Irish Georgian Society
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The Irish Georgian Society is an architectural heritage and preservation organisation which promotes and aims to encourage an interest in the conservation of distinguished examples of architecture and the allied arts of all periods across
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, and records and publishes relevant material. The aims of this membership organisation are pursued by documenting, education, fundraising, grant issuance, planning process participation, lobbying, and member activities; in its first decades, it also conducted considerable hands-on restoration activities.


History

An earlier ''Georgian Society'' had been set up in part by
John Pentland Mahaffy Sir John Pentland Mahaffy (26 February 183930 April 1919) was an Irish classicist and polymathic scholar. Education and Academic career He was born near Vevey in Switzerland on 26 February 1839 to Irish parents, Nathaniel Brindley Mahaffy and ...
and functioned from 1908 to 1913; it had no direct connection with the current body although the society deems it to be its predecessor. The initial catalyst for the establishment of the modern society was the demolition by the Irish government's
Office of Public Works The Office of Public Works (OPW) ( ga, Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí) (legally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland) is a major Irish Government agency, which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including hundreds of ow ...
of Georgian houses at numbers 2 and 3 Kildare Place in central Dublin, ostensibly to provide rear access to
Government Buildings Government Buildings ( ga, Tithe an Rialtais) is a large Edwardian building enclosing a quadrangle on Merrion Street in Dublin, Ireland, in which several key offices of the Government of Ireland are located. Among the offices of State located in ...
. While the campaign to save the buildings was ultimately unsuccessful, it did help to highlight the plight of other notable buildings in decline and at risk and ignited the spark which motivated like-minded individuals to found the society. In an open letter to the Irish Times in 1957 Desmond Guinness lamented the lapsing of the older Georgian Society and asked whether anyone would object to him restarting it. The modern society was hence founded in 1958 by
Desmond Guinness Desmond Walter Guinness (8 September 1931 – 20 August 2020) was an Irish author writing on Georgian art and architecture, a conservationist and the co-founder of the Irish Georgian Society. He was the second son of the author and brewer Brya ...
and his wife Mariga and since that time, a number of buildings of architectural merit have been saved through their work and the work of members and supporters. Among the first structures restored by the society was
Conolly's Folly The Conolly Folly ( ga, Baois Uí Chongaile), a.k.a. The Obelisk, is an obelisk structure located between Celbridge, Leixlip and Maynooth in County Kildare, Ireland. It was built in the mid-18th century by the Conolly family, then owners of the ...
in
County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...
, the image of which is used as the organisation's emblem. After Desmond Guinness, the next president of the society was Desmond FitzGerald, Knight of Glin, who died in 2011, followed by
Patrick Guinness Patrick Desmond Carl Alexander Guinness, KCEG KLJ (born 1 August 1956 in Dublin) is an Irish historian and author and one of the heirs of the Guinness business dynasty. Son of Desmond and Mariga Guinness (born Hermione Maria-Gabrielle von U ...
. Other founding members included Percy Le Clerc, the inspector of Irish
National Monuments National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...
. In 2006 the Hon. Desmond Guinness was awarded a
Europa Nostra Europa Nostra (Italian for "Our Europe") is a pan-European Federation for Cultural Heritage, representing citizens' organisations that work on safeguarding Europe's cultural and natural heritage. It is the voice of this movement to relevant intern ...
prize for the society's preservation activities. An illustrated book by Robert O'Byrne on the society's first 50 years was published in 2008.


Membership and funding

The society is a membership organisation of about 2,000 members whose purpose is to promote awareness and the protection of Ireland's architectural heritage and decorative arts. The society's work within
ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
was managed by the Irish-registered Irish Georgian Society (IGS), registered as a charity in 1970. In 2008 the Irish Georgian Foundation was set up to run the financial and charitable aspects, leaving the IGS as a membership body. The boards of both were merged in 2013 for reasons of governance, and the IGF is now the legal entity, while the IGS name and logo are retained for emotive purposes. There are headquarters in Dublin, and for the US branch, in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
. The conservation efforts are funded by the members' participation in the society's events programme, fundraising at central and chapter level, by donations and bequests and by sales from the society's online book and gift shop. A large proportion of the society's income comes from supporters outside Ireland. In the US, the organisation has been registered as a charity since 1968 as the Irish Georgian Society Inc. In the UK, the organisation fundraises as the "Irish Georgian Trust".


Chapters

The society has semi-autonomous chapters in a number of locations, including Cork (founded 2003), Limerick (founded 1996), Birr (founded 1993, covering Ireland's midlands since 2015), London (founded 1971), and in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
and
Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from several nearby cities including West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intracoas ...
in the US.


Activities

The activities of the Irish Georgian Society have included the saving of threatened great buildings such as
Castletown House Castletown House, Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, is a Palladian country house built in 1722 for William Conolly, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. It formed the centrepiece of an estate. Sold to developers in 1965, the estate i ...
, County Kildare; Damer House, County Tipperary;
Doneraile Court Doneraile Court is a late-17th century country house ear the town of Doneraile in County Cork which stands in of walled parkland. It remained the seat of the St Leger family from the time of construction until the mid-20th century. The park i ...
, County Cork; Roundwood, Co. Laois; the
Tailors' Hall Tailors' Hall is the oldest of two surviving guildhalls in Dublin, Ireland. It is located on Back Lane, off High Street, in the part of the city known as the Liberties. Aside from meetings of its own and many other of the guilds of Dublin, the ...
, Dublin and 13
Henrietta Street, Dublin Henrietta Street () is a Dublin street, to the north of Bolton Street on the north side of the city, first laid out and developed by Luke Gardiner during the 1720s. A very wide street relative to streets in other 18th-century cities, it includ ...
, and the restoration of mid-eighteenth-century panelled rooms at Ledwithstown, County Longford; these were led by the first president, Desmond Guinness, and in the early years, his wife also. Guinness retired from leadership in 1990. Projects since then include the repair of the early nineteenth-century south tower roof at
Barmeath Castle Barmeath Castle is a country house near Dunleer in the centre of County Louth. Of note are the castle's 10 acres of gardens designed by the 18th-century landscape architect Thomas Wright. Barmeath Castle was erected in the 15th century and the B ...
, Co. Louth; the restoration of the pavilion cupolas of Kilshannig, Co. Cork, built in the 1760s to the designs of the Italian architect
Davis Ducart Davis Ducart (active from c. 1761, died 1780/81), was an architect and engineer in Ireland in the 1760s and 1770s. He designed several large buildings and engineering projects. He had associations with the canal builders of the time and the mining ...
; and, in association with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the World Monuments Fund and the Headfort Trust, the restoration of the superb
Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his o ...
decorative schemes at
Headfort House Headfort House is a large country house on the southern outskirts of Kells in County Meath, Ireland. History The house was constructed in the 1760s for The 1st Earl of Bective to a design by the Irish architect George Semple. The interiors ...
, County Meath. Another major project, which started in 2008, was the restoration of Dublin's 1760s City Assembly House in South William Street, the first purpose-built public exhibition gallery in Britain or Ireland. From 1809 it was the debating chamber of
Dublin Corporation Dublin Corporation (), known by generations of Dubliners simply as ''The Corpo'', is the former name of the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin since the 1100s. Significantly re-structured in 1660-1661, even more sign ...
for nearly a century, and was the scene of many famous speeches by
Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...
. The society has also compiled and makes available a list of craftworkers skilled in the maintenance of historic buildings.


Events

The society runs a range of events, educational, exploratory, instructional (for example for property owners), some for members, some open.


See also

*
Georgian Dublin ''Georgian Dublin'' is a phrase used in terms of the history of Dublin that has two interwoven meanings: # to describe a historic period in the development of the city of Dublin, Ireland, from 1714 (the beginning of the reign of King George I ...
*
Georgian Group The Georgian Group is a British Charitable organization, charity, and the national authority on Georgian architecture built between 1700 and 1837 in England and Wales. As one of the Amenity society, National Amenity Societies, The Georgian G ...
*
Irish Landmark Trust The Irish Landmark Trust is an architectural conservation and educational organisation founded in Ireland in 1992. Similar to the British Landmark Trust (founded in 1965), it is a charitable organization, registered charity which renovates buildin ...
* Dublin Civic Trust


References


External links

*{{official site
IGS Cork Chapter BlogIndex to articles in the "Quarterly bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society"
Heritage organizations Georgian architecture in Ireland History organisations based in the Republic of Ireland Conservation in the Republic of Ireland Seanad nominating bodies