The Irish Times

When it was built, in 1884, it cost just under £800 and took six months to erect. A hundred and twenty years later it has taken two years to restore and rebuild, at a cost of more than €14 million. As it happens, the Great Palm House at the National Botanic Gardens, in Glasnevin, Dublin, could have been considered a bargain when it was built, for that year a single orchid fetched a record price of 1,000 guineas, or £1,050, at auction in London. And the palm house it replaced had cost £4,000, lasting just 25 years before it was declared unsafe, its timbers irreparably rotted and its engineering so poor that it swayed in high winds. Not to mention that its barn-like appearance was universally reviled.