[2] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage facing the High Street; the central section featured a tetrastyle portico with Tuscan order columns supporting a frieze and a pediment containing a clock.

[1] A carving depicting the Royal coat of arms was installed at the apex of the pediment.

[1] It was extended to the south with five extra bays to the designs of William Joseph Barre of Newry in 1863.

[2] On 15 August 1998 there was a car bomb attack by the dissident Irish republican paramilitary group, the Real Irish Republican Army: the intended target had been the courthouse,[4][5] but because the driver was unable to find a parking space in front of the building he parked the car in Market Street, roughly 365 yards (334 m) to the east the courthouse,[6][7] killing 29 people (including a woman pregnant with twins) and injuring some 220 others.

[8][9][10] The clock, which had stopped working in 2013, was finally repaired, after the Courts and Tribunals Service had found the necessary funding, in early 2019.