The legacy of British architecture in Ireland

mk6705

If you look around at our railways, you'll see spectacular bridges, viaducts and tunnels across the network. Much if not nearly all of these were built in the 19th century. If you look carefully at things you may see every day, you can appreciate the achievements in building these before any modern architects tools. I'm sure many Irish were involved here. But I assume the British had some control over these structures, considering they controlled the country. What other examples have you seen? Some pictures to accompany your posts would be nice.

L1011

The railway companies were for the most part Irish owned and you get some interesting attempts at pastiching Celtic design, IIRC the piers of the bridge across the Corrib for the Clifden line does this. However there would have been a lot of design copying, although its not like our rail network lagged behind Britains at all in construction speed!

The best examples of British architecture that we are left with are public buildings which definitely had a British influence to them. Courthouses (most still in use), Post Offices (some still in use) and RIC/DMP barracks (a decent handful still in use) would be the best for this.

You get some insane attempts in these to play up "Irishness" like Ballon RIC barracks (Still the Garda station) with its fake round tower:

http://www.eddiedawson.com/publish/uploads/08_20garda_20station.jpg

Judgement Day

Surely the bulk of all building stock built between 1170 and 1922 falls into this category? I think as well that you will find that most Irish railway companies were controlled by Anglo Irish gentry from the mighty GSWR through to the lowly Cavan & Leitrim and were thus a British legacy too.

L1011

As a descendent of vaguely-anglo Anglo Irish I resent the accusation that we're British influenced!

The most obvious British influence on the railway network here was the work Brunel did.

dubhthach

Judgement Day wrote: »

Surely the bulk of all building stock built between 1170 and 1922 falls into this category?

You'd be surprised by the 16th century most of the country had reverted to "native" irish and gaelicised normans. For example the majority of Tower Houses in the West of Ireland were built by "native" irish. It basically replaced the Ringfort in function. Also several abbeys were found with patronage from local Irish chieftains. Post the Cromwellian conquest (1649-52) it's a different story. But then again half the population had been destroyed in that period.

Judgement Day

dubhthach wrote: »

You'd be surprised by the 16th century most of the country had reverted to "native" irish and gaelicised normans. For example the majority of Tower Houses in the West of Ireland were built by "native" irish. It basically replaced the Ringfort in function. Also several abbeys were found with patronage from local Irish chieftains. Post the Cromwellian conquest (1649-52) it's a different story. But then again half the population had been destroyed in that period.

Good points, but the bulk of our built infrastructure - that which hasn't been bulldozed to make way for "Palazzi Gombeeni" or Zombie estates - must surely be of Norman/British/English origin

Amtmann

Moved from Infrastructure.

katarin

Can architecture in Ireland in the eighteenth/ nineteenth century be called 'British' specifically? True, it was built at a time when Ireland and Britain were of the same United Kingdom, but the buildings were built in Ireland, by Irish laborours and designed much of the time by Irish architects. The architecture is Irish, and in many cases is distinctive. Some widespread buildings, hospitals, prisons and RIC barracks, were legislated to be built when they were built in Ireland alone. Contemporeneous Scottish architecture isn't attributed as 'British'. In fact, most of what's seen as 'British' civic and institutional architecture is widespread across Europe at the time it was built (prisons, hospitals, schools, palladian architecture, porticos, architectural symmetry etc.).