A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF ARCHITECTS IN IRELAND 1600-1720

There were three main sources from which the architectural profession emerged in Ireland in the 17th craftsmen, especially masons and carpenters who, in continuation of medieval tradition, designed the whole or parts of buildings and then contracted to build them; military officers, often skilled in the building of fortifications, who, after the Restoration in 1660, became prominent in the construction of country houses when very few civilian architects were left in Ireland; gentlemen of means who had travelled abroad and who almost always held some official position as a member of the nobility, clergy, or Irish courts and who used architecture as a hobby or as a profession to supplement their incomes.
From this rather diverse group not only did an architectural profession emerge but its advent signalled a departure from traditional methods of building. Each in its own way contributed to the development of a new and classically inspired architecture, for, though the Gothic style survived for a time, it succumbed to the change of taste both in architect and patron. As in England these new men were architects who made a conscious study of design and whose involvement was supervisory rather than executive.
With the support of the Irish Georgian Society Rolf Loeber has aimed to do for Irish architects and architecture what Howard Colvin's classic work (A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects) did for the British, with the hope that it will lead to a wider appreciation of the Irish heritage and stimulate efforts for its conservation.
In the opinion of Sir John 'This is a first-rate lateral extension of Colvin's famous Dictionary. Loeber has planted the Colvin standard of architectural biography in the dim and difficult area of seventeenth-century Ireland. His findings are remarkable.'