This book, commissioned as an action of the Dublin City Heritage Plan, opens with an historical introduction to 18th- and 19th-century banking, beginning with private banking concerns, the emergence of the Bank of Ireland, and the arrival of large joint-stock companies. The architecture of the impressive head-office buildings and their sumptuous banking halls are treated chronologically and thematically, tracing Italianate and later Ruskinian Gothic influences, cash-office arrangements, and the impact of politics reflected in building materials and sculptural decoration.

An appendix on documentary sources for further research and a pictorial architectural synopsis conclude this study.