To mark the screening of the RTE documentary on Eileen Gray next Tuesday and the publication of an important new book on Gray’s Life and work by design historian Jennifer Gough, we re-visit this personal appraisal, written during October 2013 in response to the Eileen Grey retrospective at IMMA… The Irish Museum of Modern Art, recently… Read More Eileen Gray at IMMA, thoughts & reflections.
Here is a sight to which Dubliners, or indeed many who’ve visited Dublin, will need no introduction. (my photo) Yes, it’s the famous, justly famous, Long Room of Trinity College. It sits as the top level, the top two levels really, of the Old Library, that handsome old building which divides Library Square from Fellows’ Square in… Read More The Long Room | From superb to sublime.
Just back from a 9-10 day break, mostly spent in extraordinary, dazzling, dramatic Languedoc. Languedoc, means (Land of) the tongue or Language of Oc -Occitan being the ancient language of the area. It is a region that has long exercised the medieval-obsessive imagination of your correspondent, your writer-blogger-chappie. As a land of huge Cathar… Read More Languedoc & Albi, a hilltop treasure & a mighty Cathedral, all built on woad.
Some snaps and details from a recent walking tour (April 13th) with architectural historian & expert in 18th Century Dublin shops, Sarah Foster. Unfortunately the day was a cold and grey, so forgive the dull light. Some of these details (like the gargoyle above) Sarah pointed out, in a few other cases I wandered off the route to snap things that… Read More Plaques, gargoyles and granite shop fronts.
This post is for all visitors and was inspired by my students. They often tell me they find it hard to get reliable information on the most interesting places to see here. This sounds a bit unlikely at first? With Ireland’s long-established tourism, you’d imagine we’re bursting at the seams with reliable, objective lists and maps,… Read More Arran’s Top Dublin Sights & Visits.
I recently posted on an event that runs in Dublin November each year called Open House, dedicated to architecture by helping to educate and inform us all about the history and practice of that great art, and by giving the public access to some of the best buildings in the country. It’s one of my… Read More Custom-made Beauty. – Power, genius and intrigue, in 18th century Dublin.
Every autumn, there are two wonderful events in Dublin. The first, in September is called “Culture Night” which is pretty self-explanatory but covers all the arts. The second event is called “Open House”. It aims to interest and engage and to give people direct access to architecture, from old medieval and Georgian buildings, to the latest bits of… Read More Autumn, when Dublin comes to Life. a little picture essay of Pearse St.
I’ve not to date participated in that Word Press institution known as “the Daily Prompt”. You know the one, it’s for those who like to blog everyday, but occasionally find themselves, temporarily, stuck for inspiration. “The Prompt” is a suggested topic, serving as a nudge to get them writing. I’ve nothing against it; indeed it’s… Read More These were a few of my favourite things.
I was about to abandon the little memoir of my recent Paris jaunt, and blog instead about other things. Time- after all- marches on. Tempus fugit and all that. But then I looked at some photos saved on the computer, of statues, saints and angels, one of Mary Magdalene even. Inevitably, thoughts turned to Paris… Read More Another day in Paris-dise (or Hell for the unlucky)
In a series of three seperate earlier posts, we’ve looked at the history of Dublin’s cathedral of Saint Patrick’s, from the early Christaina era, in one post, to the Viking ear in another, and finally to the Anglo-Normans, and “the story of the two cathedrals”. It’s all a long, immense, complex web of religious and… Read More Saint Patrick’s History, 4: Richard Boyle, earl of Cork, power, politics and intrigue in Elizabethan & Stuart Ireland.
Arran Q Henderson 