Early Classicism in Ireland: Architecture before the Georgian Era

Abstract

The emergence of Irish architecture in the classical fashion may seem to have started with the appearance of Edward Lovett Pearce’s Palladian buildings in the late 1720s and 30s, followed by the tidal-wave of classical architecture by architects such as Richard Castle, Thomas Ivory, James Gandon, and many others. Was wide acceptance of classicism in eighteenth-century Ireland due to the architects’ persuasion of their patrons, or had the patrons already been predisposed to classical styles of art? Were Pearce’s patrons the first to be confronted in Ireland with all the paraphernalia of classicism, or could the parents of his patrons have taught them the essence of classical art? Classical Irish architecture of before the eighteenth century is little known nowadays because so little has survived to the present day. A succession of internal revolts, ending with the 1922 burnings, eradicated much of the evidence of early classicism. Also the damp Irish climate and the decline of landed families heavily contributed to this toll. Only within the last thirty years, the important country house Eyrecourt Castle in Co. Galway lost its princely staircase and wainscotting (sold to the newspaper millionaire William Randolph Hearst), and has itself been left to collapse. Of the numerous houses known to have been built in the late seventeenth century only Beaulieu, Co. Louth, survives intact. The countryside is also scattered with the ruins of the plantation houses of the early part of the century. Again, the survival of any of these buildings with its interior is extremely rare.