architecture

architecture. The majority of the architectural monuments surviving from the neolithic and Bronze ages are funerary or ritual, with few known habitation sites remaining. The most impressive structures from this period are court tombs such as Clady Halliday, Co. Tyrone, and passage tombs such as Newgrange. Both are constructed using megaliths covered by a large cairn of stones and earth. Some, like Newgrange, retain corbel‐vaulted chambers. Other monuments from the period include dolmens, stone alignments, and wedge tombs.

The earliest hillforts, such as Rathgall, Co. Wicklow, probably date from the last millennium bc. Typically they are constructed of one to four defensive ramparts following the contours of a hilltop; some, known as promontory forts, make use of naturally sheer gradients to minimize the amount of defensive construction. Raths, circular or near circular enclosures with one or more earthen banks, are common countrywide, as are their stone equivalents, cashels. These structures probably contained small dwellings and provided protection for livestock. Chronology is uncertain, although it is thought that the earliest date to the beginning of the early Christian period (c.400–c500), and the latest to well after the Anglo‐Norman invasion. Artificial lake islands, known as crannogs, were used as dwellings from the late Bronze Age to the 17th century, although most date to the early Christian era.

The introduction of monasticism saw the development of small proto‐urban settlements. Buildings, except in the most exposed of areas such as Sceilig Mhichil, were constructed from organic materials. Stone construction probably became more common during the 10th century. By the 9th or 10th century monastic sites were often characterized by several small oratories, a round tower, a high cross or crosses, and wooden dwellings, all contained within a roughly circular enclosure. Early stone oratories were skeuomorphs of their wooden predecessors; for example, the restored church on St Macdara's Island, Co. Galway, is small and rectangular in plan with a steeply pitched, corbelled stone roof. The walls have an inward lean and project at the east and west ends, mimicking wooden barge board supports; the gable finials are petrified copies of the crossed ends of gable rafters.

During the 12th century, while the rest of Europe witnessed the erection of large, architecturally complex Romanesque buildings, Irish building design remained conservative. Although the highly elaborate Cormac's chapel was probably responsible for the introduction of elements of the style to Ireland, it is not typical of Irish Romanesque. Irish churches remained simple in plan, enlarged only by the addition of a chancel to the traditional single cell structure. The roundarched doors, chancel arches, and windows were emphasized by the application of low‐relief sculpture, using a combination of indigenous and continentally inspired motifs, as at the Nuns' church, Clonmacnoise (c.1167).

The advent of the Anglo‐Normans and the 12th‐century reform brought Irish architecture more in line with European trends. The religious orders, such as the Cistercians at Mellifont, built larger cruciform churches and combined them with cloisters and domestic buildings in a coherent and consistent manner. New Gothic cathedrals were erected in the larger towns under the influence of the Anglo‐Normans, with several, such as Christ Church in Dublin, showing close affinity to contemporary buildings in Britain. The Anglo‐Normans initially built wooden fortifications on artificial earthen mounds (mottes), sometimes with a raised enclosure at its base (bailey). From c.1190 to c.1310 larger stone fortresses of various design were erected, such as Trim Castle, Co. Meath. After a 14th‐century hiatus in building activity, the 15th century saw the foundation of many new friaries, particularly in the west of Ireland, and the renovation of several 13th‐century religious houses. The tower house, a new type of fortified residence, emerged at the beginning of the century; generally rectangular in plan, some tower houses are up to six storeys high and incorporate a number of defensive features; popular throughout the country, they continued to be built up to the 1650s. A development of the tower house was the semi‐fortified house, typified by Burntcourt, Co. Tipperary (c.1641). These houses combined defence with a more formal symmetrical layout along the lines of Renaissance planning.

Completely unfortified residences did not become commonplace until the late 17th century with the appearance of mansions such as Beaulieu, Co. Louth (1660s). The architecture of this period was essentially Anglo‐Dutch inspired. The Royal hospital, at Kilmainham outside Dublin (1680–84), by Sir William Robinson is the earliest public building to survive from this time. Towards the second quarter of the 18th century a new trend emerged, inspired principally by Italian architect Andrea Palladio's interpretation of classical Roman and Renaissance architecture. Many of the larger country houses of the period, such as Castletown, and Richard Castle's Russborough in Co. Wicklow (1742), reflect the style. Its most important protagonist was Edward Lovett Pearce, whose Parliament House (1729) was one of the first public Palladian buildings. The second half of the 18th century saw a new interest in town planning, particularly in the cities of Dublin, Cork, and Limerick, with the creation of wide streets and residential squares. Elegant town houses were erected, many decorated with fanlights over their doorways and fine plasterwork interiors. Many smaller estate towns were also formally laid out. Towards the end of the 18th century Palladianism gave way to neoclassicism, looking directly to ancient Rome for inspiration. One of the earliest buildings in the style was Thomas Cooley's Royal Exchange (1769). The most important architect during the last quarter of the century was James Gandon, responsible for the Four Courts and Custom House in Dublin.

After the 1800s the emphasis of building activity shifted. At provincial level government‐financed buildings such as jails, courthouses, and barracks were erected. Neoclassicism remained popular into the 1850s, particularly in public buildings such as the General Post Office in Dublin (1815) by Francis Johnston and Galway courthouse (1812) by Sir Richard Morrison, but also in churches of all denominations, for example St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, Dublin (begun 1829), by J. B. Keane. In the early part of the century, funded by the Board of the First Fruits, the Church of Ireland erected many small Gothic revival churches. Following Catholic emancipation (1829), the Roman Catholic church augmented its church‐building campaign, predominantly, although not exclusively, favouring the neo‐Gothic style.

Increased trade and industrialization led to a demand for new types of building. Banks adopted the classical‐Italianate idiom in both city and regional branches; industry required a more utilitarian approach and adhered less to any particular ‘style’. Towards the turn of the century new suburbs, built of red brick, and laid out on a grid system, were created to cater for the growing workforce.

During the 1920s and 1930s the ‘modern movement’ began to manifest itself in small‐scale domestic buildings. The first major building to show the influence of the style was the terminal building, Dublin airport (1943), by Desmond FitzGerald. An increasing confidence in the use of steel and reinforced concrete led to greater areas of glass and to greater building heights, demonstrated by Michael Scott's Busáras (Central Bus Station) (1953) in Dublin. During the 1950s and 1960s the hitherto traditional approach to church building yielded to innovative design seen, for example, in the work of Liam McCormack at the church of St Aonghus, Burt, Co. Donegal.

Bibliography

Craig, Maurice , The Architecture of Ireland (1982)

Rachel Moss