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A Dash of Panache
‘In an orderly country,’ chided the German travel writer and ethnographer Johann Georg Kohl after a visit to Ireland in September 1842, ‘ruins should really not be tolerated. They should be demolished...
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His Snug Little Farm
The popular image of the Irish farm house has long been fixed in the global mind. Invariably consisting of just one storey, it has white-washed walls and a thatched roof, as well as an equally simple,...
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Take Three
This week the Irish Aesthete celebrates its third birthday. When first posting in September 2012, I had no idea that the project would develop as it has since done, nor that it would attract such a...
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Living in Eternity’s Sunrise
He who bends to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity’s sunrise. Eternity by William Blake. Photographs taken in the County Cork home of...
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Stalled
One of the great lost palaces of France was called Marly. Located in a little valley some four miles north-west of Versailles, Marly was designed by Hardouin-Mansart as a retreat for Louis XIV,...
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Making the Most of Our Own
Two centuries ago large parts of Ireland enjoyed unprecedented prosperity, and thanks to this affluence there was something of a rural building boom in the post-1800 period with many new houses...
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Tall and Broad
Creacon, County Wexford, an exceptionally tall and broad strong farmer’s house dating from the mid-18th century. Of three storeys over raised basement, Creacon has five bays with the rendered facade...
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At a Crossroads
On the cusp of dereliction: a two-storey, three bay house of coursed rubble limestone at Glencara Crossroads, County Westmeath. Likely dating from the early to mid-19th century, the building is close...
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Nature Stakes Her Claim
An abandoned farmhouse in County Westmeath. Normally it is the smaller, less-well constructed buildings which are forsaken, but this one was sturdily built and so its neglected condition is somewhat...
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For a Gentleman Farmer
A gentleman farmer’s residence in south County Tipperary. Once part of the Green estate, the house is believed to date from c.1830 and is of three bays and two storeys over basement. To the rear a...
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Death
‘Nor dread nor hope attend A dying animal; A man awaits his end Dreading and hoping all; Many times he died, Many times rose again. A great man in his pride Confronting murderous men Casts derision...
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Intervention Minimal but Masterful
Everywhere one travels in Ireland, ranges of abandoned old farm buildings can be found in varying states of dereliction. It’s easy to understand why this should be the case; in many instances, the...
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A European Record
‘There are probably more derelict buildings in Ireland than in any other country of Western Europe,’ opens a television report on the rescue of Damer House in Roscrea, County Tipperary (see:...
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Old Buildings Speak
Time knows no beginning or end Old Buildings wave and wend, And the words live on in the wind… Old Barns Speak Of braying donkey and milking cow; Hens and ducklings, screeching and scratching In the...
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In Need of Attention
Castle Farm, County Longford, a handsome early 19th century residence that is believed to have been built on the site of, and may incorporate elements of, a late-medieval tower house originally...
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Haunted Houses
All houses wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses. Through the open doors The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, With feet that make no sound upon the floors. We meet them at the...
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Good Housing Stock
An abandoned farmhouse in Rathaspick, County Westmeath. When the present crisis has passed, let us remember that Ireland does not suffer from a shortage of housing, but only a want of preparedness to...
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Source of Salvage Sought
The decoration on a roof of a single-storey cottage close to the remains of Clongill Castle, County Meath. A pair of wonderfully carved limestone sphinxes flank what might be either an eagle or a...
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A Fine Example
Killaster is – or rather, could be – a particularly good example of Irish rural vernacular architecture. A sturdy, three-bay, gable-ended farmhouse, it probably dates from the early years of the 19th...
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A Pocket Mansion
Currently for sale, this miniature Tudorbethan house stands a short distance north-east from the site of Kiltanon, County Clare. A substantial property, the latter was built in the 1830s for the...
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