The Irish Georgian Society is seeking two part-time employees (Shop & Events Assistants) to work in its bookshop and assist with running events at its premises, City Assembly House, 58 South William Street, Dublin 2. 

Candidates should have an enthusiasm for Ireland’s cultural heritage, art and architecture, and have retail experience. They will need to be available to work a minimum of two days a week and have flexibility with hours. The salary is €11 per hour.

Applicants should email their CV along with a cover letter to Donough Cahill, Executive Director, Irish Georgian Society - recruitment@igs.ie. 

Deadline for applications is by 5pm on Wednesday 26th September 2018.

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Eoghan Murphy TD
Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government
Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government
Custom House
Dublin D01 W6X0

17 September 2018

Re. Urgent need to complete National Landscape Character Assessment to facilitate development of renewable energy infrastructure

Dear Minister Murphy,

The Irish Georgian Society is a membership organisation, which encourages and promotes the conservation of distinguished examples of architecture and the allied arts of all periods in Ireland. These aims are achieved through our education programmes, by supporting and undertaking conservation works, publishing original research, planning participation and fundraising. The Society has had a marked and widely acknowledged impact on the conservation of built heritage in the state and has wide experience of the problems associated with the restoration, repair and maintenance of the fabric of historic property. The Irish Georgian Society is a strong advocate on the subject of the protection of historic landscapes and has held a number of educational events on historic gardens and landscapes, the most relevant to this consultation being the seminars entitled “Dublin’s Victorian and Edwardian Parks” (February 2013) and “Historic Landscape: Loved, lost or in limbo?” (February 2015), which were held in conjunction with the Irish Landscape Institute.

The Society advocates for sustainable development, as defined in Our Common Future (or the Brundtland Report) published by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987. As set out in the 2005 UNESCO publication UNESCO and Sustainable Development: “Culture is increasingly recognized as an essential dimension of sustainable development, particularly since the 2002 Johannesburg Summit”. The work of the Society in encouraging and promoting the conservation of distinguished examples of architecture, the allied arts and historic landscape in Ireland is, therefore, inextricably linked with the concept sustainable development. The Society has made numerous submissions to the Department in the past as part of policy consultations highlighting the sustainable reuse and regeneration of historic building stock as a key pillar of sustainable development. It should go without saying that the Society further supports the shift away from reliance on fossil fuels towards renewable energy for obvious reasons, but it is also worth noting that embracing renewable energy technologies can facilitate the protection of large rural demesnes of very significant heritage importance into the future. In this regard, the Society welcomes the pioneering approach to seek to support the long-term viability of the Beaulieu House and lands in Co. Louth with the sensitive development of a solar farm at an appropriate location within the demesne.

The Society, however, is gravely concerned by the haphazard approach to locating regional and national level renewable energy projects. Specifically, there is nothing in statutory planning policy, which would help to direct those renewable energy projects likely to result in significant changes to the landscape to areas of less sensitivity.

Much of Ireland’s most distinguished architectural heritage is to be found in its landscapes, whether it be National Monuments or protected structures, ecclesiastical buildings and ruins or country houses, whether grand or modest in scale.  What is distinctive for all of these structures is their siting and setting.  Furthermore, their associated lands and/or demesnes had been designed, elaborated, planted and inhabited to enhance the setting.  Rivers, loughs, hills, magnificent valleys and mountains are all engaged and embraced whether as framed views or as elements within the designs.

The gardens and designed landscapes of the 17th through to the 19th century were extensions of the plan of the house, to be experienced through all the senses as one inhabited outside spaces or moved along walks or rides.  House and landscape were often a single coherent design.  Ancient monuments and sacred places along with ruins and churches have been engaged in a visual dialogue across the land with country houses and their designed landscapes, each renewing their importance and redefining their significance.

In the attendant landscapes of country houses, ancient woodlands have been greatly valued.  Individual groups of trees, avenues, boundary zones and new woodlands have been planted for both utility and amenity value.  They have created microclimates, providing shelter for buildings and productive land.  They have heightened the experience of the setting, and they have composed views, framing significant natural and manmade features.  Natural watercourses and features were augmented with man made versions for utility and beauty and water was managed for supply and productivity in a way that contributed to the landscape.  These landscapes, large and small, along with the fields enclosed with walls or banks and planted with hedgerows that now contain mature trees, all coalesce to make collective creations of singular importance.

Woodlands, wooded valleys, boundary planting and hedge rows form important ecological corridors and networks, so important not only to maintain biodiversity but also in their contribution to carbon sequestering.

The Society notes that numerous applications for strategic renewable energy developments (and, in particular, wind energy developments) have been wholly or partly refused permission due to potential impacts on cultural heritage, including impacts on sensitive landscapes of heritage significance. Wind energy developments have been proposed in close proximity to some of Ireland’s most valued historic landscapes, such as the great landscape of the Blackwater in Waterford and the designed landscapes at Headfort, Co. Meath and Whitewood, Co. Meath.

There is no specific reference to the potential impacts of wind energy developments on built heritage, the historic environment or landscapes of heritage importance in the Wind Energy Guidelines 2006, or the subsequent draft revisions to those guidelines.  Indeed, the original 2006 Guidelines go so far as to highlight that heritage designations do not preclude wind energy development.  Having regard to the stronger position on heritage expressed in policy documents in other jurisdictions, such as in Wind Energy and the Historic Environment (revised by English Heritage in 2012) and the UK Planning Policy Statement 22: Renewable Energy (PPS 22), this is considered to be confusing. Aside from endangering our shared historic environment, failure to set out a clear policy for the protection of sensitive landscapes leads to uncertainty for communities, planning authorities, An Bord Pleanála, developers and investors.

National Policy Objective 61 of the National Planning Framework states that the Government will “facilitate landscape protection, management and change through the preparation of a National Landscape Character Map and development of guidance on local landscape character assessments, (including historic landscape characterisation) to ensure a consistent approach to landscape character assessment, particularly across planning and administrative boundaries.” Having regard for the potential for development, and, in particular, the development of renewable energy projects, to result in impacts and cumulative impacts on sensitive landscapes, it is essential that a detailed analysis of Ireland’s landscape is carried as a matter of urgency in order to ensure that development is directed towards appropriate locations. The completion of the NIAH Survey of Historic Gardens and Designed Landscapes will also be of significant importance in determining preferred locations for major renewable energy and energy infrastructure development.

Having regard to the matters raised above, the Society calls on the Government to take swift action to complete the National Landscape Character Assessment. The publication of a National Landscape Character Map will help to ensure the protection and management of landscape as one of Ireland’s most important and most valuable physical assets, while at the same time providing much needed certainty to developers and investors seeking appropriate locations for major new renewable energy projects as we move towards achieving a carbon-free society by 2050.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any further assistance.

Yours faithfully,

Donough Cahill
Executive Director IGS

c.c. Josepha Madigan TD, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

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Desmond Guinness Scholarship 2018

The Desmond Guinness Scholarship is awarded annually by the Irish Georgian Society to an applicant or applicants engaged in research on the visual arts of Ireland including the work of Irish architects, artists and craftsmen at home and abroad, 1600-1900.  

Preference will be given to work based on original documentary research. The Scholarship is intended primarily for applicants who are not yet established at an advanced professional level in research or publication of the visual arts. From 2015, the Scholarship has been supported by members of the Society's London Chapter.

The Scholarship does not have to be awarded in any one year, and the decision of the assessors, appointed by the Irish Georgian Society, is final.

The total value of the scholarship fund available for distribution is in the region of €1,000.

Application forms must be submitted online by 2.00pm, Monday 29 October 2018.

Read the terms for applying here before filling out the online application form.

Please note the following:

• Applications must be made online through this form: http://bit.ly/DGSapp2018
• No additional information or any other accompanying material will be accepted.
• All questions must be answered and incomplete applications will not be considered.
• The Scholarship will not cover tuition fees.
• A confidential reference supporting the application must be sent separately by post by the closing date to the following address: Desmond Guinness Scholarship, Irish Georgian Society, City Assembly House, 58 South William Street, Dublin 2
• Completed applications must be submitted online, late applications will not be accepted.

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This autumn the Irish Georgian Society will host the first major exhibition of drawings by the English architectural artist John Nankivell in Ireland.

Through the 1970s and 1980s John Nankivell spent many long summers exploring Ireland and drawing all sorts of buildings but with a particular focus on decaying country houses. The resulting drawings are not just very beautiful works of art in their own right, but also invaluable historical and architectural documents, as John sketched houses which have since disappeared or approached even further a state of ruin. The artworks highlight the plight of many grand country houses now lost to decay such as Tudenham, Co. Westmeath to Eyrecourt in Co. Galway, and some positive instances where houses were later saved, like Ledwithstown House in Co. Longford.

A great admirer of Nankivell’s work was the Poet Laureate and architectural connoisseur, Sir John Betjeman – who, of course, knew Ireland well. Betjeman’s biographer Bevis Hillier explained the magical quality of Nankivell’s art. ‘Though the buildings were depicted with careful detail, there was something about the perspective — a hardly perceptible distortion — that saved the drawings from being drily academic; it was as if the buildings were reflected in a lake with a slight shiver across its surface’. The co-founder of the Irish Georgian Society, Desmond Guinness, wrote many years ago: ‘I have rarely seen such sensitive and accurate architectural drawings’.

A number of Nankivell’s drawings will be for sale, to raise funds for the Irish Georgian Society’s conservation education programmes. An accompanying illustrated catalogue (€25), by architectural historian Kevin V. Mulligan is available to purchase to serve as a lasting piece of scholarship on the exhibition.

The exhibition will be free to the public. 

For further press information please contact Zoё Coleman (zoe.coleman@igs.ie) or by phone +353 (0)1 679 8675 

Exhibition Opening Hours Open to the public: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm (12.00pm to 5.00pm Sundays). Closed Mondays. Free admission.

(Image: Tudenham, Co. Westmeath)

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Marian Coyle
Marlay Park Master Plan
Parks and Landscape Department
Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council
County Hall
Marine Road
Dun Laoghaire
Co. Dublin

[By email to mcoyle@dlrcoco.ie]

Date:       31^st August 2018

Re:         Draft Marlay Park Master Plan

 

Dear Ms Coyle,

The Irish Georgian Society is a membership organisation, which encourages and promotes the conservation of distinguished examples of architecture and the allied arts of all periods in Ireland. These aims are achieved through our education programmes, by supporting and undertaking conservation works, publishing original research, planning participation and fundraising. The Irish Georgian Society is a strong advocate on the subject of the protection of historic landscapes and has held a number of educational events on historic gardens and landscapes, the most relevant to this consultation being the seminars entitled “Dublin’s Victorian and Edwardian Parks” (February 2013) and “Historic Landscape: Loved, lost or in limbo?” (February 2015), which were held in conjunction with the Irish Landscape Institute.

The Irish Georgian Society welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Draft Marlay Park Master Plan as part of the ongoing public consultation.The Society supports Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in its stated objective of “To conserve and protect the built heritage and provide suitable, sympathetic and sustainable uses for the properties in the setting of the historic landscape” and welcomes the strong conservation focus of the Draft Marlay Park Master Plan. The Society further welcomes the emphasis placed by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in the Draft Master Plan on conservation and repair of built features and reinstatement of landscape features, such as woodland, as part of an overall objective to “maintain and restore the original layout of this historic park”.

However, the Society would like to take this opportunity to raise the following queries and concerns in relation to matters, which should be addressed in the final Master Plan.

Historic Landscape Assessment must form the basis for any Master Plan for Marlay Park

It is essential that any Master Plan for Marlay Park be evidence-based. While Section 6.0 of the Draft Master Plan makes reference to the Built Heritage Inventory of Parks in Dun Laoghaire – Marlay Park (still understood to be in draft), there is no reference to an assessment of the historic landscape of Marlay Park undertaken by a suitably qualified historic landscape consultant. It is critical that any development of these lands be informed by a comprehensive assessment of the sensitivities and significance of the historic landscape. Failure to ensure that an analysis of the historic landscape forms the basis for the conservation strategy for Marlay Park would seem to be at odds with the objective of the Draft Master Plan to restore the “original layout of this historic park”. It is particularly unclear how a plan to reinstate landscape features (such as woodland) could be formulated in the absence of that information.

The Society is concerned that anything other than an integrated and evidence-based approach to the management of the historic parks will lead to the loss of historic landscape features of significance. In the absence of advice from a suitably qualified historic landscape consultant, well-meaning interventions could also undermine the integrity of the historic landscape. In other words, it is respectfully submitted that, unless a comprehensive survey and assessment of the historic landscape is carried out, key landscape features within Marlay Park are likely to slip through the cracks.

In this regard, the Society is of the strong opinion that the drafting of proposals for new structures or landscape interventions within the Park are premature pending a comprehensive assessment of the historic landscape. Specifically, the Society has grave concerns regarding proposals for the construction of a new bridge over the central pond. Constructing a bridge in the location indicated on page 13 of the Draft Master Plan undermines the whole concept of the pond and has the potential to result in significant negative impacts on the integrity of the historic landscape. The design of any such intervention must be informed by an appropriate assessment of the historic landscape.

Need for Conservation Management Plan for reinstatement of lost features

The Society is given to understand that over the course of the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, Marlay Park has suffered a continuous iterative loss of structures and landscape features of heritage importance, including the demolition of a bell tower / dove cote; the demolition of gate lodges; the substantial removal of very considerable lengths of cast iron railing; and removal of historic landscape features. As part of any comprehensive assessment of the structures and landscape of Marlay Park (i.e. that would form the basis of a Master Plan), features that were wrongly demolished or removed in recent years should be identified and consideration given to their reinstatement. This is a critical step in restoring the “original layout of this historic park”.

Given this and given the large number of historic structures within the park, it is essential that a conservation management plan be developed by a suitably qualified professional or team of professionals to outline a long-term conservation strategy in more detail. This detail could be included within the Master Plan or it could form part of a separate document to which the Master Plan refers.

Insufficient protection framework in place

While Objective 3 of the Draft Master Plan seeks to “conserve and protect the built heritage” of Marlay Park, there is no reference within the Draft Master Plan to designating structures as protected structures or making use of other statutory designations to ensure the long-term protection of structures and features within the park. Indeed, the Draft Master Plan does not even go so far as to identify which structures within the park are already listed in the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Record of Protected Structures (i.e. Marlay House and stable yard, RPS Ref. 1518; Laurelmere, RPS Ref. 1592). While it is acknowledged that all structures within the park and within the designed landscape fall within the curtilage and attendant grounds of the protected structure at Marlay House, the Society notes that failure to implement a robust legal protection framework can lead to confusion and endanger structures of value. The Society urges Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to commit to adding the other structures of architectural heritage importance within the Park to the Record of Protected Structures, and, in particular, those identified by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, including:

• NIAH Ref. 6022013: Walled Garden
• NIAH Ref. 60220014: Worker’s house
• NIAH Ref. 60220016: Farmyard complex
• NIAH Ref. 60220017: Gates / railings / walls
• NIAH Ref. 60220019: Gates / railings / walls
• NIAH Ref. 60220020: Gate lodge
• NIAH Ref. 60220021: Gates / railings / walls

More than this, having regard to the Florence Charter on Historic Gardens, which “defines historic gardens as architectural compositions and recommends their preservation as living monuments”, the Society suggests that consideration be given to designating Marlay Park as an Architectural Conservation Area. The Architectural Heritage Protection Guidelines for Planning Authorities provide:   

“ACA legislation may be used to protect … designed landscapes where these contain groups of structures as in, for example, urban parks, the former demesnes of country houses and groupings of archaeological or industrial remains…

The contribution of setting to the character of the architectural heritage should not be underestimated. A building in a rural setting may have a different, but equally noteworthy, relationship with its surroundings from that of a building in an urban place. The location of a structure may have been designed to relate to a particular landscape feature, as, for example, in the way that Powerscourt House relates to the Sugarloaf Mountain. Follies, eyecatchers, gazebos and towers were all usually positioned and designed to enhance their setting or the designed landscape in which they are situated. The attendant grounds around a country house were often moulded into a coherent landscaped entity in accordance with current aesthetic and economic ideas.”

The Guidelines go on to state that an ACA can “set out the requirements for the conservation of the living components of designed landscapes that form part of the ACA, such as trees and other planting”. Given that the Planning and Development Acts do not yet include a dedicated mechanism for the protection of historic or designed landscapes, strong consideration should be given to designating Marlay Park as an Architectural Conservation Area to protect the integrity of the historic designed landscape as both the setting for Marlay House and as an asset of significant heritage value in its own right.

Insufficient detail on event management

The Draft Master Plan does not detail any proposals for management of major events within the park. This is considered to be a significant omission having regard, in particular, to the scale of music events held in the park, such as the annual three-day Longitude music festival (with an attendance of approximately 40,000 people per day), and the pressure that these events put on the park. For example, it is understood that the most intensive elements of the Longitude music festival are held in the most sensitive area of the park: the area identified as the Designed Landscape – specifically, the Longitude main stage is located in the area identified in the Draft Master Plan as the Ha-Ha Field. The Society is given to understand that, while the event coordinator is required to make good any damage caused by the event, sensitive historic landscape features are inevitably damaged as a result of the festival. It is further understood that living elements of the landscape have had to be removed to facilitate access by large vehicles. Given the scale of the park, it is unclear why such an intensive activity would be directed to the area of the park where it can cause the most damage to features of heritage importance. The Draft Master Plan does not indicate if this practice will continue or if it is intended that this practice will change “in order to reduce pressure on the area designated as ‘The Designed Landscape’” (page 9). Given the potential for large events to conflict with and undermine the key objectives of the Plan, it is essential that this matter be clearly outlined within the Master Plan to ensure that the key objectives of the plan remain implementable.

In addition to this, while the Draft Master Plan does not outline the rationale or necessity for a new pedestrian bridge over the central pond, it is noted that a temporary bridge is typically erected over the central pond as part of the Longitude music festival. As outlined above, the erection of a new bridge at the location indicated in the Draft Master Plan is likely to result in significant negative impacts on the integrity of the historic designed landscape of Marlay Park. It is critically important that any permanent physical intervention within the landscape, particularly those that might be proposed in contemplation of or to facilitate major events, are thoroughly justified and the rationale fully explained as part of an Master Plan.

Conclusion

The Society congratulates Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council on the considerable conservation work already carried out on certain structures within Marlay Park and welcomes the strong conservation focus of the Draft Marlay Park Master Plan. The Society further welcomes the emphasis placed by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in the Draft Master Plan on conservation and repair of built features and reinstatement of landscape features, such as woodland, as part of an overall objective to “maintain and restore the original layout of this historic park”.

However, practically speaking, a Master Plan for Marlay Park as a significant asset of heritage value is rendered meaningless in the absence of the preparation of an historic landscape assessment and a conservation management plan undertaken by suitably qualified professionals. Without this information, well-intentioned decisions will continue to be made as part of the day-to-day management of Marlay Park, which result in the loss of historic fabric and features and undermine the overall integrity of historic gardens, as has repeatedly already happened throughout the park.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any further assistance.

Yours faithfully,

Donough Cahill
Executive Director
Irish Georgian Society

 
(Image of Marlay Park via Curious Ireland)

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'Vain Transitory Splendours': The Irish Country House and the Art of John Nankivell
City Assembly House, 58 South William Street, Dublin 2
5 September to 28 October 2018

Are you interested in the Irish country house and the work of the Irish Georgian Society? We are looking for invigilators to volunteer at our upcoming exhibition 'Vain Transitory Splendours': The Irish Country House and the Art of John Nankivell which will be exhibited in the restored Knight of Glin Exhibition Room. The exhibition will be open to the public six days a week (Tuesday to Sunday), 10am to 5pm from Wednesday 5 September to Sunday 28 October. Admission is free, but a number of the artworks will be for sale, to raise money for the Irish Georgian Society's programmes.

If you can volunteer some hours of your time, and are interested in invigilating please fill out the application form and Zoë Coleman (zoe.coleman@igs.ie) be in touch with you over the coming weeks.
 
Thank you for your support, and we hope you get the chance to visit the exhibition.

(Image: Charleville Castle, Co. Offaly)

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