Images: Garden Pavilion at Beaulieu House, read more about this conservation project supported by IGS here and the Structures at Risk Fund 2017

Financial Assistance & Capital Programmes

Financial assistance is provided by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaelteacht to assist with the conservation and restoration of heritage properties via a number of structured schemes, either directly administered or delivered through other Departments, local authorities and agencies. Built Heritage and Architectural Policy section also administers the determinations for Section 482 Tax Relief.

In the context of a particular building, especially one on the Record of Protected Structures, the best advice for the owner may be to contact the Architectural Conservation Officer from the Local Authority. They will be able to advise on the various types of funding available to assist with the building.

Built Heritage Investment Scheme and Structures at Risk Fund 2018

The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaelteacht recently announced that the Structures at Risk Fund and the Built Heritage Investment Scheme will operate again in 2018 with total funding of €3.3 million. These schemes are funded by the Department and administered by the local authorities. 

Full details and application forms for 2018 will be published on local authority websites. Any enquiries about funding under these schemes must be directed to your relevant local authority (the Architectural Conservation Officer or other person in the local authority dealing with the schemes).

Built Heritage Investment Scheme (BHIS) for the repair and conservation of structures that are protected under the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended). This scheme aims to support a significant number of labour-intensive, small-scale conservation projects across the country and to support the employment of skilled and experienced conservation professionals, craftspeople and tradespersons in the repair of the historic built environment. Details and application forms are available from your local authority.

• Built Heritage Investment Scheme 2018
• Built Heritage Investment Scheme 2018 Public Information Leaflet

Structures at Risk Fund (SRF) 2018 for conservation works to heritage structures, in both private and public ownership, that are protected under the Planning and Development Acts and are deemed to be at significant risk of deterioration. The fund is administered through the local authorities and seeks to encourage the regeneration and reuse of heritage properties, and give support to owners/occupiers in their long-term commitment to securing the future of the architectural heritage which might otherwise be lost. Details and application forms should be available from your local authority.

• Structures at Risk Fund Circular 2018

Please note: All information above is taken from the website of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaelteacht (link), this scheme is not administered by the IGS.

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The 2017 Desmond Guinness Scholarship was awarded to Kristina Decker for her study on Women and Improvement in Eighteenth-Century Ireland: The Case of Mary Delany. The award was presented by Professor Kathleen James Chakraborty, representing the Desmond Guinness Scholarship committee. The award was presented to Ms. Decker on Saturday 9th December, at our annual members' Christmas Party, held at Belvedere House, Great Denmark Street, Dublin 1.

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Last Thursday night, the 7th of December, the Limerick Chapter of the Irish Georgian Society opened the Christmas season with a fundraising Christmas party. The event was held in The Georgian House, No. 2 Pery Square, in Limerick. This historic house was built between 1835 and 1838 by Pery Tontine Company, forming part of a terrace known collectively as the Tontine Building. It was the last Georgian terrace built in Limerick. The building was restored by Limerick Civic Trust, with the support of the Irish Georgian Society and opened in 1999. We were delighted to give our guests an opportunity to enjoy an evening in the magnificent first floor rooms of the house and we thank Limerick City and County Council for use the venue. Party-goers arrived in the early evening, and mingled over Christmas drinks and mince pies, before being treated to a really spectacular performance by Limerick's premier tenor, Derek Moloney [http://www.derekmoloney.com/]. 

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There was also a short lecture from John Moran, Chairman of The Hunt Museum. A raffle was held; some great prizes had been donated by our friends, and included afternoon tea, dinner for two, and book and food hampers. All funds raised from the Christmas party will go to a small works grant scheme which was launched by the Limerick Chapter in 2017. This scheme encourages and supports the repair of historic railings, kerbs, and steps on the streets of eighteenth-century Limerick City. The historic railings of Newtown Pery are quintessentially Limerick and the restoration of them is intrinsic to the protection of Limerick's built heritage. They form an important part of the city's public realm. Read more about the Limerick Chapter of the Irish Georgian Society here [http://www.igs.ie/about/limerick-chapter]. 

 Photos by Trish Geraghty.

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Situated some miles to the east of Drogheda, Beaulieu is a rare and important surviving example of an unfortified house in pre-Georgian Ireland. The house was built in a Dutch classical style and is picturesquely situated looking down over terraced lawns and out across the Boyne river estuary. Lying close by is one of Ireland’s finest walled gardens at the entrance to which is a small pavilion that was first illustrated in a view of Beaulieu by Edward Radclyffe in 1844. This shows only an east facing portico with Doric columns and a slate roof and provides no evidence of what may have stood behind it. The structure was subsequently much altered with changes to the portico itself and the construction in the Edwardian period of a south-facing glasshouse. Inside this there is a large, full-height grotto that surrounds an artificial well with rustic stonework characteristic of classical grottoes.

Over the course of time the pavilion has fallen into a state of disrepair with its portico, roof and fenestration requiring considerable repair works. Through the support of US members of the Society including William and Margaret Constantine who visited Beaulieu on an IGS trip, it was possible to start planning a phased programme of repairs. Additional funding sourced from the Built Heritage Investment Scheme, and The Heritage Council saw the preparation of a conservation report by LOTTS Architecture which prioritised repairs to the roof. These works were undertaken during the summer and have provided breathing space to plan for future works to the portico and glazing. 

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Irish Georgian Society members will be interested to know that Pat Murray, well-known member of the society’s events committee, is now making his custom-designed and hand-made 18th century-style door furniture and other decorative items available for sale. Fine 18th century houses were distinguished by refined items that included brass escutcheons, ornate locks and classical picture frames and pedestals and it is these timeless items, so beautiful and exceedingly rare and hard to find, that are essential to complete a Georgian interior. Pat Murray will now offer for sale his William Kent/Palladian-style frames, 18th century-style Irish hall door locks and other decorative items – current stock is for sale and commissions are welcome.

Pat Murray inherited a love of furniture, architecture and antiques from his father and exercises an extraordinary degree of empathy with the architecture and interior decoration of the 18th century. His favourite book at the age of 10 was The Destruction of the Country House: 1875-1975 (Strong, Binney, Harris); it motivated his life-long interest in conservation. He describes Georgian decoration as a link to a very interesting time in history ‘when every trade became an art’. His expertise is based on a lifetime spent creating and embellishing refined decorative items of the Georgian era; he describes their appeal: “18th-century tradesmen knew the classical rules – the proportions are always right, the materials are always beautiful, the designs are confident and well-mannered – and always pleasing to the eye”. He continues: “Many people nowadays restore Georgian and Georgian-style houses beautifully; the addition of beautiful, historically-accurate, decorative features enhances the architecture and adds the finishing touch to the beautiful properties.”

Pat Murray has studied the proportions of original William Kent / Palladian frames in detail and has developed a number of designs for high-quality frames that may be custom made to any size. His frames are made of pine and may be painted or gilded to order. Every fine 18th-century house in Ireland had a mahogany and brass lock on the back of the hall door; these locks are now frequently missing and when, very occasionally, one appears for sale at auction – but usually without a key and or a receiver – it is sold at a very high price. Pat Murray has studied the design of these locks in detail and his reconstituted locks are virtually indistinguishable from the originals; the working lock mechanisms are antique and encased in Georgian mahogany decorated with hand-cut brass fittings. Brass escutcheons and pedestals are available to order.

Born and living in Dublin, Pat Murray is a collector and a member of the Irish Georgian Society; he is known to many of the society’s members as an organiser of day tours, picnic tours and fine-dining tours. He can be contacted at patmurrayesq@gmail.com.

For more information contact Pat Murray (patmurrayesq@gmail.com)

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The Irish Georgian Society bookshop is stocked all year round with an eclectic selection of books, prints, photographs, maps and IGS publications to peruse. For Christmas we have plenty of stocking fillers instore including candles, coasters, books, notebooks, models, field guides and student membership. You can shop online too!

Give a gift of IGS gift vouchers or IGS gift membership!

Take a detour from the bustle of Grafton Street and find us in the City Assembly House on nearby South William Street (Google map)!

DECORATIVE ARTS

A Taste for the Exotic: Orientalist Interiors
Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690–1840
English and Irish Delftware, 1570-1840
From Invention to Perfection: Masterpieces of Eighteenth Century Decorative Art
Irish Furniture
Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age

BIOGRAPHY

Molly Keane: A Life
A Musical Offering: Essays in Honour of Gerard Gillen
Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World; Writing Britain's Ruins
Elihu Yale: Merchant, Collector & Patron
Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts
Gainsborough: A Portrait 

GARDENS & LANDSCAPES

The Irish Garden
Rooftops. Islands in the Sky
Gardens of Court and Country: English Design, 1630-1730
The Gardener's Garden
Cottages Ornés: The Charms of the Simple Life
Kilmacurragh: Sourced in the Wild
Open Gardens of Ireland

SOCIAL HISTORY

Brought to Book: Print in Ireland, 1680-1784
Religion and Politics in Urban Ireland, 1500-1750
An Insular odyssey: Manuscript culture in early Christian Ireland and beyond
The Popular Mind in Eighteenth-Century Ireland
Utopianism in Eighteenth-Century Ireland
Paris – capital of Irish culture: France, Ireland and the Republic, 1798–1916
Food Rioting in Ireland in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Juries in Ireland: Laypersons and law in the long nineteenth century
Dublin, 1745–1922: Hospitals, spectacle & vice

Shop online: https://shop.igs.ie/

Don't forget final delivery dates for Christmas!

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