Series C banknotes

The notes were commissioned by the then-Central Bank of Ireland in five denominations. The Central Bank held a limited competition in 1991 and invited nine Irish artists, having decided on the theme previous to invitation. The designs of Robert Ballagh were chosen, and his designs were used in all the denominations to follow a unified design pattern.

The theme for this series was people who contributed to the formation of a modern Ireland, and to this effect it includes political figures, literary and religious figures.

These notes incorporated a number of sophisticated features for security, and for the partially sighted and blind; such features had not previously seen on banknotes in Ireland.

The front of the note features Catherine McAuley, who founded the Sisters of Mercy; the background features the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Dublin, which was founded by the Sisters of Mercy.

The back of the note features three children in a classroom. The first verse of the Irish poem Mise Raifteirí an File by the blind poet Antoine Ó Raifteiri is presented on the blackboard in Gaelic script. A map of Europe, without political boundaries, is at the back.

The front of the note features James Joyce; the background features Counties Dublin and Wicklow, particularly Dublin Bay.

The back of the note features one of the heads on The Custom House, Dublin by Edward Smyth. The head is one of fourteen and believed to represent the River Liffey. A nineteenth-century map and part of "Finnegans Wake" with Joyce's signature also feature.

The front of the note features a portrait of 19th-century nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell, the background features his home at Derrynane Abbey, County Kerry. The brick detail in the building is '£20' printed repeatedly. This was an added security feature that was often missed by counterfeiters.

The back of the note features a "Repeal the Act of Union" pledge signed in 1845 by early Irish statesmen, with the Four Courts in the background.

The front of the note features Douglas Hyde, Irish-language scholar and first President of Ireland; the background features Áras an Uachtaráin set against the interior of the base of the Ardagh Chalice.

The back of the note features an uilleann piper and the seal of Conradh na Gaeilge. An excerpt from a sixteenth-century manuscript kept by the Royal Irish Academy also features.

The front of the note features Charles Stewart Parnell; the background depicts a view of his residence Avondale House of Rathdrum, County Wicklow. A hound also features.

The back of the note features part of the Parnell Monument, O'Connell Street, Dublin. The signature of Parnell is the one which he used in response to the Home Rule Bill.