Editing Four Courts (section)

===Destruction in Civil War===
{{main|Four Courts explosion}}
[[File:Four Courts Conflagration.jpg|thumb|left|250px|The Four Courts on fire during the [[Irish Civil War|Civil War]]]]

On 14 April 1922, the courts complex was occupied by [[Irish Republican Army (1922–69)|IRA]] forces opposed to the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]], with [[Rory O'Connor (Irish republican)|Rory O'Connor]] acting as their spokesman. On 28 June the new [[National Army (Ireland)|National Army]] attacked the building to dislodge the "rebels", on the orders of the [[Minister for Defence (Ireland)|Minister for Defence]] [[Richard Mulcahy]], authorised by [[President of Dáil Éireann]] [[Arthur Griffith]].<ref name=Townshend>'The Republic – the Fight for Irish Independence 1918–1923' Charles Townshend {{ISBN|978-0-141-03004-3}}</ref> This attack provoked a [[Battle of Dublin (1922)|week of fighting in Dublin]]. In the process of the bombardment, the historic building was destroyed. The west wing of the building was obliterated in a huge explosion, destroying the Irish [[National Archives of Ireland|Public Record Office]] at the rear of the building. Nearly a thousand years of archives were destroyed by this explosion, the ensuing fire, and the water poured onto the fire.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/ruin-of-public-record-office-marked-loss-of-great-archive-1.1069843|title=Ruin of Public Record Office marked loss of great archive|date=30 June 2012|publisher=Irish Times|access-date=9 November 2019|archive-date=30 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200130055140/https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/ruin-of-public-record-office-marked-loss-of-great-archive-1.1069843|url-status=live}}</ref>

The IRA was accused of mining the records office; however, those present, who included future [[Taoiseach]] [[Seán Lemass]], said that, while they had used the archive as a store of their ammunition, they had not deliberately mined it. They suggest that the explosion was caused by the accidental detonation of their ammunition store during the fighting.<ref name=Townshend />