GPO Witness History

Award winning GPO Witness History visitor centre is one of the main things to see and do in Dublin. It is an immersive, interactive and engaging experience of modern Irish history from the late 19th century to modern times with particular emphasis on the 1916 Easter Rising, the Irish War of Independence, the Irish Civil War and the peace process in Northern Ireland. During the Easter Rising of 1916, the GPO served as the headquarters of the uprising's leaders. It was from outside this building on the 24th of April 1916, that Patrick Pearse read out the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.[11] The building was destroyed by fire in the course of the rebellion, save for the granite facade, and not rebuilt until 1929, by the Irish Free State government. An original copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic was displayed in the museum at the GPO. In commemoration of the Rising, a statue depicting the death of the mythical hero Cúchulainn sculpted by Oliver Sheppard in 1911 was sited at the command post in the centre of the GPO main hall and is now housed in the front of the building. The GPO also gets a mention in James Joyce's Ulysses, in chapter 7, “Under the porch of the general post office shoeblacks called and polished“.