If you think of Ireland, you would probably think of fantastic landscapes, endless drinking and a leprechaun sitting atop a rainbow. Yet the overwhelming characteristic of Ireland is its dull, grey weather. Walking around Dublin, it’s hard to ignore how grey the city is, right from its concrete structures to the sky, which limits the sunshine even in peak summer.

1. Why do Dubliners paint
their doors?

2. If you think of Ireland, you would probably think of fantastic landscapes, endless
drinking and a leprechaun sitting atop a rainbow. Yet the overwhelming
characteristic of Ireland is its dull, grey weather. Walking around Dublin, it’s
hard to ignore how grey the city is, right from its concrete structures to the sky,
which limits the sunshine even in peak summer. And then suddenly, in the midst
of all this grey, you come across a building with a candy lilac door. Look around,
and you start seeing the colours. Another door is bright red, the one after a
soothing, pale pink.

3. It doesn’t take long to realize that the main doors of buildings are painted in
different colours. While this is true across the city, it is particularly prominent at
Fitzwilliam Square, the nearby Merrion Square and St Stephen’s Green, which
were home to the elite of Dublin, including poets like W.B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde
and the geologist Sir Richard Griffith. Today, these Georgian townhouses serve
as offices of solicitors and insurers, still the cream of Dublin’s society.

4. The Georgian architecture of the Fitzwilliam and Merrion squares makes the
colourful doors stand out even more. This style of architecture was prevalent
from 1714-1830, from the reign of King George I to King George IV. Dublin’s
Georgian squares are characterized by symmetrical townhouses of dull, reddish-
brown bricks, with a little staircase at the door, and white pillars on either side.
The townhouses are lined up side by side, each the same height, with similar,
equidistant windows. This symmetry was mandated by the building regulations.

5. The pops of colour break the uniformity, especially since the shades seem to
have no pattern other than the owner’s whim. The doors range from merry
purple to subtle pink, lemon yellow, striking turquoise and deep grey to hot pink,
and every other colour in between. No two adjacent doors have the same colour.

6. Many legends explain this tradition but my favourite is the one that involves
Queen Victoria. Ireland was colonized by the English and when Queen Victoria,
nicknamed the “famine queen” in Ireland, died, the Irish were told to paint their
doors black in mourning. In rebellion, they painted them in bright colours. It’s
likely this story has no basis in truth and is meant merely to extol Irish defiance,
but that doesn’t make it any less charming.

7. Another popular theory about the colourful doors involves writers George
Moore and Oliver St John Gogarty, both of whom are said to have had a huge
influence on James Joyce’s work. According to the story, Gogarty would return
home drunk from the pub each night and end up knocking on his neighbour
Moore’s door instead of his own. Annoyed, Moore painted his door green so that
even a drunk Gogarty might be able to distinguish between the two. The trend
caught on and residents started painting their doors in different colours to give
their houses a distinct identity.

8. Even the accessories on these doors became a creative outlet. Many doors have
old-fashioned knobs, intricate brass-door knockers and letter boxes ranging
from a sphinx to lion-face designs. Yet the doors only became famous, and
turned into a cultural icon of Dublin, when a New York-based advertising
professional visiting the city in 1970 decided to display the doors in a collage.
The picture, displayed at the Irish tourism office, quickly became a popular,
award-winning poster. Souvenir shops sell postcards and fridge magnets of the
iconic doors.

9. To me, these doors are a symbol of something greater, a personification of the
Irish spirit itself. In a country where the persistent rain and grey sky can dampen
even the most cheerful spirit, the colourful doors are a statement of bravado.
Like the lively pubs and spirited music, these doors remind you to smile through
the day, come what may.

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