Limerick Courthouse, which will be officially reopened this morning , will have an expanded role as a centre for administering justice, writes Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent
When the Central Criminal Court sits outside Dublin for the first time in July those attending it will enjoy the best view from any courthouse in the State.
Limerick Courthouse is on the banks of the Shannon, overlooked by St John's Castle, and surrounded by other historic buildings from the old centre of the city.
The Hunt Museum nearby was the old Customs House. The river is 150 yards wide at that point, and many of the courtrooms overlook it. Old engravings of the city shows tall ships moored outside the building.
The courthouse was completed as the Limerick county courthouse in 1810 by two Limerick architects, Nicholas and William Hannon, and has been continually in use as a courthouse since then.
However, the most famous trial in the area, for the murder of the Colleen Bawn, took place in another building across the street, now in use as a Gaelscoil, but formerly the city court-house. The trial was of a scion of a local "half-mounted gentry" local family called Scanlon, who had enticed a peasant girl, the "Colleen Bawn", into a form of marriage. His family objected strongly, he, along with a servant called Sullivan, reputedly persuaded her to cross the Shannon to Co Clare with them, but murdered her during the crossing.
Her body was then washed up in Clare, and Scanlon was tried and hanged. According to Mr Brian Geary, former county registrar, Daniel O'Connell was reputedly a barrister in the case, and the story was later the subject of a play by Dion Boucicault, and of a novel. The courthouse was in a sorry state before the refurbishment. The county registrar, Mr Pat Meaghan, took up his position three years ago. "The place was a kip," he told The Irish Times.
"The lino had not been replaced in 50 years. The building had got to the stage where it was hard to maintain. It was hard even to wash the floors. The windows rattled in the wind that swept up from the Shannon. Files were piled on the floor. The staff toilets were even worse than the public ones." The original building had been remodelled in 1956, and much of the historical detail and features removed. The pitched roof was replaced by a flat roof, which altered the profile of the building.
The task of the architects undertaking the refurbishment, Murray, O'Leary and Associates, was to meet the needs of a modern court system, while remaining within the footprint of the existing building and preserving its character. Central to solving this problem was extending into the roof space, creating an extra floor, and reinstating the pitched roof, much of it in glass.
This covers an atrium which brings light down into the whole building. The new stairs are made of glass tiles, allowing more light to penetrate the lower floors. The new attic floor now houses the Circuit Court offices and administration. It also has a walkway around three sides. The first two floors have courtrooms. Courtroom one, on the ground floor, is where most criminal trials take place, and there are new cells behind it.
It also has a large public gallery, and this is intended for school visits and for the public, according to Mr Meaghan. The jury room, complete with kitchen and toilet, has opaque windows so that no-one can watch their deliberations. The second courtroom will allow the District Court to sit at the same time.
The second floor has a family law suite, including a courtroom with a magnificent view of the river, consultation rooms as well as accommodation for lawyers and the judge.
"You can have criminal trials going on downstairs, and you would never know there was a family law case going on here," said Mr Meaghan.