A series of evening talks (6.30pm) delivered by the Irish Georgian Society, in partnership with Dublin City Council’s Heritage Office, in the Knight of Glin Exhibition Room, City Assembly House. This is a European Year of Cultural Heritage event supported by The Heritage Council. Following the Restoration (1660) Dublin became the second city, after London, of the British Empire, with major development and expansion in the Georgian period (1714-1830)  providing the institutional buildings and infrastructure, and setting out the city plan substantially as it survives today. Scholars will deliver research celebrating the works of Dublin’s great Georgian architects responsible for designing the classical buildings of Dublin during the reign of Kings George I to IV, and provide an understanding of their design, materials and construction, as well as placing them in their social, political and cultural context.

Tuesday 11th September 2018 Works by William Robinson (1645–1712) and Thomas Burgh (1670-1730) in the Early Classical City, including the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, the Royal Barracks (Collins Barracks) and the Old Library in Trinity College, Livia Hurley, Architect and Lecturer, School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, UCD.

Tuesday 18th September 2018 Edward Lovett Pearce (c. 1699 -1733) Parliament House Dublin; Nos 9, 10, 11 & 12 Henrietta Street, Professor Christine Casey, Professor in Architectural History, Department of History of Art and Architecture & Fellow, TCD.

Tuesday 25th September 2018 Richard Castle (c.1690 -1751) 85 St. Stephen’s Green; Tyrone House; Leinster House and the Rotunda Hospital, Dr Melanie Hayes, Lecturer and Research Fellow, Department of History of Art and Architecture, TCD.  

Tuesday 2nd October 2018 William Chambers (1723 – 1796) Casino at Marino; Charlemont House; TCD’s Theatre and Chapel, Dr Conor Lucey, Assistant Professor, School of Art History & Cultural Policy, UCD.

Tuesday 9th October 2018 James Gandon (1742 – 1823) Custom House; The Four Courts; the King’s Inns; entrance to the House of Lords and Beresford Place, Graham Hickey, Conservation Director, Dublin Civic Trust.

Tuesday 16th October 2018 Thomas Cooley (1742 – 1784) Royal Exchange & Thomas Ivory (c. 1732-1786) Blue Coat School and Newcomen Bank, Merlo Kelly, MRIA, Senior Tutor, School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, UCD.

Tuesday 23rd October 2018 - Francis Johnston (1760-1829) GP; St. George’s Church and The Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle, Dr Judith Hill, MRIAI, Moore Institute Visiting Research Fellow, 2017–2018, National University of Ireland Galway.

Tuesday 30th October 2018 - The Nature of Dublin Classicism in the 18th century, Dr Edward McParland, former Professor in Architectural History, Fellow and Pro-Chancellor, TCD.

Book Individual Lectures: €15
Book Full Course - €95
Book Full Course with Walking Tour - €110

Wednesday 22nd August – (11.30am) Dublin’s Great Georgian Architects Walking Tour with Dr John Montague, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, American University of Sharjah.  A Heritage Week walking tour to complement the lectures, it will provide an opportunity to view first-hand major civic works by the great Georgian architects.    (Price: €15)

Read more

Exhibition: 'Vain Transitory Splendours': The Irish Country House and the Art of John Nankivell

5 September to 28 October 2018

City Assembly House, 58 South William Street, Dublin 2

Through the 1970s and ‘80s, the English artist 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. As the co-founder of the Irish Georgian Society, Desmond Guinness, wrote many years ago: ‘I have rarely seen such sensitive and accurate architectural drawings’. Another great admirer was the Poet Laureate, and great architectural connoisseur, Sir John Betjeman – who, of course, knew Ireland well – and Nankivell traveled extensively in India with Lady Betjeman, drawing temples in the Himalayas. 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’.

John’s art is included in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Asiatic Society and in the collection of the Prince of Wales, among many other distinguished homes, public and private. President Mary Robinson, commissioned several drawings of Áras an Uachtaráin while his work is included in such notable country house collections as Ballyfin, County Laois and Glin Castle, County Limerick. Yet, quite remarkably, John’s Irish work has never been given a major showing in Ireland. A selection of the exhibition is available for sale to fund the Irish Georgian Society’s activities crusading in support of Ireland’s architectural heritage.

The drawings are accompanied by a scholarly text by Kevin V, Mulligan which decries the forces of ignorance, malevolence and greed that have led to the unforgiveable destruction of so many of these buildings.

‘Kevin's words – at once poetic, elegiac, and polemical – combine so perfectly with John’s haunting drawings that I confidently predict that this book will become a classic of Irish country house literature’.
From the Foreword by Sir David Davies 

Image: Riddlestown Park, County Limerick

Read more

In Agher Church (c. 1904) stands a rare example of an 18th-century painted enamel stained glass window by the Irish artist Thomas Jervais (d. 1799), which underwent urgent conservation work with the assistance of the Irish Georgian Society in 2016.

Agher Church as seen today was completed in 1902, and was built on the site of an older church dated from 1804. In the Church stands a painted enamel stained glass window by the Irish artist Thomas Jervais (d. 1799), which underwent urgent conservation work in 2016, supported through grants from The Heritage Council & The Primrose Trust. Visitors will have the opportunity to view the window in situ and learn about the significance of this rare example of 18th century Irish stained glass.

At this Heritage Week open afternoon on Saturday 25 August, visitors will have the opportunity to view the window in situ and learn about the significance of this rare example of eighteenth-century Irish stained glass.

Admission is free, and Agher Church will be open from 12pm to 4.30pm on Saturday 25 August.

Find out more about that conservation project here.

(Image: Nick Bradshaw)

Read more

The Irish Georgian Society (IGS) and Ulster Architectural Heritage (UAH) invite you to take part in a one day summer school to visit key conservation projects in County Monaghan with Kevin Mulligan, Director of the 2015/2017 IGS/UAH Summer Schools and author of Buildings of South Ulster, and Shirley Clerkin, Heritage Officer for the County

This one day event, hosted by Irish Georgian Society and Ulster Architectural Heritage will visit key conservation projects in County Monaghan with Kevin Mulligan, Director of the 2015/2017 IGS/UAH Summer Schools and author of Buildings of South Ulster, and Shirley Clerkin, Heritage Officer for County Monaghan. Buses will depart from Dublin & Belfast and meet in Monaghan at St Davnet's Hospital where our heritage discussions will begin. During the day we will look at buildings which have found new uses (eg. Clones Market House) and others awaiting an appropriate reuse. In addition we will be able to pay tribute to the remarkable community groups who have conserved the Rossmore mausoleum, Dartrey column and Lady Anne's Temple at Dartrey. It is unlikely that new uses could be found for these buildings! Our conservation stories will introduce us to new thinking and new heroes and heroines as well as the odd villain.

If you wish to book a place in sterling, click here.

If you wish to book a place in euro, click here.

Itinerary (TBC - timings are subject to change.)

9.00am - Buses depart from Belfast and Dublin (city centre)
10.30am - Meeting in Monaghan at St Davnet's Hospital, teas & coffees
12.30pm - Clones Market House
1.30pm - Lunch
2.30pm - Rossmore mausoleum
3.30pm - Dartry column and Lady Anne's Temple at Dartry
5.00pm - Depart for Belfast and Dublin
6.30pm - Arrival in Belfast and Dublin

Read more

An Irish Georgian Society submission to the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (attached) highlights a one-third reduction in the Department’s Built Heritage Investment Scheme (BHIS) from 2017 levels.

Launched in 2016, the BHIS aims “to leverage private capital for investment in… small-scale conservation projects”, and to “support employment… in the repair of the historic built environment”[1].

The Irish Georgian Society highlights how funding was inexplicably reduced from €3.5m in 2017 to €2m in 2018 in spite of the recognised benefits of public grant aid in generating investment in conservation projects and consequent jobs creation[2].

It notes how an adequately resourced grants scheme is consistent with commitments made by the State under the Granada Convention for the protection of the architectural heritage of Europe which it ratified in 1997, as well as national policy commitments such as those set out in Ireland 2040: National Planning Framework.

The Irish Georgian Society also questions the inconsistent manner in which grants are allocated both to local authorities and to individual projects. They note that some local authorities receive substantially more funding per protected structure than others, and that the average size of grants awarded can vary substantially from one county to another.

In this regard they show that Leitrim received €155.63 per protected structure whilst Cork County received only €16.99, and that average grants in Galway City amounted to €13,400 whilst those in Galway County were €4,167.

The Irish Georgian Society has called on the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to reinstate funding for the BHIS to the 2017 level at the very least and recommends a review of the scheme so as to ensure consistency in the allocation of funding to local authorities and the awarding of grants for conservation projects.

Contact: Donough Cahill, Executive Director IGS
Email: dcahill@igs.ie
Tel. 01 679 8675

[1] Built heritage Investment Scheme 2017 - Guidance Circular, 2017, DAHRRGA

[2] Economic Evaluation of the Historic Environment Ireland, 2011, Ecorys

Download submission (pdf) on funding for and the structure of the Built Heritage Investment Scheme (BHIS).

Read more

Exhibiting Art in Georgian Ireland exhibition is now closed. 

Thank you to our invigilators, sponsors and staff for making it such an enjoyable few weeks.

Read more