Site of the Month: Buildings of Ireland

 

As you’ve no doubt realised, (although only since discovering the Architectural Classics blog!), the Internet is occasionally useful for something other than sales and advertising! Our gem of a site for this month is buildingsofireland.ie, an effectively and simply designed register of architectural heritage in Ireland – home of our headquarters. In the future we’ll be looking at similar sites in other countries … but for now there are enough gorgeously composed, traditional buildings to satisfy any one of you!

Part of being a great website is not only having a great idea, but executing it properly according to what is easiest for the web. This site does that so well – with an easy to navigate homepage, a nicely limited number of options, with easy-to-spot links and a great use of colour to direct your eye. If you want to look at beautiful buildings, go straight to the Building Surveys link at the bottom left of the page. If gardens are more your thing, go for the green box. There are also quick links on the home page to the building of the month (so many to choose from!), to NIAH publications, as well as a whole bunch of resources regarding architectural history.

April’s building of the month was the “Twin Churches”, located in Wexford Town - the Catholic Church of the Assumption and the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, to be precise. Not just chosen at random and then slapped up for the sake of having a building of the month, there is also a wealth of historical analysis of these churches! Here is a selection from Building of the Month - April 2008:
“The long-standing ecclesiastical legacy of Wexford can be traced back to medieval times, the town having been converted to Christianity by Saint Ibar in the fifth century (Nicky Rossiter, 5), with remnants of chapels or associated graveyards surviving to the present day as a testament to the nine parishes comprising Saint Bridget’s, Saint Doologe’s, Saint Iberius’s, Saint John’s, Saint Mary’s, Saint Michael of Feagh’s, Saint Patrick’s, Saint Peter’s, and Saint Selskar’s. However, with the imposition of the Penal Laws (passed 1695+), the celebration of the Catholic Eucharist was driven underground with congregations meeting in mass houses such as that (between 1672-91) presently in residential use in Saint Mary’s Lane.”
There are several more paragraphs with similar information – all fascinating, considering how many times you may have walked past this sort of thing!

The general survey information is also fascinating, especially if you happen to live in the area. For this randomly selected property – The Burnaby, in Greystones – we can learn about the rise of the suburban villa and owner occupancy in the county of Wicklow; architectural trends at the time the houses were built (English medieval vernacular, the Arts and Crafts movement); the formation of the little-known Domestic Revival period style; and the actual elements that make up that period style (tall chimney stacks, transom framed windows, and asymmetric plans) … as well as the most fun part of all, looking at the pictures! For only the Greystones area of County Wicklow, there are 24 heritage listed buildings on the site, which has a commentary on each of them. For those of you who are interested in the cataloguing and historical aspects of traditional architecture, this is an absolutely invaluable resource. It is like taking a long stroll around the gorgeous Irish countryside with your own personal architectural professor alongside! I can just imagine his waistcoat, monocle and jovially didactic tone of voice now !

The resources section is a little smaller than I hoped when I saw the link on the home page… however, they do have a links section with some very in-depth info to be had, if you can follow the trail. And they also welcome any suggestions and additions of resources for people interested in heritage and conservation.