The subject is towns and town plans in Ireland - from earliest times to the Famine - their origin, originality and potential - bringing their rigorous and axial layouts to an audience for the first time where they can be understood as a part of world culture. The book is illustrated with new plans, maps and images, many of which are being published in Ireland for the first time.
Since the book started, Ireland has also changed. With lockdown, there has been a movement of people out of cities to new lives in the countryside - and particularly in small Irish towns. This is a natural process, but it brings huge opportunities to those towns at a key moment in their lives - the book is timely in showing how an understanding of their architecture and urban design serves to support ways in which they might be carefully conserved and developed to provide homes for thousands of additional people. This is one of the key questions for Ireland now. If it is answered originally, it will be Ireland’s significant contribution to world culture for the next number of years.
Dozens of towns throughout Ireland are discussed and illustrated. A list of these can be found on the attached pages.
The book will be of interest to all denizens of these towns, to local historians, geographers, librarians and all with an interest in the development of the Irish landscape and society.
€39.40