Passing down even the most anonymous stretch of modern motorway in Ireland invariably reveals glances of the past, a ruined castle by the roadside, a round tower in the distance, a long silent and now gaunt great house. It takes an act of the imagination as much as a practical grasp of archaeology and architecture to evoke such monuments as they once were. Take to the fields and churchyards and there is more to see than any one lifetime could explore. The antiquarian George Petrie (1790-1866) is widely acknowledged as the father of Irish archaeology. He worked extensively to further our awareness of an extraordinary national built heritage. He was an active illustrator, busy in the field recording the physical presence of a range of monuments, particularly round towers.
Yet we owe an immense debt to an even earlier generation of artists who travelled the country sketching castles, churches, mottes and so on. Often commissioned to do so by patrons such as the one-time owner of Slane Castle, Col William Burton, later known as Rt Hon William Conyngham Gen Charles Vallancey, the Dutch-born Huguenot Gabriel Beranger, Englishman Francis Grose, author of The Antiquities of Ireland, and his nephew Daniel are among the most famous of these late 18th-century chroniclers. Less well known is James Saunders, the subject of a tantalising article in the current issue of the ever-excellent Archaeology Ireland. His life and works are a mystery but for 30 paintings obviously part of a larger collection, housed at the Neptune Gallery in Dublin. These artists have left charming drawings and watercolours, pictures that for us now fill in the gaps of history. In some cases, the only record of a building which is now gone rests in these genteel images.
Beranger (c.1730-1817) is a fascinating character whose contribution has been astutely highlighted by Peter Harbison in two books, Beranger's Views of Ireland (Royal Irish Academy, 1991) and Beranger's Antique Buildings of Ireland (Four Courts Press and the National Library of Ireland, 1998).
Having arrived in Ireland at the age of 21, Beranger, who is believed to have been born in Amsterdam, earned his living here as an artist and print-seller. His graceful, thoughtful watercolours capture the elegance of an 18th-century Ireland largely long since vanished. He is by far the most prolific topographical artist of his period, but was forgotten for almost 50 years after his death until Beranger's achievement was revived by none other than Sir William Wilde. That most colourful of Irish 19th-century polymaths wrote a series of articles which were published together in book form in 1880 after his own death by his widow Speranza as Memoir of Gabriel Beranger, and His Labours in the Cause of Irish Art and Antiquities from 1760-1780. Not all of Beranger's works were originals. He copied from other artists and always noted his debut to landscape painters such as Jonathan Fisher (died 1809), Thomas Roberts (1748-78) and William Ashford (1746-1824); another name is that of George Barrett (1732-84), while Beranger notes the work of talented amateurs. It is interesting to note that John Aheron, credited with the design of Naughval Church in Co Laois, wrote the first book on Irish architecture, A General Treatise on Architecture in Ireland published as early as 1754.
Now Harbison, archaeologist, art historian author of The Golden Age of Irish Art 600-1200 and internationally regarded authority on Irish high crosses, brings to our attention the contribution of another artistrecorder, Austin Cooper (1759-1830). Born in Co Tipperary, in Killenure Castle, which became home to his family in 1746 and was to remain so until 1960, Cooper became a clerk in the Treasury in Dublin at the age of 15. Unlike many of his contemporaries working in the field, Cooper drew for pleasure. In time he drew Killenure. Thanks to him we have drawings of the church which once stood on the site of St Finnian's sixth-century university at Clonard, Co Meath. Today nothing save a 19th-century church, which the local community intend to restore, and an atmosphere of extraordinary serenity, remains of the place where St Columcille, Brendan the Navigator and Ciaran, founder of Clonmacnoise, were students.
Also long gone but preserved at least as an image by Cooper's efforts, is Grange Castle in Co Laois, a tower house dating - thanks to Cooper's notes - from 1588. Another casualty is Cloyne Castle in Co Cork. He sketched this tower house on the same day, June 8th 1781, as he drew the round tower which still stands. One of the best preserved in the country, it survived a lightening storm in 1749 which the then local bishop, philosopher George Berkeley described as having the loudest thunderclap he had ever heard in Ireland. Cooper was fascinated by round towers and drew many of them, including the splendid one at Killala, Co Mayo and the tower at Kildare town. He had, however, in common with many late 18th-century gentlemen antiquarians, little interest in high crosses. Cloyne castle is gone, although Harbison suggests parts of it might still remain "embedded in one of the houses of the town". He laments the fact Cooper drew only a straight frontal view of St Cronan's Church in Roscrea, Co Tipperary as today only the facade remains because the church was demolished in 1820.
From the drawings in this book, it seems Cooper, a father of eight, devoted most of his artistic energies on the antiquities of Co Meath, closely followed by those of Co Kildare. The midland county has a noticeably higher rate of monument loss. Tyrrel's Castle, more mill than castle, copied by Cooper from a drawing, once existed near Celbridge. Already a ruin in Cooper's time, it has disappeared. It is wonderful to see features endure such as the corbelled vault of the second floor of Termonfeckin Castle in Co Louth. It replicates the technique used in the burial chamber at Newgrange.
There is a true beauty in many of the graceful ruins, as Harbison notes of the Abbey at Ennis, now standing open to public view in all its ruined glory. "Most tragic of all" is the loss of Ticroghan Castle, a once imposing collection of buildings, a few miles south-west of Clonard, in Co Meath. Now, only scattered earthworks and Cooper's charming drawing dated October 1794, testify to the presence of a magical, romantic complex Harbison feels "would not look out of place in a Disney film".
Sketching ancient buildings and monuments was Cooper's hobby, although it probably proved useful in furthering his career. He spent his working life as a career civil servant travelling the country as a tax collector. Appointed Paymaster to the Pensioners on the Civil and Military Establishments, he was entrusted with travelling the country under armed escort and in charge of a great deal of money. In 1793 he succeeded his uncle as chief clerk of the Treasury. Within three years he was appointed deputy constable of Dublin Castle, a desk job he stayed in until his death in 1830. In addition to his treasury salary, Cooper acted as a land agent for Lord Conyngham among others and was an agent for the State Lottery, once winning £20,000. In 1815, Cooper the wealthy tax collector moved into Abbeville, the famous Gandon mansion near Kinsealy, Co Dublin. It is a connection which has since acquired ironies of its own.
In his last years Cooper spent much time in his Merrion Square town house. Having broken his leg in an accident on returning to the city from Abbeville, his final months were those of a semi-invalid. His work is contained in two albums which Harbison has edited, presented with a characteristically informed text, all the while displaying a flair for scholarly sleuthing.
Within a year of his death, Cooper's library was auctioned. Petrie was present and is believed to have purchased some unspecified drawings. Harbison also notes Cooper kept a daily diary spanning some 50 years but little of it survives. In time, his works eventually made their way back to his descendants. More than five years ago the present Austin Cooper, now living in England, repatriated Cooper's drawings and related material back to Ireland. Harbison then began his valuable investigations. Cooper's Ireland is as evocative as it is cautionary. Buildings and monuments are as vulnerable to the weather and time as to war, desertion and modern planning. Looking at these drawings, the work of a frock-coated gentleman who even 200 years ago was looking at an ancient heritage already under threat, in some cases lost, and alive only through his eyes, is to see our future as well as our past.
Cooper's Ireland - Drawings and Notes from an 18th century Gentleman by Peter Harbison is published by the O'Brien Press, in association with the National Library of Ireland, price £25.