of the previous history of the Bank of Ireland at College Green as the Irish Parliament building of Grattan and the Duke of Wellington up to the time of the Act of Union of 1800. Last summer I found not only that most Dubliners I spoke to were unaware of this previous history, but also that most of the bank clerks themselves in the room of the former House of Commons in the bank were also oblivious to it.
We are trying at present to move slowly towards a more inclusive notion of "Irishness", where we try to recognise equally both the main historical traditions in the island as well as the many new streams that are now brought to the island as a result of the current wave of prosperity. Could not this be a time to consider re-opening the old parliament as a symbol of our "connectedness" with all our past, just as in the new, reunited Germany, the Reichstag has reverted to being the German parliament headquarters?
It seems a shame that the Dublin town house of The Earl of Kildare designed by Richard Cassels - a fine historical house in its own right - should be the seat of parliament, while the specially commissioned and designed parliament building of Sir Edward Lovat Pearce and James Gandon should be merely a branch of the Bank of Ireland. In the aftermath of the present purging of our political processes, perhaps some of the new ideas promulgated by John Bruton for a newer, slimmer Dail could include the aim to relocate Ireland's parliament to College Green? - Yours, etc.,
Cormac O'Duffy Glensheen, Gort Road, Ennis, Co Clare.