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Thanks, Doug C.

Would be great to hear more.

The Irish Times – Saturday, May 21, 2011
Architectural historian inspired people to cherish city’s heritage

MAURICE CRAIG, the distinguished architectural historian, writer and poet, who has died at the age of 91, did much to persuade Irish people that our historic buildings were of national importance and should be saved from demolition.

Almost a lone voice at the time, his masterly, comprehensive and elegant book, Dublin 1660-1860: The Shaping of a City , was published in 1952. It took 13 years to sell the 2,000 copies of the first edition, by which time many buildings had been pulled down without comment or protest.

As Craig once wrote: “Architecture is the most accessible of the arts; yet paradoxically, it is the least noticed by people at large and is commonly thought by them to be arcane mystery.”

He was born in Belfast, the son of a successful ophthalmic surgeon, whose father had had a business in Ballymoney of ironmongery, hardware, building materials, watches and clocks. “James Craig Ballymoney” is occasionally still to be seen on clock faces.

After school at Castlepark in Dalkey, Shrewsbury in England and a few months in Paris, he took up the scholarship he had won to Magdalene College Cambridge, where he lived in the rooms Parnell once had.

Returning to live in Dublin and meeting Patrick Kavanagh in the street, he told him he was going to write a book on the poet Walter Savage Landor. Kavanagh said he should do it as a doctorate at Trinity College Dublin, and he did.

In 1952 he joined the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments in England. He once went to No 10 Downing Street in connection with door knobs. Having finished his business, he came out of the front door, stood for a few seconds so the curious crowd could speculate on who he could be, and then put on his bicycle clips and pedalled off.

In 1969 he was appointed full-time executive secretary to An Taisce for the year that it had obtained funding.

He wrote several books including The Volunteer Earl, a biography of Lord Charlemont who built the Casino at Marino – “small, perfect and almost totally unaltered . . . it is great fun even if it is not much use.”

Others included Dublin City Churches, Classic Irish Houses of the Middle Size – which was widely acclaimed, though sometimes called Country Houses for the Middle Class – and The Architecture of Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1880. He also wrote books of poetry.

His volume Irish Bookbindings 1600-1800 came out in 1954. He was extremely knowledgeable on the subject, and had spent many hours in the Long Room at Trinity searching along the shelves on the long summer evenings with the librarian, Billy O’Sullivan, looking for special bindings.

As a child, Craig had wanted to be a painter, but he realised he could not draw. He had a great interest in music and would have liked to be a composer, but was not good at playing. At the age of 18, he fixed on becoming a writer.

He was a fine builder of large ship models – he made a magnificent model of Guinness’s SS Clarecastle. The man who had commanded her, after looking over the model very carefully, said, “It is exact.”

Another interest was motor cars, and for a time he drove a D8 4-litre Delarge with Figonie coachwork.

Among those who acknowledge his influence and inspiration is Frank McDonald, Environment Editor of The Irish Times. “Long before I met Maurice Craig, I had read his great Dublin book – Dublin 1660-1860: The Shaping of a City – and, as for so many others, it opened my eyes to the value of our architectural heritage. It’s to him that I owe the inspiration to begin writing about it myself when it was still under attack in the 1980s. I can never imagine him other than being surrounded by books.

“He was undoubtedly Ireland’s leading architectural historian and one of the most important chroniclers of Dublin’s heritage and history.”

He was married three times; to Beatrix Hurst, Jeanne Edwards and to Agnes Bernelle. He is survived by his son Michael and daughter Catherine by his first marriage.

Maurice James Craig: born October 25th, 1919; died May 11th, 2011

An Taisce scathing over state of Limerick planning http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0416/1224244811989.html
And the politicians are still only talking about extending the city boundary. Heaven help us.

The architect was Joe Kennedy of Smith Kennedy Architects from Dun Laoghaire.

Really good overview of recent history in this article by Emer O’Kelly from last weekend’s Sunday Independent

Wherefore art thou Abbey Theatre?

THE Abbey Theatre is currently in a state of chassis, to take Sean O’Casey’s immortal words in vain. It’s closed, and the interior has been ripped out. When it opens again on April 10, three quarters of a million euro will have been spent on a new configuration for the auditorium. And there is very little doubt that the money will have been very well spent . . . in the short term.

Anyone who goes to the theatre in Ireland knows that the Abbey building is a theatrical disaster. Its stark modernist frontage was already out of date when it was built and opened in 1966. (It had been designed more than 10 years earlier, but as with most things cultural in Ireland, building it had been put on the long finger.)

But it’s the interior of the theatre which has always been the sticking point: a fan-shaped auditorium that prevents any intimacy between the audience and what is happening on stage, lousy acoustics with several spots where you hear almost nothing, a deadness at stage front which forces actors to strain to project their voices, frequently damaging them seriously. And woefully inadequate technical facilities and backstage accommodation.

So the promise of a new building for the centenary of the National Theatre Society in 2004 wasn’t an extravagant gift to the theatre-going population of Ireland; it was long overdue when the promise was made during the Millennium celebrations.

But we’re still waiting, seven years down the line. The promise was first made to us by the last Minister for Arts, Sile de Valera. She expressed a preference for building the new theatre on the site of the current building, which in turn replaced the theatre burned down in 1951.

The then Artistic Director of the Abbey, Patrick Mason, agreed with her. He was already on the record with a passionate plea for the continuation of tradition and history, as well as pointing out practical concerns like the central location and the impending arrival of one of the Luas lines.

Consultations began. Properties around the current building were available (and have been since). But the word was out, it seems, and the projected prices started to rise. The government couldn’t be held to ransom, we were told. Back to square one.

The Taoiseach was lobbied, and met the interested parties. He seemed to accept the necessity of keeping the theatre on the original site. Nothing happened. Then the new Artistic Director at the Abbey, Ben Barnes, stated that he was in favour of a greenfield site, a greenfield site having been made available “free of charge” in a development along the south bank of the Liffey basin. That was the terminology used: effectively, the proposal was to move the National Theatre out close to Ringsend.

The Taoiseach was annoyed that, having been lobbied, and having agreed in principle to the theatre remaining in Marlborough Street, his time had been taken up to no good purpose.

Back to minus square one, with costs rising all the time, and the centenary of the Old Lady of Marlborough Street approaching. Whispering got louder, of political jockeying: “Bertie” wasn’t going to see a major cultural institution moved out of his constituency; it was a matter of territory, even though he couldn’t care less about any kind of theatre. (I quote the gossips, not Mr Ahern himself.)

Well, there was another site, and it was in Mr Ahern’s constituency: the old Carlton cinema in O’Connell Street, together with the more or less derelict buildings behind it.

Not entirely unsuitable, was the verdict among those whose interest was theatre, rather than personal vendetta or empire-building. The political powers seemed to favour it, as did the City Council who saw such a positioning of a major institution as a much-needed boost for the tourist potential of the about-to-be-revamped O’Connell Street of the fast-food honky-tonks. Once again, other concerns were coming before the welfare and future of Irishtheatre.

But the freeholds were in a mess, it turned out, and the site would not become available in the foreseeable future. Back to minus square two.

There was a brief frisson about the Parnell Square site of Colaiste Mhuire. Not bad, mused the theatre-going public. Central, and the idea of the city’s two major theatres being close neighbours would be attractive, with the addition of the gracious cultural partner of the Hugh Lane Gallery creating a nice little cultural district, again a boost for the north city.

Aw, but there was a small property in private hands in the middle of the proposed site. Once again, official jaws were set; nobody was going to get rich on the backs of the Irish government. (The price reputed to be asked for the site would now buy two decent suburban houses, or would have provided a few lavatories in the newly gold-plated Croke Park.)

Then the property developer Dermot Desmond donned his pink taffeta frock with the green sash and decided to come to the ball. He offered a site at George’s Dock. The George’s Dock development is financial, glamorous, and glass-bound. But it’s anything but ideal. And perhaps significantly, Harvey Nichols, originally to move into the area, decided against siting a store there.

However, it has apparently been decided upon as the site for the new Abbey Theatre. It’s set in stone; the debate is over.

In its favour is the fact that the current Abbey Artistic Director, Fiach Mac Conghail, feels he (or his successor) can make it work, with three stage spaces and all facilities available on site. He has been assured by all parties involved, including Government and the Docklands Development Authority, that the new theatre will be up and running in five years. Privately, he is known to believe that this is distinctly optimistic.

And he has felt it necessary to spend three quarters of a million on reconfiguring the auditorium in the interim. He has already overseen a major modernisation and overhaul of the above-stage system known as the flies, so that lighting and sound equipment as well as complex sets, can be “flown” on and off stage. That refurbishment has already been seen to extraordinary advantage in the recent production of Julius Caesar which featured a splendid set by Jon Bausor. And with the international theatre design consultant Jan-Guy Lecat working with architect John Keogan on the new auditorium, things there will probably have improved spectacularly when audiences come back on April 10.

The money is not going down the drain; but it should be. It should be a total waste, because the new Abbey Theatre should be close to completion already. We were, remember, promised it for 2004. And the international design competition for the new building is not evenunder way.

Fiach Mac Conghail is doing an impressive job at the Abbey, and it’s part of his brief to be optimistic. I, on the other hand, am profoundly pessimistic. I don’t believe that the new Abbey Theatre will be completed in my lifetime, because once again we have talked ourselves hoarse and consulted ourselves to death because we’re such a “culturally aware” nation.

The only thing we’re not is a culturally active nation: as in building the damn thing.

It’s a Sumo.

Thanks, Graham, but Jaysus! Who put that windmill there? And the pond looks kinda empty, methinks.

Can’t wait! MS film & STW book: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2774-2031560,00.html

There is no such book as the one you mention. A major STW book is due later this year from Gandon, however. A quick search at Paddi.net turns up two published references (with plans and sections): Iris (March 1974, pp2-9) and a pamphlet from around the same time by Peter Wildbur & Associates. Get your librarian to request an inter-library loan from UCD. And why not ask Niall Scott of Scott Tallon Walker directly?

How about sticking to ARCHITECTURE and development, for a change, instead of planning and development on this thread? There is a difference, you know.