Architecture: Dublin hardly ranks with Venice or Bruges as a triumph of human ingenuity over a hostile terrain. In its architectural pretensions and achievements it is more akin to Edinburgh, although lacking the drama of the latter's setting. Dublin, sharing a long but sometimes contested status as a capital, boasts innovative and inventive buildings.
They now receive full recognition in this comprehensive and astringent analysis by Christine Casey.
In 1951, Nikolaus Pevsner, a refugee from Nazi Germany, began an extended survey of The Buildings of England. Starting with the westernmost county, Cornwall, the tour eventually encompassed all of England and was then extended to Wales and Scotland. Surviving structures were subjected to rigorous architectural and historical analysis, of which Pevsner was a severe master. Over time, the entries lengthened, earlier volumes had to be revised and a more permissive approach adopted to what was deemed worthy of mention. So slim paperbacks fattened into hefty hardbacks. Nevertheless, Pevsner's austere standards, seeking to measure seemingly parochial British edifices against the highest European standards, have been maintained throughout the enterprise.
In 1978, the series was further enlarged to cover Ireland. Volumes on north-west Ulster and north Leinster have been published already. Now a third Irish instalment looks at the area probably most densely packed with the architecturally important and idiosyncratic: Dublin within the curtilage of the canals and the North and South Circular Roads.
Dublin follows the format of the series. First, the main materials - types of stone, brick, even concrete, and the varieties of wood, glass, ceramics and metal used for detailing - are discussed. Stained glass and public statuary are also considered. Next, the evolution of the capital's architecture is traced with precision, economy and wit. Christine Casey, assisted in some specifics by Howard Clarke, Roger Stalley and Mark O'Neill, provides an unrivalled account of both the broader trends and individual structures. So the familiar landmarks - the former Parliament Building, the Customs House, Trinity College, City Hall - jostle with their little-known neighbours. Few passersby will be aware, for example, that "the sole surviving exterior baroque flourish" is to be seen in Mary Street. Comparisons are offered, not just with Britain, but with Brussels, Paris, Rome and New York.
Dr Casey is exhilarated by the Dublin skyline currently crowded with giant cranes and the boom that they represent. Understanding both the aesthetics and technicalities of building, she is as unforgiving of shoddy materials as of meretricious designs. But, just as Pevsner applauded modernism, if based on sound principles, so too does Casey. Paul Koralek, architect of the Berkeley Library of Trinity, becomes a latter-day Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, author of what is now the Bank of Ireland.
Pevsner, the immigrant, strove to isolate what made English art and architecture distinctive, its "Englishness". Casey similarly picks out characteristics which she regards as peculiar to Dublin - a contrast between external reticence and internal exuberance. This trait leads to one of the most original treatments in what is a constantly enlightening investigation: the decoration, especially in stucco and wood, of 18th-century townhouses. She also explores later instances when a conscious nationalism decreed the employment of indigenous materials - Calp and other limestones, friable sandstones or granite rather than the Portland stone imported at high cost from England. The preference for Stradbally limestone in the university block at Earlsfort Terrace is seen as a deliberate retort to the Portland-stone Royal College of Science.
Casey's introduction can be read as an informed and original history of Irish architecture as exemplified by central Dublin. However, the bulk of the book is an inventory of all architecturally significant buildings in the area. The gazetteer, written with verve and freshness, will instantly establish itself as the essential guide. Even for those with eyes downcast, new understanding is accorded to the iron founders who manufactured the railings, coal-hole covers, drain grids. The harassed traveller, as well as being impressed with the iconic status of Busáras in the modernist movement, will be directed there to the terrazzo sign "Má thuigeann tú Gaeilge, labhair é".
Most sightseers, however, will be moved to lift their gaze higher, keen to enjoy for themselves the competence, confidence and originality (and stylistic solecisms) of those who built the city. All are now revealed in this superlative volume.
Toby Barnard teaches history at Oxford University. His guide to the sources for the history of material culture in Ireland was published recently by Four Courts Press
The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin By Christine Casey Yale University Press, 800pp. €45