Book review - The Building Site in Eighteenth-Century Ireland

During the eighteenth-century, the Protestant Ascendancy were stamping their mark on the physical landscape of Ireland. This was seen in the large private houses and estates that were built all around the country and in the planned estate towns such as Abbeyleix.

I have just written a book review of The Building Site in Eighteenth-century Ireland by Arthur Gibney in the peer-reviewed academic journal Irish Studies Review. Follow this link for the article.

Front cover of The Building Site in Eighteenth-Century Ireland.

The book's author, Arthur Gibney (1933-2006), was one of the leading architects of his generation. When he graduated in 1958, he went to work with Michael Scott, who had designed Busáras, the new central bus station in Dublin. Two years later, Gibney went into partnership with Sam Stephenson. Together, they were responsible for many new buildings, including the controversial ESB headquarters on Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Street, along with other office blocks around the capital. When he split from Stephenson, Gibney established his own practice where he designed new buildings but also restored historic buildings. Through these renovation and conservation projects, he gained an invaluable insight into old building techniques.

As Gibney states in the book, the eighteenth-century buildings of Ireland can be book-ended between the construction of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham (completed 1684), designed by William Robinson, and the Four Courts (completed 1802), designed by Thomas Cooley and James Gandon. Below are photographs of these two fine buildings.

Courtyard of Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

Dublin Four Courts. Image source: Wikimedia Commons 

The Press and the vote - NPHFI 2018 Conference NUIG

The 2018 annual conference of the Newspaper and Periodical History Forum (NPHFI) took place in the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) on Friday 9th and Saturday 10th of November. This was a fitting venue as this is where the first conference took place in 2008.

Entrance to quadrangle at National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG).

The conference theme was 'The press and the vote'. Researchers and academics from universities in Ireland, South Africa and right across the UK came to discus the theme. We heard about a wide range of periodicals, geographic locations and time periods from local, national and niche newspapers, from Ireland, Europe, North America and South Africa and from the 18th right up to the 20th century.

Presenting a paper on Le Monde's coverage of Irish politics in the 1990s.

I presented a paper on Le Monde's coverage of politics in Ireland in the 1990s. The period was one of great change both politically and socially. We only have to think of the election of the first female president, the Irish constitutional referenda on abortion, divorce and the Good Friday Agreement, the legalisation of contraceptives and the decriminalisation of homosexuality to see that the 1990s was a time of change.

Le Monde covered these events and more with their correspondent in London and local journalists such as Joe Mulholland and John Horgan, who wrote about events as and when they happened. The question is why was Le Monde so interested in reporting on these events. The answer is in the title of my paper, more to follow... Well done to the committee and the local organisers for putting together a great conference.

Open House Dublin 2018 - Résidence de France

The Open House Dublin 2018 took place on Saturday October 13th. It is an initiative to showcase outstanding architecture in Dublin. Buildings that are not usually open to the public open their doors and you can see inside some real architectural gems. It is Ireland's largest architecture festival.

View of Résidence de France from Ailesbury Road.

This year, I was delighted to be a guide at the Résidence de France for the second year in a row. The Résidence de France, the official residence of the French ambassador to Ireland is located at 53 Ailesbury Road, Dublin. The building was designed by the architect, Alfred Gresham Jones and built between 1883 and 1885 for George Bustard.

Originally known as Mytilene, it is an impressive looking building with its carved granite staircase leading up to the portico. The white brick distinguishes it from all the other houses on the road, which are clad in red brick. Inside, the layout is much the same as it was when it was built. When the French Government bought the building in 1930, the furniture had all been auctioned off by the Bustard family.

Close up view of front of the Résidence de France.

What a great initiative the Open House is. I am so grateful to have been a part of it again this year.

An Irishman's Diary on Claude Pélieu, a French member of the Beat Generation.

Claude Pélieu (1934-2002) was one of the only French members of the Beat Generation. He moved to America at age 29 and was later associated with some of the founding members of the movement, such as William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. I have just written an Irishman's Diary in the Irish Times newspaper about Pélieu and his life and times. Read it here.

Experimental poet, author, translator and collage artist, Pélieu packed a lot into his life. Pélieu came to Ireland in Autumn 1962 with his friend, Michel Doss. The trip was a complete disaster from start to finish. They arrived in Dublin from Fishguard on September 9th and traveled on to Sligo, Donegal, and Galway before returning to France.

Photograph of part of the exhibition in Boole Library, University College Cork (UCC).

Galway was boring and poverty-stricken, according to the Frenchman, while Donegal (Bloody Foreland to be specific) was "sublime". Dublin was a disappointment to him; he saw nothing but drunks and priests in the capital. Ireland's weather did not help the situation; Pélieu complained about the incessant wind and rain in letters home to his then wife, Lula Nash.

Pélieu and his friend ran out of money and had to turn to the French Consul in Galway and the French Ambassador in Dublin for help. They made it home to Paris OK, but the French Embassy sent Pélieu a letter requesting to be reimbursed. I wonder if he managed to pay them back!

I first came across Claude Pélieu at an exhibition in the Boole Library in University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. The exhibition was entitled, 'Claude Pélieu, On All Frequencies', and was curated by James Horton. It ran from 2 July - 30 September 2018.

History Ireland magazine article Sept/Oct 2016 - now free to view

The article that I wrote for History Ireland magazine in September/October 2016 is now free to access on the History Ireland website. Check it out here.

In the article, I talk about the French Catholic bishops' mission to Ireland in October 1916. When war was declared, there was an unprecedented rapprochement between the church and state in France. The Union Sacrée, as it was known, brought together the French State, Churches, trade unions and other organisations in a move that had never been seen on such a scale before in France's history.

The churchmen who visited the country wanted to meet with their confreres in Ireland and impress on them the need for manpower on the side of the Allied Powers in their fight with the Central Powers. They visited Dublin, Maynooth and the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, Armagh.

One of the visitors wrote newspaper articles about the visit in the French catholic newspaper, La Croix and also in a catholic magazine. These articles were later gathered together and published in the form of a pamphlet, called Notre Visite en Irlande (7-14 Octobre 1916).

Front cover of Pierre Batiffol's Notre Visite en Irlande, available on Gallica. Read it here.

ADEFFI 20th Anniversary Conference - UCD 19-20 October 2018.

The Association des Études Françaises et Francophones d'Irlande (ADEFFI)'s 20th anniversary conference will take place in University College Dublin (UCD) on the 19th and 20th of October 2018.

The theme of this year's conference is: 'États Présents États Futurs: French and Francophone Studies in the 21st Century'.

ADEFFI 2018 conference poster.

An Irishman's Diary on artistic and literary visitors to Ilnacullin (Garinish Island)

The island of Ilnacullin (which means 'island of holly' in Irish) lies about a half a mile from the coast. The island is also sometimes referred to as Garnish or Garinish island. It sits in Bantry Bay in West Cork and is protected from the worst of the Atlantic Ocean by the surrounding hills and mountains.

The pond in the Italian garden on Ilnacullin.

There is a Martello tower on the island, which was one of a series of towers built around the coast of Ireland to guard against possible attack during the French Revolutionary Wars. When John Annan Bryce and his wife Violet bought the island from the British War Office in August 1910, the tower was one of the few structures on the island. There was a small bit of farming going on, but by and large the island was a barren rock.

View of surrounding hills from Ilnacullin.

The Bryces subsequently transformed the island, importing subtropical shrubs, plants and trees from as far afield as Australia, India and China. These rare specimens have thrived in the micro-climate that exists on Ilnacullin. It is a special place and I have just written an Irishman's Diary in the Irish Times newspaper about the island's history and how the Bryce family welcomed artists and writers to their home. Read it here.

George Russell (AE)'s painting (now in Bryce House on Ilnacullin).