However, Gandon's design came second and brought him to the attention of the politicians who were overseeing the large-scale redevelopment of Dublin, one of the largest cities in Europe at the time.

Between 1769 and 1771, he collaborated with John Woolfe on two additional volumes of Vitruvius Britannicus, a book of plans and drawings of Palladian revival buildings by such architects as Inigo Jones and Colen Campbell.

The British Library has a drawing of the Theatre which was used for an admission ticket for a performance which belonged to King George III.

[6] Thomas Cooley, the original architect on that project, had died and Gandon was chosen to assume complete control.

[8] It is said that the Irish people were so opposed to the Custom House and its associated taxes that Beresford had to smuggle Gandon into the country and keep him hidden in his own home for the first three months.

The success of Gandon's designs and commissions were however not reflected in personal popularity: he attracted huge criticism from his enemies.

So hated was the taxation symbolised by the Custom House that the stigma of being its creator was to taint the appreciation of his work throughout his lifetime.

In the 1780s, during the construction of the Four Courts, one broadsheet published daily letters from a correspondent castigating and insulting Gandon and his designs.

In truth Gandon had merely rediscovered what architects from Vitruvius to Thomas Jefferson believed, which was that the Palladian form was eminently suitable for the design of public buildings where huge civic prestige was required.

Gandon died on 24 December 1823[17] at his home in Lucan, County Dublin, having spent forty-two years in the city.

[19][18] It seems that already by the time of his death his reputation was undergoing a re-evaluation, for his tomb-stone reads: – "Such was the respect in which Gandon was held by his neighbours and friends from around his home in Lucan that they refused carriages and walked the 16 miles to and from Drumcondra on the day of his funeral."

In the years since his death, Ireland's troubled history has resulted in destruction and damage to much of Gandon's work, especially his interiors.

The Custom House was burnt down in 1921 by the IRA during the War of Independence and parts of it were rebuilt using a darker shade of native limestone.