Leinster House

Leinster House
Tigh Laighean
Main façade of Leinster House
Location within central Dublin
General information
Architectural style	Georgian
Location	Kildare Street, Dublin, Ireland
Coordinates	53°20′26″N 6°15′14″W / 53.34055°N 6.254021°W / 53.34055; -6.254021
Current tenants	Oireachtas
Construction started	1745
Completed	1748

Leinster House (Irish: Tigh Laighean) is the seat of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Ireland.

Leinster House was originally the ducal palace of the Dukes of Leinster. Since 1922, it is a complex of buildings, of which the former ducal palace is the core, which house Oireachtas Éireann, its members and staff. The most recognisable part of the complex, and the 'public face' of Leinster House, continues to be the former ducal palace at the core of the complex.

Leinster House was the former ducal residence in Dublin of the Duke of Leinster, and since 1922 served as the parliament building of the Irish Free State, predecessor of the modern Irish state, before which it functioned as the headquarters of the Royal Dublin Society. The society's famous Dublin Spring Show and Dublin Horse Show were held on its Leinster Lawn, facing Merrion Square. The building is the meeting place of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann, the two houses of the Oireachtas, and as such the term 'Leinster House' has become a metonym for Irish political activities.

Ireland's parliament over the centuries had met in a number of locations, most notably in the Irish Houses of Parliament at College Green, next to Trinity College, Dublin. Its medieval parliament consisted of two Houses, a House of Commons and a House of Lords. Ireland's senior peer, the Earl of Kildare, had a seat in the Lords. Like all the aristocrats of the period, for the duration of the Social Season and parliamentary sessions, he and his family resided in state in a Dublin residence. (For the rest of the year, they used a number of country residences, notably Frescati House in Blackrock.)