Image: Thomas Roberts A Frost Piece. Private collection. First exhibited in the Exhibition Room, South William Street, in 1769

Exhibiting Art in Georgian Ireland

An Exhibition
Celebrating The Restoration Of The City Assembly House 
Ireland’s First Public Art Gallery

16th June - 29th July 2018

To mark the restoration of the City Assembly House and to celebrate the Society of Artists in Ireland who erected the building over 250 years ago, the Irish Georgian Society will host a world-class exhibition in June and July 2018 of eighteenth-century Irish paintings. 

Celebrating the building’s original incarnation as the first purpose-built public gallery in Britain and Ireland, the Exhibition will re-assemble paintings, including those by Thomas Roberts, Jonathan Fisher, James Forrester, Robert Carver, Robert Healy and Hugh Douglas Hamilton, in the room in which they were first displayed between 1766 and 1780. What makes this exhibition even more exciting is the intention to hang these paintings in a similar manner as they were first exhibited.

Members will have special access to the exhibition, with guided tours and exclusive events to mark the completion of the City Assembly House. An accompanying publication will offer further occasion to revisit and evaluate these stimulating works; assessing Ireland’s first introduction to exhibition culture and the significant contribution it made to an increasingly self-confident national school of Irish art. This will be one of 2018’s great cultural events in Ireland, and should not be missed. 

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The Irish Georgian Society is delighted to be participating in this year’s National Heritage Week (19 – 27 August), providing locals and visits to Co. Meath with a rare opportunity to view Thomas Jervais’ stained glass window at Agher Church near Summerhill, Co. Meath.

During Heritage Week, visitors will be welcomed to Agher Church on Wednesday 23rd August (12.00pm to 4.00pm). Access is free and guides will be on hand to welcome visitors and to discuss the project. The church is wheelchair accessible. Visitors will have the opportunity to view the window, and learn about the significance of this rare example of eighteenth-century Irish stained glass. 

Depicting the biblical scene of St. Paul preaching to the Athenians, this rare eighteenth-century stained glass window was executed by the Irish artist Thomas Jervais in 1770. The window was originally located in a chapel in Dangan Castle, the childhood home of the Duke of Wellington, but was moved to its current location in 1809 following a devastating fire. Until recently the window was greatly at risk with the leadwork and putty holding the glass in place deteriorating rapidly. With the co-operation of the Select Vestry of Rathmoylan Union of Parishes, and the support of The Heritage Council, Meath County Council and donors in Ireland, the UK and US, the Irish Georgian Society was able to raise €50,000 to conserve this rare window. 

Read more about the conservation project here, or online in our annual magazine.

Image: Detail from the Thomas Jervais (d. 1799) stained glass window at Agher Church, photo: Nick Bradshaw.

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Exhibition: 'Burning Books, June 1922: The Destruction And Recreation Of The Irish Parliamentary Bookbindings' is on show at Dublin Castle until 1st September.

This exhibition details the reproduction of 14 volumes of the Irish Parliamentary Journals dating from the 1700s which were destroyed during the Irish Civil War in 1922. Also on display are the tools used in the process, as well as examples of 18th century Irish bindings and some of the printed editions of the Lords and Commons Journals in presentation bindings.

Supported by the Irish Georgian Society and OPW.

www.dublincastle.ie/exhibitions

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Through providing tax incentives for conservation works to buildings of significant architectural merit, Section 482 plays an important role in ensuring the protection of our built heritage and in facilitating public access to properties participating in the scheme. In doing so, it enables owners to fulfil obligations to protect their properties, constitutes a sustainable and cost effective means of public support for our heritage, and provides an important tourism and amenity resource. 

A review of the scheme is currently underway by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, and the Department of Finance. In its submission, the Irish Georgian Society emphasised the benefits of the scheme and proposed means by which it could be enhanced. This paper together with those of others is available through www.ahrrga.gov.ie

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The Irish Georgian Society's online shop has recently moved to a new online retail platform to make the shopping experience more convenient for our customers! To celebrate the occasion we will be including a surprise gift with all online purchases made throughout the month of August.

The shop accepts payment by credit card (Mastercard and Visa) and through Stripe.

If you have any feedback on the new online shop, get in touch by email: shop@igs.ie 

Visit the new look website at shop.igs.ie

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FAO. Mr. David Healy,

Limerick City & County Council,

Merchants Quay,

Limerick

LUCROC@arup.co

 

26.06.2017

 

Re: Submission on Limerick City and County Councils preferred option for O'Connell Street - Limerick Urban Centre Revitalisation, as tabled at public consultation June 2017.

Dear Mr. Healy,

The Limerick Chapter of the Irish Georgian Society wish to make the following comments following the public consultation on Limerick City and County Councils preferred option for O'Connell Street - Limerick Urban Centre Revitalisation.

O’Connell Street in Limerick is one of the great Georgian Streets of Europe. However it’s current status as a through traffic thoroughfare in the city centre has made it an unpleasant and unsafe place for pedestrian users. Heavy vehicular traffic is also putting undue pressure on the significant historic fabric of street both above and below ground. While we acknowledge that efforts have been made to reduce traffic and prioritise the pedestrian in the current option tabled by Limerick City and County Council, we submit that your proposals do not go far enough.

In order for O’Connell Street and the surrounding streets of Newtown Pery to be transformed into a place where people would like to live, visit, shop and work, a more radical approach is required with regards the traffic and pedestrian management of the city centre. Therefore we are calling on Limerick City and County Council to review the proposal, taking into account our comments as follows:

• Prepare a Traffic and Pedestrian Management Plan for the city centre, which would prioritise the movement of pedestrians and cyclists over cars and buses.
• Remove through traffic from O’Connell Street, allowing only local access for cars, timed deliveries, emergency vehicles etc.
• Reconsider the use of one way traffic systems, which are proven to promote faster speeds. The use of two lanes of one way traffic has long proven to be unsuccessful on O’Connell Street, where traffic dominates the street making is unsafe for use by pedestrians.
• It is imperative that best conservation practice is used in order to protect the historic fabric both above and below ground.
• The historic railings, steps, kerbs, coal covers etc., must be protected and conserved.
• The cellars must be retained as a significant historic feature of the street. Eliminating heavy traffic and reducing overall traffic considerably would involve less structural interventions to the brick vaults.
• The Crescent is a natural public space. We urge Limerick City and County Council to reconsider the design of this space for the citizens of Limerick City. Parking should not be retained on the Crescent and while some vehicular access may need to be retained, it should be kept to a minimum with traffic speeds reduced to 10-20km per hour.
• We are not calling for full pedestrianisation, however we believe that in order to achieve your own key objective of pedestrian priority, the proposal must take a more radical approach to the reduction of traffic on O’Connell Street and within Newtown Pery as a whole.

We have had ongoing discussions with the #LiveableLimerick group in relation to the project as it has developed, and we wish to support the submission made by the group.

On behalf of the Limerick Chapter of the Irish Georgian Society Committee,

Yours sincerely,

Ailish Drake, B. Arch Sc., MA, MRIAI

Limerick Chapter Chair

 

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