J. Colton Hill - Bank of Ireland Building

Bank of Ireland building

This is the Bank of Ireland building in Dublin.  I was able to see this building while I was visiting my brother in the summer of 2012.  This is a massive governmental style building.  If I remember correctly, it used to serve as a sort of governmental/parliamentary building.  The main reason this building was striking and compelling was the fact that the windows are bricked in.  There are large concrete bricks that cover all of the windows.  The reason they are bricked in is a lasting result of the Window Tax from the 16th century.  Great Britain imposed this tax through a sort of income tax based on the amount of windows in a particular building.  If a building had a bunch of windows then their Window Tax would be high.  Many people and businesses began bricking up their windows to avoid paying large taxes.  This was an extremely controversial tax decreed by the English monarchy.  They imposed this on Scotland and other subservient countries of the English empire. It was striking to me that this seemingly dark period in Ireland's history is still so very much on display in this type of way.  It has the look and feel of oppression and tyranny.  I think they should bust those bricks out and add some nice windows of some sort.