Foundation of the National Gallery of Ireland
1985. Commissioned and published by the National Gallery of Ireland.
The politics and drama behind the foundation of the National Gallery of Ireland and the construction of what is probably the earliest reinforced concrete building in Ireland.
“‘I am proud to recommend Catherine de Courcy’s elegant and readable essay”
“A well presented book on the architectural history of the Gallery.”
Terence de Vere White review of The foundation of the National Gallery of Ireland, by Catherine de Courcy. Irish Times 29 June 1985:
A very different set flourished in Dublin at this time. They don’t get into the history books and are too sober to attract novelists. They are not reckoned as patriots because they concentrated on being useful. They built the National Gallery and the National Science Museum on Leinster Lawn among innumerable other things. The most splendid of them was Sir Richard Griffith, who had a hand in everything and made the first mineral survey of Ireland. He was the driving force behind the Gallery project which was initiated by the Dublin Exhibition of 1853. Mulvany, the Gallery’s first director, made an inspired amateur’s shot at the architectural plans before Griffith called in Lanyou who was doing good work in Belfast; the job was completed by Fowkes and the finished building vested in the Board of Works in 1864.
All this is recorded in yet another of our Gallery’s publications. This side of the Gallery’s activities has come as a boon and a blessing, and I am proud to recommend Catherine de Courcy’s elegant and readable essay.
Other commissions by Catherine
A short, illustrated history of Australian zoos to accompany the release of a colourful collection of wildlife postage stamps.