Studies in the gothic revival

Michael McCarthy & Karina O'Neill, editors

‘This welcome addition to the relatively sparse literature on Irish Gothic Revival and its contexts gathers together ten papers presented at a conference to mark the retirement of Prof. Michael McCarthy, Chair of the History of Arts at UCD, in 2005 … The essays in this book help to go beyond the stone, stucco and papier maché veneer, and provide a significant contribution to the understanding of one of the most ubiquitous, though often maligned, styles in 18th and 19th century Irish architecture‘, Rachel Moss, Architecture: The Journal of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland.

‘Some believe Gothic architecture never really died out but hid in nooks and crannies or even in whole installations of Gothic Revival, while purists maintain that only Gothic is Gothic. This collection of ten articles addresses the revival of interest in Gothic Revival as well as in the art form itself, covering fan painting from Henry VII’s chapel in Westminster Abbey to the Monkstown parish church, Batty Langley in Ireland, Leap Castle in County Offaly, Christopher Myers, neo-Gothic residences in Poland and England built from pattern books, Thomas Rickman in Ireland, Edward Pierce, courthouses in Sligo, Gothic Revival in a New York church and the progress in taste to Gothic Revival. The illustrations, including the monochrome photographs, are very well-chosen’, Book News (August 2008).