The historic heart of Dublin City went greener than ever on the occasion of the celebrations for St. Patrick’s Festival. Building on the success of last year’s event ‘Greening The City’, Festival organisers once again asked all businesses and venues to turn their lights green to create a city-wide illumination for the duration of the Festival weekend (16th-19th March). Proceedings were kicked off by turning the Mansion House green on Friday evening, 16th March. Other landmark buildings including Four Courts, College Green, Christ Church Cathedral, Trinity College and many others major monuments turned green in close succession. ‘Greening The City’ also took to the waterways of Dublin with The Jeanie Johnston Tall Ship and Famine Museum lit up in the typical Irish green.  Getting the city greened in celebration of  St. Patrick’s Festival not only is a great opportunity to showcase Dublin city but also it’s a great time for Dubliners to join together and to show their pride in being Irish reflecting within the Festival the talents and achievements of Irish people on many national and world stages.

On this occasion, Dublin’s Office of Public Works charged GRIVEN’s exclusive distributor for Ireland, the company ENLIGHTEN Professional LED & Architectural Lighting Solutions, with the lighting and refurbishment of the Four Courts illumination system. Built in 1796, The Four Courts is one of Ireland’s most iconic building. Like many of Dublin's finest monuments, it suffered the ravages of wars and went almost completely demolished during the Civil War of 1922. The alterations made since then have not materially changed the aspect of the older building, which was made up of four main parts: the Round Hall,  the dome - a prominent feature of Dublin's skyline -, the Central Office of the High Court and the Law Library. ENLIGHTEN’s remit on this job included the repair and re-lamping of all floodlights on the main building and surrounding court yards. In addition, a number of Powershine S RGBW units were installed to light up the Courts in the famous green of Ireland for the duration of the St. Patrick’s Day festival. The stonework on the façade of the courts lent itself perfectly for the use of colour changing lighting, easily enhancing the green hue with its rough, irregular surface. This project once again highlights the ease with which colour changing lighting fixtures can be used to temporarily or permanently transform the façade of a large building.