Dublin Chamber of Commerce

Dublin Chamber of Commerce is the largest chamber of commerce in Ireland with over 1,300 member companies. Since its foundation in 1783, Dublin Chamber of Commerce has sought to "bring business people together to share ideas, to form a single voice for the local business community and to ultimately connect and grow business". The membership of Dublin Chamber employs an estimated 350,000 employees from across more than 50 industry sectors, ranging from sole trader businesses to multinational corporations. This means that Dublin Chamber is the most representative and broadly-based business group in the Greater Dublin Area.

Dublin Chamber of Commerce buildings at 7, Clare Street

Dublin Chamber has offices at 7 Clare Street, Dublin 2. As of 2019, the Chief Executive of Dublin Chamber is Mary Rose Burke and the President is Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland.

Origins

Dublin Chamber is one of the oldest such organisation in Europe. The Chamber was founded in 1783,[1] having been preceded by other collective bodies including the Guild of Merchants, which dated from the mediaeval period, and the Ouzel Galley Society, established at the beginning of the 18th century. Dublin Chamber's formation followed a weakening of the merchant guild system which left an opening for bodies which advocated free trade. Much of the focus of the Chamber in its early years was on abolishing impositions and opposing restrictions on export trade.

The creation of Dublin Chamber led to the formation of other chambers of commerce around Ireland, including Waterford (1787), Londonderry (1790), Limerick (1807) and Cork (1814). By 1819 there were 19 chambers of commerce operating in Britain and Ireland - a figure which rose to more than 90 by 1900. The first British federation, the Association of Chambers of Commerce, began in 1860 and included the Irish chambers. Following independence, Chambers in Ireland became members of the Association of Irish Chambers of Commerce, a body now known as Chambers Ireland.

Notable past presidents

Further reading
  • Princes & Pirates: the Dublin Chamber of Commerce 1783-1983 written by L.M.Cullen and published in 1983 by Dublin Chamber of Commerce (ISBN 9780900346491.
  • A Most Respectful Meeting of Merchants: Dublin Chamber of Commerce written by Enda McMahon and published in 2014 (ISBN 9781907535437).

References

Notes
  1. Harrison (1987), p. 65.

Sources
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.