Buildings at Risk
Across Ireland the Irish Georgian Society acts as a champion of buildings and sites of architectural and historical importance threatened by neglect or inappropriate development. Through our work as an advisor and advocate, the Society provides balanced opinion and guidance based on objective knowledge, experience and expertise.
Dublin City Council recently created a comprehensive document meant to guide the future treatment and development of Dublin’s public realm, which is made up of the streets, buildings, structures and spaces tha... Read more »
The Irish Georgian Society has lodged an appeal against Dublin City Council’s decision to grant permission for Chartered Land Limited’s proposal for the re-development of the five and a half acres site at O’Connell Street Upper.
The Society’s many reservations about the proposals that were outlined previously to Dublin City Council remain and our main points of objection rel... Read more »
Irish Times (Letters), 6th January 2009
Madam, – With regard to the proposed demolition of two protected structures at Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon, Co Clare, to make way for a new roundabout (Home News, December 28th), a council official is quoted as saying that there is “nothing in the current Clare County Development Plan or the North Clare Area Plan” on which to ground the current proposal”.
This is remarkable given what the Development Plan do... Read more »
Text of the final joint statement from the Irish Georgian Society and the Castletown Foundation which was read out at An Bord Pleanála's oral hearing into the proposed development at Donaghcomper, Celbridge, Co. Kildare.
At the end of this long hearing, for the Irish Georgian Society, the most consistent theme on the part of the 1st party has been the lack of real acknowledgment of the existence, let alone importance, of views of the Donaghcomper park from the Castletown side o... Read more »
The Irish Georgian Society has lodged another objection against a planning proposal at Donaghcomper, Co. Kildare. This latest proposal is to construct roads and services infrastructure, which would enable inappropriate development within the grounds of the protected structure, Donaghcomper. Read more »
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Dublin city and its hinterland have experienced an extraordinary period of change over the last 15 years with formerly derelict city centre districts now functioning as vibrant international centres and formerly provincial towns transformed into commuter belt suburbs.
These changes have introduced new planning pressures to increase the density and height of new buildings within the city. These pressures have in turn introduced new threats to the character and integrity of architectura... Read more »
The Irish Georgian Society has written to Kildare County Council in support of a submission on the N81 road improvement scheme made by the Alfred Beit Foundation (ABF). The Society endorsed the ABF recommendation that the road scheme should ‘not impact upon lands currently occupied by Russborough House and Estate’ and its insistence that every effort be made ‘to ensure that the House and Estate, which are of international and national importance from an architectural and histor... Read more »
The Casino, Marino, Dublin
The Casino at Marino, Dublin, was designed by the distinguished 18th century architect Sir William Chambers in 1757 and is considered ‘one of the most exquisite miniature 18th century buildings in Europe’. It was built for James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont, in the form of a Roman temple to serve as a small pleasure house and lies within the historic parklands of the Marino demesne, once one of the finest designed parklands in Ireland... Read more »
Vernon Mount is situated to the south of Cork city on a prominent site with views across the city and towards the Lee estuary. It was built in the early 1790s for Cork merchant Sir Henry Browne Hayes and may have been designed by the architect Abraham Hargrave.
Described as a cottage palace for the exceptional standard of its interior decorative features, Vernon Mount is of great interest for the sophistication of its design and for the survival of paintings by the leading Cork artist... Read more »
Hazelwood House is a most important Palladian mansion which sits on a peninsula in Co. Sligo. The house was constructed in the 1730’s to the designs of Richard Castle (1695-1751), architect of Leinster House, Powerscourt House and Westport House. The house comprises a central block of three storeys over basement flanked by two curved wings and was occupied by the Wynne family from the early 18th century until the 1920’s. After this time the house played host to various occup... Read more »
The Wonderful Barn was built in 1743 as a famine relief scheme by Katherine Conolly of Castletown, widow of William ‘Speaker’ Conolly. Described as ‘arguably one of the finest follies to be found in Ireland’, it was conceived not only as a functional grain store but as an architectural eye-catcher which would provide an eastern terminating vista from the grounds of Casteltown.
The eccentrically designed barn, which rises to a height of 70 feet in a tapering co... Read more »
Limerick city’s Georgian core of Newtown Pery was laid out in the 1760s to the designs of the Italian architect Davis Ducart. It is an area of national architectural interest for the quality of its streetscapes and for its urban form that faces significant challenges arising from over a century of poor investment and neglect.
In 2007 the Society organised a conference in association with Limerick City Council with the aim of identifying a way forward for Newtown Pery. Arising fr... Read more »