Statue In King’s Inns Park In Dublin [Since Destroyed In An Accident]
Image by infomatique
NOTE: I had incorrectly identified this building as a museum.
The King’s Inns, formally known as the Honorable Society of King’s Inns (HSKI), is the institution which controls the entry of barristers-at-law into the justice system of the Republic of Ireland. The full title retains the historical spelling variant "honorable" in preference to the contemporary Irish/British "honourable" .
The society was created in 1541, this being 51 years before Trinity College, Dublin, was founded, making it one of Ireland’s oldest professional and educational institutions. The founders named their society in honour of King Henry VIII of England and secured a lease of lands at Inns Quay on the Northside of Dublin. The society was reconstituted in 1607, having undergone inactivity for some time previous. In 1790 the Inns Quays site was acquired for the purposes of the Four Courts, the foundation stone at the present Henrietta Street was laid on 1 August 1795, with James Gandon being commissioned as the architect. The building had not been completed when Gandon left Ireland in 1808, so the building was completed by his pupil, Henry Aaron Baker.