If flying from Dublin Airport's Terminal 1 this summer, see if you can find time to admire one of Ireland’s most elegant modernist buildings. In the 1940s, Dublin Airport’s old terminal building heralded a new building type for the former Free State, constructed in especially difficult times. Once publication restrictions lifted following the war, it was admired for its elegance and meticulous attention to detail internationally.
Preparing for take-off
In 1936, the government announced plans to develop Ireland’s first civil airport. The site they chose was the 700-acre derelict World War I Royal Corps training base at Collinstown, Co. Dublin (1). Construction of the main runway began the following year. The Office of Public Works (OPW) was tasked with the design of the terminal, under the direction of the OPW’s principal architect T.J. Byrne (1876 – 1939) who took on the impressive young architect Desmond FitzGerald (1911 – 1987) as his assistant architect.
FitzGerald had only gained his BArch the previous year but was deemed the only architect qualified nationally because he had won an RIAI prize for his student thesis of an airport design. The latter was quite different to the final design for the Dublin terminal, however.
as seen in Irish Builder magazine, July 1935
Freddie O’Dwyer describes the student project as 'a conventional brick-faced rectilinear structure placed tangentially to a circular airfield of the type then popular in Germany' (2). Other possible factors in favour of his selection were that he was the son of Desmond Fitzgerald, former Minister for External Affairs (1927 – 32), and brother to Dr Garret FitzGerald, the future Taoiseach.
Co-pilot
FitzGerald's chief assistant architect was Dermot O’Toole (1910 – 1970), along with Harry Robson (1909 – 2003), Daithí Hanly (1917 – 2003), Kevin Barry (birthdates unknown) and Charles Aliaga-Kelly (1918- 2013). Like FitzGerald, Dermot O’Toole was only recently qualified having studied at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin and the Crawford Technical Institute and School of Art in Cork. From 1932, he worked for various architectural practices, including Scott and Good until 1935, and was involved in the early stages of the Tullamore Hospital in Offaly (1934 – 7) (3).
Oblique aerial photograph taken facing east.
(Pic: Historic England)
Waiting for departure
The history of the design for the terminal is a little complicated. The story goes that in 1938 the Minister for Industry and Commerce Seán Lemass arrived at the OPW Architects’ Department urgently needing an airport presentation design for approval by the cabinet. Desmond FitzGerald was on his honeymoon and according to Paul O’Toole, son of Dermot, ‘My father showed him three designs for the proposed airport building; one was a straight line in plan, second was an angular facetted plan, and third was my father’s curved terminal building’. The Minister selected the curved design that stands today. It seems FitzGerald was not put out in the slightest that his design was not chosen and was rather relieved that a decision was made. Nevertheless, he would subsequently take full credit for the airport design for the rest of his days, even failing to mention O’Toole or the input from the rest of his team upon receiving the RIAI Triennial Gold Medal in 1943.
Never again would Fitzgerald be associated with a building with the lightness and elegance of the Dublin Airport old terminal building. Examples of his solo designs include the Moyne Institute of Preventative Medicine, Trinity College Dublin (1953) and O’Connell Bridge House (1965) in Dublin. O’Toole was never bitter about not receiving recognition for his design. Instead, he was grateful to FitzGerald’s tenacity during the project, without which, he believed, the airport would never have been built (4).
Ahead of the curve
The design contract was awarded to Murphy Brothers in November 1938. The curved plan of the terminal building, when viewed from above, is not only beautiful but practical as it maximises the number of service spaces for aircraft along its outer perimeter (5). It was one of the first airports in the world to establish that functional logic, which would become the standard (6). The cantilevered ‘arms’ with their tiered viewing terraces curve out either side of the monumental central pavilion, atop which sits the control room. The repeated bands of horizontal glazing and open-air observation decks and wide balconies on several levels give the appearance of an ocean liner, suggesting continuity between these two new modes of international travel, and the generous glazing allowed the viewing of planes taking off and landing to develop as a new recreational activity.
Oblique aerial photograph taken facing east.
(Pic: Historic England)
Eyes turned skyward
Passengers entered the double-height space of the main concourse to find booking desks finished in walnut and sycamore, beyond a row of columns supporting the first floor. Staircases of travertine marble with bronze balustrades and wooden handrails bookended the concourse. The customs hall, administrative offices, bank, post office, lounge and bar were also found on the ground floor, in a plan that was especially praised for the clarity of its circulation routes. The first floor housed management offices and the restaurant with its circular maple dance floor overlooking the airfield. The attention to detail was astounding with the architectural team even choosing the fabrics, furniture, carpets, cutlery and the menu cards. Collinstown Airport, as it was first known, officially opened on 19 January 1940, but publication of any details was delayed due to wartime censorship.
The old terminal building is listed on Fingal County Council’s list of protected structures. It no longer serves its original use but is used as offices. The building is surrounded by additional terminal buildings (north terminal extension in 1959 and later a terminal building –Terminal 1 – in 1971 (7) and Terminal 2 in 2010) but still manages to hold its own 85 years later.
Thank you to Paul O’Toole for giving his time to be interviewed, Shane O’Toole for putting me on the right flight path and to Graeme McQueen and the DAA communications team for use of their images.
(1) Buildings for Government; the architecture of State Buildings OPW: Ireland 1900 – 2000, (1999), p.72
(2) Freddie O'Dwyer 'Ahead of the Curve: Dublin Airport and the Duval Plan’ in Irish Arts Review vol.29, No.2, (2012)
(3) Seán Rothery (1991), Ireland and the New Architecture 1900 - 1940, p.147
(4) Conversation with architect Paul O'Toole, son of Dermot O’Toole (July 2025)
(5) Buildings for Government; the architecture of State Buildings OPW: Ireland 1900 – 2000, (1999), p.72
(6) John Olley, 20th-century architecture – Ireland (Annette Becker, John Olley and Wilfried Wang eds.), 1997, p.111
(7) Both designed by Leo M. Carroll (1920 – 2003).
