Between the Wars, Home Rule did arrive, but only within the context of the Irish War of Independence. A Northern Ireland parliament was created in Belfast in 1921, and the Irish Free State got an independent ‘Dail’ in Dublin in 1922. The UK became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Public architecture of this era was largely a conservative ‘Neo-Georgian’, but at Portstewart, a new town hall built in 1934/35 was a much more exuberant streamlined affair, with modernist influences, probably reflecting the seaside architecture of other resorts and lidos across the UK and Ireland at that time. The architect was Benjamin Cowser, who won an architectural competition to design the building. When it was first built the Hall comprised on the ground floor, a reading room, minor hall, council room, town clerk’s offices (public and private), surveyor’s office, electrical manager’s office, three store rooms, heating chamber, strong room and three lavatories. On the first floor was the concert hall which could accommodate 380 people.
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