It was not until 1939 that a separate mission , known as the British Representative 's Office , was finally established . Following the passing of the Republic of Ireland Act by the Oireachtas in 1948 , under which Ireland withdrew from the Commonwealth the following year , the mission was renamed the British Embassy , with its head restyled Ambassador . The old embassy located in Merrion Square was burnt to the ground during demonstrations by a small number of individuals in a crowd of 20,000-30,000 people on 2 February 1972 , following the Bloody Sunday incident in Derry on 30 January 1972 when the British Army 's Parachute Regiment shot dead 14 unarmed Catholic civilians during a civil rights demonstration . In 1981 protesters tried to storm the British Embassy in response to the IRA hunger strikes of that year
Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1972)
Embassy of the United Kingdom, Dublin