Boole Library, University College Cork
Inspiration for this exhibition emerged over the past decade through tours organised by the Cork Chapter of the Irish Georgian Society, alongside my work as a volunteer at Fota House. These encounters sustained my engagement with Ireland’s architectural legacy and the layered histories embedded within it.
While we may be initially charmed by the elegance and grandeur of these buildings, I view them as lived spaces shaped by time and memory and not as idealised monuments. The presence of the occasional spectator also carries a quiet but weighty significance. Their gaze expands the narrative beyond aesthetics, introducing questions of identity, inheritance, and belonging.
There is a growing interest in this complex chapter of Irish history and the reassessment of architecture associated with colonialism. As a society, we have come on a journey—one that allows us to acknowledge the origins of these buildings while embracing them as part of our shared cultural fabric. In observing them, we witness a collective act of reclamation: an appreciation not only of their beauty, but of the remarkable skill and craftsmanship of earlier Irish artisans.