Irish News Office

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-storey four-bay building set slightly forward of the building line in Donegall Street, of red brick with painted stone or stucco enrichments, designed by J J McDonnell in 1905.

Roof probably corrugated iron (front slope not visible) with deep stucco parapet to the front over modillion crown cornice. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond. Timber casement windows.

Front elevation faces west. Upper floors red brick with splayed soldier courses over windows; giant order brick pilasters rising through first and second floors to plain capitals and through the cornice into the parapet. Parapet approximately 1m high above deep moulded and dentilled cornice with wave parapets at each end. Windows (mostly pairs of casements with mid-rails, but with tripartite windows in slightly arched opes in outer second floor bays) have narrow stone keystones and projecting cills. First floor keystones linked by moulded string course between floors. Painted stucco or stone ground floor falls into three irregular bays divided by panelled pilasters, the left and central bays further divided by pilasters, running from plinth to entablature. Entrance door at extreme left, other bays divided into vertical windows with top lights. Entablature over ground floor projects deeply and is supported on dentils, the central portion rising in an arc to enclose the name "IRISH NEWS Ltd." Plinth panelled between pilasters over plain base.

Side elevations of the main building are rendered where above neighbouring buildings.

The rear elevation is abutted by a later additional pile, gabled and of redbrick, with a series of casement windows; this is further abutted by a series of single storey gabled blocks, all fronted to car park at north by a redbrick wall with modern openings.

Setting

Street fronted to Donegall Street, north of Belfast city centre, surrounded by generally modern buildings.

Roof: Corrugated metal
Walling: Brick
Windows: Timber
RWG: Not known

Historical information

Nos 113-117 Donegall Street, a three-storey four-bay redbrick building utilised as the Irish News Offices, was constructed in 1905; the Irish Builder notes that the building was designed by John Joseph McDonnell, a Belfast-based architect. McDonnell (1857-1924) was apprenticed to the Roman Catholic architect Timothy Hevey but established an independent practise in 1881. Although engaged as a commercial and domestic architect, McDonnell is best known for designing buildings for the Roman Catholic church, such as convents, schools and churches (his most accomplished work was the Roman Catholic Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Clonard Gardens (1908-11). McDonnell was also a local magistrate having served as a Justice of the Peace from 1893 and a member of the Belfast Corporation since the late-1890s; a nationalist Roman Catholic politician and architect, McDonnell was an ideal candidate to design the pro-nationalist Irish News headquarters (Irish Builder, p. 694; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

Prior to 1905 the Irish News offices were located at No. 125 Donegall Street, however in that year the current building was constructed to hold the periodical’s offices and printing works; the Annual Revisions initially valued the new Irish News headquarters at £230. The offices were primarily used for the production of the ‘Irish News and Belfast Morning News,’ however the ‘Irish Weekly and Ulster Examiner’ was also printed there under the management of a Mr. T. Whyte (Belfast Street Directories – 1907-1918). There was no further change to the site until 1922-24 when a number of alterations were carried out by W. J. Convery (Belfast-based designer) resulting in the current appearance of the building and the subsequent increase in the value of the site to £348 (Irish Builder, p. 533); there was no further change to the value of the building by the end of the Annual Revisions which were cancelled in 1930.

The First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1935) increased the value of the Irish News Offices to £490. The building survived the heavy bombardment of Belfast’s city centre during the 1941 Blitz and in the aftermath of the Second World War the building was included in the second general revaluation which commenced in 1956. By the 1950s the value of nos 113-117 Donegall Street had been greatly increased to £1,230 as a result of the extension of the printing facilities to the rear of the building; there was no further alteration by the end of the revaluation in 1972.

The Irish News, Belfast’s main nationalist daily newspaper was ironically first established in 1891 as an Anti-Parnell periodical (the periodical was formed from the ashes of the Belfast Morning News – formed in 1855), however its political outlook quickly altered and by the beginning of the 20th century the Irish News became one of the most widely produced nationalist papers in the city of Belfast and the first penny newspaper in all of Ireland (Bardon). The paper’s first offices were located at No. 125 Donegall Street, however the headquarters where moved to the current site in 1905; Patton states that the current site was once the location of a cotton spinning mill that had belonged to John McCracken (father of the United Irishman, Henry Joy McCracken) but was demolished in the mid-19th century to make way for the Victorian redevelopment of Donegall Street.

The Irish News has occupied nos 113-117 Donegall Street as their main headquarters for over a century; the modern rear extension was added sometime before the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1959-60. The Irish News offices were listed in 1990; Patton, writing in 1994, described the building in the following terms: ‘three-storey four-bay building in red brick with painted stone or stucco details, set forward of the general building line. Deep dentilled fascia over ground floor, with central portion raised in segmental curve; slightly dropped keystones to upper floors; end bays have semi-circular pediments; channelled quoins at sides’ (Patton, pp 128-129). Although The Irish News continues to utilise nos 113-117 Donegall Street as its main headquarters, after a series of bombs nearby in the 1970s and the removal of the printing presses to other premises, this building is much diminished from the its original extent, and parts have been rebuilt to basic modern standards, with very little historic fabric remaining.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/C/33-45 – Annual Revisions 1906-1930
5. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/14 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/39 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
7. Irish Builder, Vol. 47 (7 Oct 1905); Vol. 66 (14 Jun 1924)
8. Belfast Street Directories (1901-1943)
9. First Survey Image – HB26/50/189 (1989)
10. Ordnance Survey map – 130-13NE (1959-60)

Secondary Sources
1. Bardon, J., ‘Belfast: An illustrated history’ Belfast: The Blackstaff Press, 1982.
2. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
3. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie
2. Irish News website - http://www.irishnews.com/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
R. Age
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Three-storey four-bay building of red brick with painted stone or stucco enrichments, designed by J J McDonnell in 1905. Much historic fabric and detailing survive and it is also of interest as - purpose -designed newspaper premises. As the base for one of the City's leading papers for a hundred years it has considerable historic interest, although the paper is now printed elsewhere.