THE IRISH MONTHLY

OCTOBER, 1915

IRISH GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

By R. M. BUTLER, F.R.I.B.A.

RISH Gothic Architecture is not a subject that can be said to have attracted much study, and there are many educated persons who assume that Ireland never possessed a pointed architecture of its own.

The labours of George Petrie, ever famed as the author of The Round Towers and the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland" and the first serious authority on Irish Architecture, were directed to the investigation of the earlier types, culminating in the Romanesque of Ireland, with its interesting, and to some extent still unsolved problems. This diverted attention from the later styles. During the Romanesque era Ireland had early developed a style of architecture not inferior to that of any other country, while in the particular domain of decorative art as exemplified in the high crosses, in illuminating and elaborate metal work, not to speak of the remarkable round towers, excelled other countries.

In the Gothic Age, for reasons which history explains, Ireland fell behind, and as a result of the English invasion, there arose two separate developments of the same style, the one English, the other Irish. It would, however, be a mistake to assume that the English invasion was directly

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responsible for the decline of Romanesque, or the rise of Gothic in Ireland. Both followed the fashion and natural development. Had the English never invaded Ireland, Romanesque might have lingered longer and developed more fully, but its ultimate passing would not have been hindered, nor, on the other hand, could the introduction of Gothic into Ireland, have been long delayed.

In the recent revival of interest in native art and literature, architecture, which is "the mother of the arts," has come in for but a small share of attention: yet it has been well said that the architecture of a country is the nation's history in stone. For the reason stated, namely, that Ireland greatly excelled in art during the Romanesque period, attention was focussed thereon; from this it is an easy step in popular imagination to suppose that this country possessed but one style of architecture, and that the Romanesque was exclusively an Irish possession and Gothic wholly English.

It may be of some interest to mention a few facts tending to dispel such an illusion, but it is desirable first to compare the situation of architecture then and now.

The Romanesque style was a great worldwide movement, in which every civilised country participated. It is unnecessary to enter upon the controversies as to the relative priority of the nations, beyond noting that it is fairly clear that the Irish had very early stone-built churches.

The great living periods of building may be very broadly divided as follows: Greek, of which Roman architecture was an offshoot, Romanesque and Byzantine, Gothic. There ensued the Italian Renaissance, a revival of classical art. Each of these periods followed a natural sequence of development, and while it lasted, held exclusive sway. These styles were the logical expression of the age, there was no such thing as choice of styles, for the architecture came as naturally to the builders of the time as the language, or the script to the writer. It was an unaffected expression of ideals, and church architecture from its earliest existence down to the sixteenth century was in a state of constant

progress.

Nowadays there is no such thing as natural art in archi

tecture. A style is selected as promiscuously as a choice is made from a catalogue.

The development of Gothic Art in Ireland may with ease be traced, as in other countries, through a transitional style, from the round to the pointed.

Where the English held sway, as in the Pale, Gothic art is of a purely English type. Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, the Abbey of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, may be taken as the most typical example. Its detail is characteristically English, some of the materials of which it is built were imported, the external cutstone, erroneously supposed to be Caen stone, the Purbeck marble shafts, etc. It was founded in 1038. In the "Black Book of Christ Church," written in the fourteenth century, it is mentioned that "Sitricus, King of Dublin, son of Amelve or Ableb, Earl of Dublin, gave to the Blessed Trinity, and to Donat, first Bishop of Dublin, a place on which to build a Church of the Blessed Trinity, where the arches or vaults were founded," together with "gold and silver enough wherewith to build the church and the whole court thereof," also certain lands for its endowment. A document of the reign of Richard II. records that the church had been "founded and endowed by divers Irishmen, whose names are unknown, time out of mind, and long before the Conquest of Ireland." This has no reference to the present Gothic structure, which is, of course, of later date. Christ Church was made a Priory in 1163 by St. Laurence O'Toole, the secular clergy becoming regulars of the Order of Arroasian Canons, a branch of the Augustinian Order now extinct. It was during his Episcopacy the Anglo-Normans descended upon Ireland. Henry II. visited Ireland in 1171, remaining until 17th April of the following year. From that on, Dublin became the capital of the English Pale, and many new buildings were erected, amongst them the eastern portion of the Cathedral, Laurence, Archbishop of Dublin, Richard, surnamed Strongbow, Earl of Strigul, Robert Fitzstephen, and Raymond le Gros, undertaking to enlarge the church. The three immediate successors of St. Laurence O'Toole who died 1180 were Englishmen: John Comyn (1181-1212), Henry de Londres (1213--28) and Luke (1228-55). It is

probable that the present beautiful early English thirteenth century nave (of which one side is a modern reproduction) dates from the Episcopacy of Henry de Londres, whose influence, together with the fact that Dublin was the capital of the Pale, fully account for its English character. The present east end is a conjectural modern restoration.

Founded and endowed originally by the Danish King, the present Cathedral has little connection with the traditions of the native church. It was built by English conquerors and endowed by English Kings, and its character was strictly maintained, for no Irishman could hold even inferior office, and by a law of 1380 no native could profess himself in it.

It is probable the choir and transepts (the latter alone remaining) were the first parts of the Anglo-Norman church built, and it was after a long interval that the Gothic nave and aisles were erected. The transepts remain, and are a very fine piece of Norman Romanesque work. Christ Church sets forth English Gothic Art in Ireland.

If we wish to learn something of the Irish phase, we may turn to churches built under native auspices, remains of which are still plentiful. We find that although possessing a resemblance to the English manner, essentially native peculiarities are early noticeable, and as Gothic advanced culminated in the development of a definite national style.

The ecclesiastical conditions in Ireland differed from those in France or England, in that the monastic system predominated here so exclusively. No great Cathedrals like those of France or England were built, nor vast parish churches, little inferior to Cathedrals in size, such as are not infrequently found in England. The early churches were merely small oratories of the simplest design, gradually increasing in size and importance. Almost all the more important later buildings were abbey churches. In these was evolved a very interesting, though plain type of Gothic Art, the main characteristics being the long low outline, and the absence of purely ornamental features. The lofty vaulted naves of France were as little emulated as the rich exuberance of late English Gothic; but the style was appropriate and suited to the building materials of the country.

Mr. A. L. Champneys, an accomplished and painstaking English writer, who has lately written the only connected and chronological narrative of Irish Ecclesiastical Architecture extant, very clearly notes the sequence of events, though his views are not always to be accepted without question. He remarks upon signs of increased English influence upon Irish Architecture, notably from Somersetshire and Pembrokeshire in the end of the twelfth and in the thirteenth century when the transition from Romanesque to Gothic gradually occurred. He further observes that such influence from outside "was subject to modification by the mind and taste of native workmen, so that many of the Irish Transitional Churches are, so to speak, hall-marked as Irish." "Others are more or less completely English"and again: "When this foreign influence was coming into the country, the extent to which it would work must obviously depend on the nationality, connections, or taste of the founder, upon the question of whether a foreign masterbuilder and foreign workmen were available or desired." Striking and very vernacular examples of Transitional work are to be found in certain Cistercian Abbeys, such as Boyle, Corcumroe, and Abbey Knockmoy, built about 1200. They are quite Irish, and display certain very characteristic details, for example, the long-pointed brackets or corbels so common in Irish churches.

By the second quarter of the thirteenth century Gothic was fully established in Ireland, and Mr. Champneys while claiming a large, and possibly excessive measure of English influence, declares that "early Gothic was a living style in Ireland." Indeed it is impossible to examine Irish Ecclesiastical Architecture of this period and to deny that it was both a living and a native style, though the work had less individuality than at any other period.

Mr. Champneys' analysis of Irish Gothic may be taken, on the whole, as a fair and discriminating one, though his tendency is rather to exaggerate the English influence, and to underrate the very large effect which constant and intimate intercourse with foreign countries other than England, must have had. As the style advanced this becomes more and more noticeable. Thus, while we find the foliage