General Post Office, Dublin
The General Post Office on O'Connell Street is Dublin's most historically loaded building, having served as the headquarters of the 1916 Easter Rising, when Patrick Pearse read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic from its steps and rebels held the building through a week of fierce fighting and shelling before it was gutted by fire. It remains a working post office today, its Neoclassical facade still marked by bullet scars, and inside stands a bronze statue of the mythical Cú Chulainn commemorating the Rising's dead.
The adjoining GPO Witness History exhibition uses immersive audio-visual displays, artefacts, and first-hand accounts to walk visitors through the Rising and its aftermath — the executions, the shift in public opinion, and the road to independence. It's one of the most focused and well-produced 1916 exhibitions in the city, and its location inside the actual building where the events unfolded gives it a weight that recreated sets elsewhere can't quite match.
General Post Office, Dublin FAQs
Yes, the ground floor operates as a normal An Post branch, while the GPO Witness History exhibition occupies a separate ticketed section of the building.
You can walk into the post office area for free, but visiting the 1916 exhibition and learning the building's Rising history in depth requires a paid ticket to GPO Witness History.
The GPO served as rebel headquarters during the Easter Rising, where the Proclamation of the Irish Republic was read aloud and Republican forces held out under siege for several days before surrendering.
Yes, marks attributed to the 1916 fighting are still visible on the facade's columns, alongside the building's restored Georgian-Victorian frontage.
Most visitors spend around an hour moving through the multimedia exhibition, which is dense with detail but well-paced.
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