Cork Opera House is a theatre and opera house in Cork in the Republic of Ireland. It was originally built in 1855, and was built on a template that the architect had used for the exhibition buildings at the Irish Industrial Exhibition. But since then its existence has not been discontinuous; having survived the burning of much of Cork by British forces in reprisal for an ambush of a military convoy in 1920 by Irish rebels, the Opera House nevertheless was burned down in its centenary year by a combination of old wiring and wooden materials. Although Cork had until then boasted the presence of a proper theatre in some form for over 250 years, it was not until 1963 that the Opera House was rebuilt fully and opened.