Re:         Application by Stillorgan RFC for the construction of a new club facility. The development will consist of: 2 storey clubhouse including changing rooms, meetings room, storage and ancillary facilities (gross floor area 463 sqm) and an outdoor viewing terrace; 3 no. playing pitches; floodlights for pitches

1+2; associated car park with coach and cycle parking; on site waste water treatment system and all associated site and development work on lands at Lands (c 4.1 ha) at Tibradden Road, Kilmashogue, Dublin 16.

Dear Sir or Madam,

The Irish Georgian Society of City Assembly House, 58 South William Street, Dublin 2 wishes to make a submission on the application by Stillorgan RFC for the construction of a new club facility on lands at Tibradden Road, Kilmashogue, Dublin 16 (DLRCC Reg. Ref. D16A/0955). The €20 fee has been paid online.

The proposed development lies within the combined demesnes of Cloragh and Tibradden. Tibradden House, a protected structure, was rebuilt and aggrandised in 1860 to the designs of Joseph Maguire, commissioned by Charles Davis of Cloragh. These designs transformed the modest 18th century farmhouse into an imposing villa. Its setting, as part of the design, was transformed by the planting of a sensitive combination of native broadleaves and exotic evergreens along the river valley to the east, establishing a sheltering plantation to the north-west, and the addition of clumps of trees to the parkland. The field boundaries of the home farm were also reinforced with timber trees. The end result of this designed landscape, essentially intact today, was to frame the house seen from below and from a distance and to frame views from the principal rooms of the house. The vista from the house is split by the surviving lime tree (possible one of an original clump of three) giving two framed views – one centred on Lambay Island seen across the Liffey estuary and the second a distant view of the Mourne Mountains seen beyond Rathfarnham and Georgian Dublin.

The importance to the Nation of the house and its landscape is attested by its “Section 482” status whose citation records that: “The surrounding estate with its vestiges of the original landscape elements, contribute to the history of its development and provide a beautiful and important setting to the assemblage of buildings”. It is considered that Tibradden House and its context are of considerable architectural and social historic significance.

The demesne of Tibradden is conspicuous in the most recent aerial photographs as a near unique survivor of a working agricultural landscape where its fields are still bounded not only by hedgerows or stonewalls but still retain their trees. It has been run as an environmentally sustainable farm under the REPS scheme, and its successor, GLAS. The total west boundary of the proposed development site and its southern edge abut the REPS farm. To the east, a single field slopes down to the Glin River, which becomes Whitechurch Stream, a tributary of the Dodder. This river valley forms a wooded ecological corridor from above Tibradden House down past Marlay Park and onto St Enda’s, where it becomes a prominent component of that designed landscape.

This piece of landscape, with its REPS / GLAS designation that embraces the site of the proposed development, makes a significant contribution to maintaining biodiversity within a zone under great stress from the burgeoning expansion of Dublin and all the more important for that.

The original farmhouse at Tibradden was approached from the southwest possibly along the axial road (still extant). This axial avenue appears to be aligned with, and would have focused one’s view towards, the prominent landscape feature of the site of a collection of cairns on Piperstown Hill (currently obscured by commercial forestry). Such was the design of the 18th and 19th century Tibradden House and its attendant landscape to engage with and elaborate its context. This landscape is part of a conspicuous backdrop to the city of Dublin leading up to the Dublin Mountains. It has been given its characteristic appearance by a collection of small demesnes, villas and attendant designed landscape, planting and farming (e.g. Tibradden, Cloragh, Mount Venus, Larch Hill, Killakee etc.). Each of these houses, including the earlier more modest farm house at Tibradden, made a virtue of its siting giving the principal rooms a prospect of Dublin city and bay and beyond. The nineteenth century saw considerable elaboration of these landscapes with planting which framed views from and to these places.

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.

It is worth remembering that Ireland has ratified the European Landscape Convention. The convention notes “that the landscape has an important public interest role in the cultural, ecological, environmental and social fields, and constitutes a resource favourable to economic activity and whose protection, management and planning can contribute to job creation”. It acknowledges “that the landscape is an important part of the quality of life for people everywhere: in urban areas and in the countryside, in degraded areas as well as in areas of high quality, in areas recognised as being of outstanding beauty as well as everyday areas”. Furthermore, it puts forward the belief “that the landscape is a key element of individual and social well-being and that its protection, management and planning entail rights and responsibilities for everyone”. The spirit of this Convention is embedded in Ireland’s National Landscape Strategy.

The Architectural Heritage Protection Guidelines for Planning Authorities further provide that proposals for new development within the curtilage of a building of architectural heritage significance should be carefully scrutinised by the planning authority, as "inappropriate development will be detrimental to the character of the structure". The Guidelines go on to state that, where there is a formal relationship between the heritage building and features within the curtilage, "new construction which interrupts that relationship should rarely be permitted". The Guidelines note that, within the curtilage of a building of heritage importance, there "may be planted features which are important to the character and special interest of the structure and which contribute to its setting. These could include tree-lined avenues, decorative tree-clumps, woodlands, species plants or plant collections."

It is the policy of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council “that historic demesnes and gardens should be identified and protected to reflect and acknowledge their significance as part of the National Heritage” (Policy LHB32). Moreover, Policy LHB5: Historic Landscape Character Areas of the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Development Plan 2016-2022 provides that: “In assessing development proposals and in the preparation of plans it is Council policy to have regard to the recommendations and findings of the Historic Landscape Character Assessments (HLCA) already undertaken for a number of the urban-rural fringe areas of the County most likely to come under development pressure.” The application site is located in Landscape Character Area 1: Kilmashogue Valley. Appendix 7 of the Development Plan states as follows:

“Kilmashogue Valley is currently one of the County’s finest unspoilt valley landscapes, which is currently not protected by any particular status. Any development in this valley should be carefully considered and be in sympathy with the existing landscape. The upper portion of the valley has not been affected by large-scale afforestation.” [Emphasis added.]

The Irish Georgian Society understands that during pre-planning consultation, the Applicant was asked to retain all hedgerows and trees as part of the proposed development and to provide a tree survey as part of the application. This has not been done. There is no record of tree species as far as can be ascertained from the documentation. The location of some trees is shown on the general site survey drawing in a form which, one must assume, is meant to represent the extent of the canopy of the trees. However, there are many omissions in this drawing, and the sizes of the canopies are woefully inaccurate and inadequate. The proposed development requires substantial excavation under the canopies of the trees along the western boundary and fill over the root plate along the eastern boundary. Both operations are seriously detrimental to the health and stability of these trees. In addition, the drainage proposals will require excavation under the canopy of a number of trees. The nature of the hedgerows is not recorded in the application. It appears that the middle hedgerow crossing the site is to be removed. In summary, the application does not propose to retain all trees and hedgerows, and the Applicant has declined to provide a tree survey as requested by the Planning Authority. Moreover, notwithstanding the recommendations of Appendix 7 of the Development Plan with regard to the Kilmashogue Valley Landscape Character Area with regard to the sensitivity of the landscape, the application does not include any assessment of the impact of the proposed development on the historic landscape of the Cloragh / Tibradden demense undertaken by a suitably qualified historic landscape consultant. The application does not include any assessment of the visual impact of proposed new development on views from the protected structure(s), between the protected structure complex or from key locations within the historic landscape.

It is critical that any development of these lands be informed by a comprehensive assessment of the sensitivities and significance of the historic landscape at Cloragh/Tibradden. The proposed development, which represents overdevelopment of this highly constrained site, will diminish the value of this fragile and important cultural landscape and damage its contribution to ecological capital. As a result, the proposal will result in a significant and material change to the setting of Tibradden House and its designed landscape.  As such, it is considered that the proposed development contravenes the policies for the protection of architectural heritage set out in the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Plan 2016-2022 and the recommendations of the Architectural Heritage Protection Guidelines for Planning Authorities.

Having regard to the issues set out above, the Irish Georgian Society respectfully requests that the Planning Authority refuse permission for the proposed development on lands at Tibradden Road, Kilmashogue, Dublin 16 (DLRCC Reg. Ref. D16A/0955).

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

 

Yours sincerely,

Donough Cahill
Executive Director 
Irish Georgian Society

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The Irish Georgian Society and Dublin City Council have assembled a team of conservation experts to present a series of talks on the history and significance of Dublin's period houses and practical advice on their conservation. Attendance at the talks will greatly benefit owners of all periods and types of houses, from the modest Edwardian artisan dwelling to the substantial red-bricks of the Victorian suburbs and the fine townhouses of our Georgian city squares, providing an 'A to Z' for their care and conservation. 

Talks, which will commence on Tuesday 21st February 2017 from 1pm to 2pm and continue for 12 weeks, will take place in the Helen Roe Theatre, RSAI, 63 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. 

It is possible to attend all, one, or as many of the talks as you wish. The talks are priced at €15, which you may pay for at the door or book in advance for a special reduced price of €125 for all twelve talks. Complementary to the Tuesday talks will be a Saturday morning walking tour, at an additional cost of €15. 

These talks are also beneficial to building professionals and practitioners and are approved for CPD by the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, Engineers Ireland, the Society of Surveyors of Ireland, the Irish Planning Institute and the Heritage Contractors. 

Book

Conserving your Dublin Period House course - €125

Conserving your Dublin Period House course (with Walking Tour) - €140 

For full details download the brochure. 

The Conservation Education Programme is supported by Irish Heritage Insurance, Merrion Property Group and Heather and John Picerne. 

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Clockwise from top left: Guildhall, Derry/Londonderry (Winner 2014), Vincent Coleman’s Boyle Mill (Winner 2014), Blackrock Further Education Institute (Winner 2014), The Royal Belfast Academical Institute (Highly Commended 2014)

The Irish Georgian Society invites applications for its Architectural Conservation Awards 2017 for conservation projects and also for its Original Drawings Awards for non-CAD drawings of an historic building or structure. The awards are open to Irish architects or architectural practices, building surveyors, contractors, engineers and other professionals involved in the conservation of historic buildings in Ireland.

Applications relating to historic buildings of all types, including vernacular, are welcome.  Previously shortlisted projects include churches, civic structures, follies and houses both urban and rural. The Irish Georgian Society Architectural Conservation Awards are to encourage excellence in the area of conservation and to celebrate those conservation professionals and practitioners responsible for projects of merit. Terms and conditions are listed in the Application Forms which are available here. 

The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Friday, 28th April 2017.

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On Thursday the 1st of December last, 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. There was also a short lecture from Irish Georgian Society Executive Director, Donough Cahill, on the work of the Society around Ireland. A raffle was held; some great prizes had been donated by our friends, and included afternoon tea, a wine tasting, and original artwork. 

All funds raised from the Christmas party will go to a small works grant scheme which will be launched by the Limerick Chapter in 2017. This scheme will encourage and support 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. 

We would like to thank our sponsors for the evening: Limerick City and County Council, No. 1 Pery Square Hotel, Da Vincenzo's at the George Boutique Hotel, Roisin Meaney, Deirdre Power, Kate Ramsey. 

Read more about the Limerick Chapter of the Irish Georgian Society here. 

Limerick Chapter Committee 

Back row: Liam Clifford, Ursula Callaghan, Rose Anne White, Niki McMahon, Judith Hill 

Front row: Cáit Ní Cheallacháin, Donough Cahill, Ailish Drake, Bríd Kennedy, Tessa Greally

Photo by Conor Hourigan 

Ailish Drake and Donough Cahill 

Photo by Trish Geraghty 

Photo by Trish Geraghty 

Sheila Deegan and Mike Fitzpatrick 

Photo by Ursula Callaghan 

Photo by Trish Geraghty 

Photo by Trish Geraghty 

Photo by Trish Geraghty 

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Another year has flown by, and in 2016 the Irish Georgian Society were thrilled to see conservation projects supported through the Society come to fruition as well as a packed calendar of members events…
 

In February we hosted an event for new members and volunteers in the octagonal exhibition room of the City Assembly House, it was an opportunity for us to meet our newest and most loyal members, and introduce them to the work of the Irish Georgian Society. In March, IGS member Tom Quick hosted a fundraising cocktail party for the Society at his home in Palm Beach. Our annual Conserving Your Dublin Period House seminar series continued from March to May, with record numbers attending each talk.

At the City Assembly House, we launched a new exhibition Ireland’s Main Street, 1625-1925: An Architectural History, curated by Joseph Lynch and Pat Murray, this exhibition looked back at 300 years of O’Connell Street’s history, featuring reproductions of original interior photographs taken from the 1911 volumes of the (Irish) Georgian Society. The second phase of works on the City Assembly House began in April, as Georgian style windows were installed, replacing the Victorian sash windows. A members’ tour visited the North-West to see ‘The Big House Revisited’, staying overnight at Enniscoe House in Co. Mayo.

In May our Traditional Building Skills exhibition travelled out West – to Portumna Castle in Galway! We welcomed over 1,000 visitors to the site over the course of two days despite the rain and cold! In June, our members beckoned in the summer season with a garden party at Abbey Leix, Co. Laois, hosted by the Society’s president, Sir David Davies. Earlier in the month a group of the Society’s American members visited Ireland to explore Georgian Dublin, Early Palladian Mansions and the Great Houses of Northern Ireland.

In partnership with the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, in June a group of students participated in a field trip of Historic Designed Landscapes in Louth and Meath, visiting Barmeath Castle, Co. Meath and Dowth Hall, Co. Louth. An always popular summer excursion with our members, two group of members visited Lambay Island throughout June and July, for a tour of the island and the house remodelled by Sir Edwin Lutyens, between 1910-11.

In July, the 2016 IGS Conservation Grant Scheme recipients were officially announced. View the full list here. Only a few days later, the destruction of Vernon Mount in Co. Cork highlighted the very real threat to Ireland’s built heritage that still exists.

On a more positive note, toward the end of the summer two conservation projects supported by the Society were successfully brought to fruition – the Thomas Jervais window was reinstated in Agher Church, Co. Meath and the coade stone Lion was restored and reinstated at Mote Park, Co. Roscommon.

Throughout the summer, many of our members enjoyed a packed calendar of events! The London Chapter YIGs (Young Irish Georgians) visited Syon House in London for an exclusive guided tour of the house. In Ireland, Pat Murray, IGF Board Member, led a tour of the Mausolea and Follies of County Wicklow, accompanied by a delightful outdoor picnic! In London, Ashleigh Murray became the new Chair of the Society's London Chapter, which was officially announced at the London Chapter's summer party.

A collection of IGS miniatures went on public display in the Print Room at Castletown in August, owing to a donation from a generous benefactor of the Society. In September we hosted our annual Benefactor’s and Patron’s event, welcoming guests to a lunch at No. 12 Henrietta Street, to thank them for their ongoing support throughout the year. Also in September, Ireland's Walled Gardens Study Day was hosted at Russborough House, in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland.

The Society’s annual US Galas took place in October in New York and Chicago, followed by a dinner in Boston, where a Chapter was recently established this year. All funds raised were in aid of the City Assembly House Capital Campaign.

The restored facade of the City Assembly House was revealed to the public in early November, after a programme of works that involved the cleaning and repointing of the brickwork to the building. Also that month, the Newbridge House Study Day, which examined the history and conservation of Newbridge House's architecture, designed landscape, decorative interiors and collections was well attended. In December, the Desmond Guinness Scholarship was awarded to Aisling Durkan for her research project focusing on Provincial Splendour and Mercantile Ambition: The Drogheda town house in the eighteenth century. 

The City Assembly House hosted a number of art exhibitions and performances throughout 2016. While restoration works have been completed to the façade of the building, the next phase of works will focus on refurbishing the Knight of Glin exhibition room so it will serve as a world class exhibition space, and to install a wheelchair lift and secondary fire exit, to ensure the building is accessible to all.

We are planning to begin the next phase of works on the City Assembly House in 2017. This next phase will cost €1.5million. So far €900,000 has been pledged through the support of Dublin City Council, Jerome L. Greene Foundation and Gilbert & Ildiko Butler Family Foundation.

We are 60% of the way toward reaching our goal of €1.5million! Please consider making a donation to help the Society realise its goal. Watch this short video to learn more about the ongoing restoration of the City Assembly House.

We hope you can join us at an IGS event in 2017!

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This year's annual Christmas Party was held in Marlay House. Guests enjoyed drinks and canapés in the festive atmosphere of the house while the nights proceedings included the presentation of the Desmond Guinness Scholarship Prize awarded to Aisling Durkan for her study on Provincial Splendour and Mercantile Ambition: The Drogheda town house in the eighteenth century. A commendation was also given to Fidelma Mullane on her work on traditional and vernacular crafts  There was a raffle with great prizes, the Irish Georgian Society would like to thank all those who donated and the volunteers who assisted on the night.

Dr. Nicola Gordon Bowe with Desmond Guinness Scholarship Recipients Aisling Durken (Winner)  and Fidelma Mullane (Highly Commended)

Adrienne Hume and Glascott Symes

Dr. Aidan O'Boyle, Conor Lynch and Pat Murray

 

 

David Lewis Gunning and Conor Lynch

Dr. Nicola Gordon Bowe and Fildelma Mullane

Dr. Nicola Gordon Bowe and Aisling Durkan

Michael Church, Heritage Building Manager, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council

Donal O'Brien and Dee McGrath

Geoffrey Tutty, Rosemary Walsh and Louise Mooney

Aoibheann Shannon and Carmel Humphreys

Darina McCarthy and Brian Meyer

Meave and Farannan Tannam & Deirdre and John Dunny

    

Maureen Beary Ryan   

 

 Dr. John Maiben Gilmartin

    

Zoe Coleman and Ruth Griffin  

 

John and Alexandra Morley

Francis and John Coulter      

 

Rose Mary Craig, Tom and Rose Marie O'Connor Quinn

 

  Dermot Scott     

 

Michael Maughan and Róisin Lambe

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