Tonight I gave my talk on “Carson, Craig and the British Identity” in honour of and in tribute to my friend Rev Dr Ian R K Paisley, the Lord Bannside, PC for whom I was Personal Physician and Advisor on History and Culture from July 2004 until his death yesterday. I was indeed a very close friend of Dr Paisley and his family. He was a wonderful travelling companion to the bookshops we visited regularly both here and in Great Britain. A second Columbanus, his long and fruitful life had as its guiding principle his abiding love and worship of his Master Jesus. All his activities were subordinate to this one ideal and through it he worked out his Salvation by the wondrous pathway that he knew. He was a politician only by circumstance, a theologian by vocation, a contemplative driven to action by the evils of this world, a Pilgrim on the Road to Paradise. He has arrived home at last. Christ loved Ian Paisley…Well too, did he, the Lord.
Built in 1726 by the Grand Jury, the grade A listed Old Courthouse, Antrim, the venue of my talk, is now the oldest court house still standing in Northern Ireland and is considered by many to be one of the finest. It has a lot of historical resonance for me.
Distinctly Italianate in style with its key features of rich Doric doorcase, arcaded ground floor, cupola, and hipped roof with very wide eaves, the ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs’ in the 1830s summarised the building as ” an ornament to the town.”
The ground storey was originally used as a market place or weigh-house open to the street. A temporary bridewell confined drunkards, rioters and prisoners under trial at the quarter sessions. The iron railings still remain and have been incorporated in the redevelopment.
On 7 June 1798, the building was the focus of the ‘Battle of Antrim’, connected with the Irish Rebellion of that year. A meeting of the neighbouring magistrates was to have taken place in the market house to establish martial law, but the rebel United Irishmen, led by Henry Joy McCracken, learned of the intended meeting and determined to attack the town and take the magistrates hostage. While confusion upset the rebels’ plans and they suffered heavy casualties they did manage to overcome Lord O’Neill from Shane’s Castle who as governor of the county had come to attend the meeting, and pike him to death as he attempted to run up the steps to the building.
The use of part of the ground floor as a temporary bridewell continued until 1856 when a new bridewell and police barracks were built in Market Square. Subsequent uses, including a spell as a small town library and refurbishments during the 20th century, gradually dispensed with the arcade appearance of the ground floor and concealed many of the building’s interesting features, including a line of fine Tuscan support columns along the central spine of the building which have now been carefully restored.
The upper floor, as well as housing the court room, also contained a retiring room for the bench and a jury room over keeper’s apartments. There is evidence to suggest that ‘concerts and balls’ were promoted in the space during the late 18thCentury.
With the condition of the building deteriorating necessitating the insertion of unsightly structural props in the 1960/70s to support the roof trusses, and further damage from a car bomb during the 1980s, the building ceased to function as a court house when a new court opened nearby and it was purchased by Antrim Borough Council.
Building work commenced in November 2008.
Archaeological investigations carried out during the work uncovered items including a Sakur cannon ball and a 1792 William and Mary coin which are on display in the Old Courthouse.