As many loyal (and much appreciated) readers will be aware, I began writing The Irish Aesthete way back in September 2012. The reasons for my doing so are no longer clear, but they certainly involved a desire to share a long-standing passion for Ireland’s architectural heritage which it seemed to me then – and still seems to me now – has been insufficiently celebrated and cherished. Gradually, and somewhat surprisingly, The Irish Aesthete developed a following, both within Ireland and overseas, and then spawned a presence on various other social media outlets, particularly Instagram.
From the beginning I recognised that, given the subject matter, my text needed to be accompanied by pictures. However, having never before taken photographs, indeed having never even owned a camera, I used my mobile phone. I still do and, as the quality of these devices has improved over the years, so too, I hope, has the quality of my pictures. But my amateur status remains: I’m a writer who takes photographs, not a photographer who writes.
In 2022, to mark ten years of The Irish Aesthete, I gave a digital set of all my photographs to the Irish Architectural Archive on Merrion Square in Dublin, a terrific repository of wisdom and information, which for many years has helped to promote better understanding of this country’s historic architecture. Many of the pictures in my recently-published book, The Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland, Lost and Found featured in an exhibition at the IAA held to coincide with the donation, but not all because since that date I have visited further sites and photographed them.
The pictures included in the book are a cross-section of the very many (over 100,000) taken over the past twelve years, covering everything from country houses to cottages, from ancient monasteries to garden follies. Consistent posting on social media several times a week means I have always been on the lookout for new (or rather old) material. Before setting out on any journey, I look to see what sites might be explored en route, and prepare a list in advance. Sometimes the results are disappointing, but sometimes there are unexpected, always welcome, delights: a house spotted over a hedge, or an old ruin in a nearby field. Astonishingly, there continue to be more places to be investigated.
So, this is a record of buildings visited to date, but by no means exhaustive. There are still lots of properties and parts of this island which still wait to be explored. The sheer diversity of places on our small country and the quality of our historic architecture continue to excite me. I hope that the Irish Aesthete has a future as well as a past.
The Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland, Lost and Found is now available in all good bookshops or through www.lilliputpress.ie/product/the-irish-aesthete