New chapel at Glasnevin to mark the centenary of the Easter Uprising

There was so much interest in an exhibition showing all 128 entries in an architectural competition in Dublin in February that the exhibition was extended.

The building that caused such interest is a £3-£3.5million Centenary Chapel it is proposed to build at Dublin’s famous Glasnevin Cemetery to commemorate the 232 people who died in the Easter Uprising in 1916. The chapel will be built on the site of a mass grave where 131 of the people who died were buried. The rest were interred in family graves throughout the cemetery.

The competition to design the chapel attracted entries from architects internationally, although the winning proposal came from Dublin-based O’Daly Architects, which wins a €10,000 prize as well as the honour of having its design built.

The competition was organised by the The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) on behalf of the Glasnevin Trust. The aim is to have the project completed for, and officially opened during the Easter 2016 Centenary events.

Speaking on behalf of O’Daly Architects, Emer O’Daly, said: “The design for the Glasnevin 1916 Centenary Chapel creates a series of calming and contemplative spaces that are embedded in nature. A garden of water pools and trees is formed around which the visitor journeys from walkway to memorial to chapel space. The interior of the chapel is a play of light, water and stone, creating a space of transition from dark to light.”

It has not yet been decided which stones will be used.