Context 163 - March 2020

C O N T E X T 1 6 3 : M A R C H 2 0 2 0 25 Ireland JOHN GRABY and ROBIN MANDAL The RIAI’s role in conservation Significant campaigns to protect historic buildings have led to the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland playing a leading role in developing the practice of conservation. When the RIAI (Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland) was founded in 1839, the impetus behind it was more preservation than conserva- tion. In 1835 a major programme of workhouse building had been announced for Ireland, work eagerly anticipated by Irish architects. However, the entirety of this programme was given to George Wilkinson, a 27-year-old architect from Oxford. An organisation to protect the interest of Irish architects was needed, hence the founding the RIAI.Wilkinson settled in Ireland and some years later (in 1851) was elected vice president of the institute. Despite what could be regarded as an organi- sation founded to protect professional interests, the RIAI has been active in architectural conser- vation as a body and through its members. Some of these activities include: • In 1869 the RIAI produced the first listing of medieval structures in Dublin and district, an important resource for architectural historians and conservationists. • In 1890 the RIAI lobbied against the building of the Loop Line railway bridge, which would block the view of the Custom House, regarded as the finest neoclassical building in Dublin.The bridge was built and is still with us. • 1913 saw the RIAI producing the first listing of architecturally important buildings in the country. • The RIAI played a key role in advising government on the appropriate rebuilding of O’Connell Street, Dublin’s principal street, after the 1916 rising and the civil-war destruction. • In the 1920s the RIAI influenced the proper rebuilding of James Gandon’s two great riverine buildings, the Custom House and the Four Courts after extensive damage in the war of independence. There was a possibility that these important buildings could have been poorly restored or even demolished. The 1950s saw the beginning of the pressure of modern office development on Dublin’s largely intact architectural heritage.This was signalled by the demolition of a number of Georgian houses in Leinster Place, off Kildare Street.At this time there was an establishment/political view that Georgian architecture was not part of Irish culture. This may have been an unfortunate result of the Irish cultural revival, which had a significant impact on Irish art, literature and politics. A prominent gov- ernment minister regarded Georgian architecture as the preserve of ‘belted earls’. Around this time the profession began to change. The writer first saw this as a student during the late 1960s in the Dublin Institute of Technology School of Architecture. As a group project it was standard practice to give fourth-year students an area of Dublin to study, The crossing and vault of Ballintubber Abbey, Co Mayo, whose nave was restored and re-roofed in 1966 (Photo: Andreas F Borchert, Wikimedia)