On my first trip to Dublin, I quickly noticed, and was intrigued by the colourful doors on many of the houses.
The doors were particularly common, but not exclusive to, the Georgian townhouses that lined streets in areas of the city south of the River Liffey around Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square.
Why the colourful doors?
There are many stories behind this phenomena. Each of them has its own possible truth, and some of them are probably more urban legend than anything.
In the 1800's Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom. At the time of the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, in 1861 the doors of all the houses in the British Empire were ordered to be painted black. Already, there was an independent air in Dublin and in much of Ireland. Upon this order many of the homeowners responded by painting their doors any bright colour.
Two possible stories have to do with drinking. Tired of their husbands coming home drunk at night, and not being unable to distinguish one house from another, the weary wives took to painting the doors different colours to help them out.
Related to the same theme, is that story that two eccentric writers, George Moore and Oliver St. John O'Gogarty lived next door to each other. Moore painted his door green so that the drunken O'Gogarty would not mistakenly knock at his door late in the night. In response O'Gogarty painted his door bright red and from there the trend took off.
At the time of construction many of the homes did not have street numbers. In order to help distinguish one home from another, the doors were painted different colours.
The Georgian townhouses are all very stately and in parts of the city stand row upon row for blocks. Due to the strict guidelines for the planning and construction of these home there was very little to distinguish one house from another. In response to this owners of these homes took it upon themselves to use colour on their doorways to distinguish one home from the other. What is interesting to know is that the stark exterior of these homes was in great contrast to the stately insides of the homes with large rooms and high ceilings.
