THOMAS JOSEPH

BYRNE NATION BUILDER by John Byrne and Michael Fewer

THOMAS JOSEPH

BYRNE NATION BUILDER

by John Byrne and Michael Fewer

South Dublin Libraries 2013 Copyright © 2013

Michael Fewer, John Byrne and South Dublin Libraries

ISBN 978-0-9575115-1-4

Price: €12.99

Design and layout by Noel Smyth @ SilverBark Creative

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Phone 353 (0)1 462 0073 Contents

Acknowledgements 02

Introduction by Mayor Cathal King 03

Abbreviations used 04

Foreword 05

Introduction 11

The Early Years 13

South Dublin Rural District Council, 1901-1919 23

The Local Government Board and the Local Government Department 61

The Office of Public Works 65

Last Years 107

Epilogue 125

Appendices 129

Appendix 1 Map of the South Dublin Rural District Council area 129

Appendix 2 W. T. Cosgrave’s letter to T. J. Byrne regarding Dublin re-housing 130

Sources Consulted 131

Index 133

■ ■ ■ ■ 01 Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their thanks to those who assisted with information, advice and indeed, encouragement. They include Frederick O’Dwyer , Willie Cumming, Angela Rolfe, Rebecca McKeon and Nirvana Flanagan of the Office of Public Works, Sean Rothery, the staff at the Irish Architectural Archive and the National Archives, Colm McQuinn of Fingal County Council, and especially Kieran Swords and the staff at South Dublin County Council Libraries.

02 ■ ■ ■ ■ Introduction by Mayor Cathal King

Thomas Joseph Byrne was a quiet, retiring man who never sought to promote himself. It is likely that his association with the wide range of important work undertaken and promoted by him could easily fade with time and be forgotten. Thankfully this book ensures that the story of this great man will be remembered. We are deeply indebted to the authors, Michael Fewer and John Byrne, for this informative and extensively illustrated book which tells about this great man and his work.

T. J. Byrne was truly a nation builder in every sense of the term. Through enthusiasm, sheer hard work, and making use of his formidable talents as an architect, engineer, project planner, leader and man of culture, he sought not just to provide structures and infrastructure but to ensure that the higher aims of supporting the growth and development of communities and society were the bedrock of his projects.

It is fitting that South Dublin County Council should be associated with this book as a predecessor local authority, South Dublin Rural District Council, is particularly associated with Thomas Joseph Byrne’s early career.

We are also very grateful to John Byrne and to Michael Fewer who have generously donated much material to South Dublin Libraries for inclusion in Source, the library service’s digital archive. Their generosity has resulted in the fine T. J. Byrne Collection and additions to other collections which are available to everyone courtesy of South Dublin Libraries. Source can be accessed at www.source.southdublinlibraries.ie. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.

Tá súil agam go mbaineann sibh taitneamh as an leabhar breá seo agus dá bharr go mbeidh léirthuiscint agaibh ar thábhacht T. J. Byrne i saol na hÉireann.

Cathal King Mayor of South Dublin County

■ ■ ■ ■ 03 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Abbreviations Used

LCC London County Council

OPW Office of Public Works

SDRDC South Dublin Rural District Council

LGB Local Government Board (British Government)

LGD Local Government Department (Free State Government)

RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects

RIAI Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland

AAI Architectural Association of Ireland

ACAI Academy of Christian Art of Ireland

04 ■ ■ ■ ■ Foreword

This well-considered monograph builds on an exhibition mounted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Whitechurch Library, Ballyboden in 2011. The Library was thronged that day and the hanging of a large quilt, handmade communally to a bespoke design for the building’s birthday, was very moving. The idea of a public building remaining so well loved and central to community life for 100 years (even a building this skilful in its enjoyment of light, space and comfort) is heartening. Under its high white, wooden ceiling, the Library now counts a lively web-project among its attractions, which looks to its future as confidently as to its past.

In Murray Fraser’s intriguing book ‘John Bull’s Other Homes’, Byrne’s work is placed in a more radical context. Fraser suggests that from the Land Wars of 1883 onwards to Independence, pressure grew on the British Government to intervene in Irish housing as a quid pro quo to avoid further violent conflict. A model of subsidised state housing, developed as the Labourers’ Cottages programme, was introduced and tested in Ireland as a palliative social measure. Fear of demobilising soldiers at the end of the Great War extended this initiative into Britain’s first fully-subsidised state housing – the ‘Homes for Heroes’ campaign – under the Addison Act of 1919. This theory links Byrne’s accomplished use of Arts and Crafts architecture in his many Labourers’ Cottages schemes to the radical Utopian socialism of William Morris and its urban expression in London County Council’s (LCC) first social housing projects at Boundary Street (1895) and Millbank (1899). Byrne’s period in the LCC working on men’s hostels exposed him to these progressive projects where a new architectural language replaced the grudgingly authoritarian attitude to housing of the poor embodied in the grim

■ ■ ■ ■ 05 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

T. J. Byrne c 1923 Foreword

tenements of earlier philanthropic projects. The location of Byrne’s home and much of his work in Ballyboden (site of the Pearse Brothers’ school, St. Enda’s, and which constituted a small Gaelic Revival enclave including, at times, the homes of J.M. Synge and W.B. Yeats) and his friendship with W.T. Cosgrave, then a Sinn Féin politician, reinforce Fraser’s narrative of architecture linked to radical politics.

Whatever the sources, Byrne’s South Dublin work was rooted in a concern for social improvement. Each housing project in this period strives to establish a communal order and legibility through strong, clear layouts, responsive to the inherent qualities of its site, including the building materials chosen. Refining and developing house plans as the programme of cottages rolls out, he wins added space and dignity for these families setting a design benchmark for social housing of the time. Handsome proportions, trademark lunette windows and local materials add life and character to his elevations, likeable to this day. His libraries at Whitechurch and Clondalkin combine lively formal massing with comfortable usable interiors – a cosy fire in each reading room, for instance.

It could be suggested that the quality of his cottage schemes fed into the pungent debate which dogged social housing in Dublin from the introduction by Lord and Lady Aberdeen of the Garden City philosophy in the person of Patrick Geddes in 1911. Dublin Corporation had until then pursued a committment to slum clearance and rebuilding at medium density in the city centre itself, maintaining communities and keeping the poor near possible sources of casual employment. An unlikely alliance of progressive Unionists, Larkinites and intellectuals including Byrne, countered with what was then seen as a more enlightened approach – the Garden City model of new cottage schemes in less costly suburban locations and at lower density. Byrne’s housing at Mount Brown, a high quality cottage scheme at suburban density but in a city centre location, illustrates the tensions in the government approach adopted until 1930.

■ ■ ■ ■ 07 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

This debate became most shrill with the launch of de Valera’s inner-city apartment- based programme in Amsterdam-style under the direction of the heroic H.G. Simms in 1931. Like Byrne, Simms was born in England. Both were cultured, well-travelled for their day and committed to social improvement. Both were architects gifted with design skill, organisational genius and a super-human capacity for work – eventually leading to ill-health and an early death for both (Simms at his own hand). In their prolific output, generosity and untimely death, the careers of these two worthwhile men somehow parallel each other but there is no record of any connection. Far lower site and construction costs and faster house production inevitably allowed the suburban cottages to numerically outstrip the inner-city flats. Output was now driven by political quotas and the suburban programme had the approval of the Catholic Church, which declared that the ‘cottage and its cabbage patch’ would ‘obviate the moral dangers of the shared staircase’! The debate was settled and the pattern established before World War 2, and to this day, Dublin continues to address real growth through its uncontrolled suburbs with problematic and unsustainable results.

Likeable and interesting as Byrne’s early work in South Dublin is, it might be argued that his greatest contribution to Dublin was his renewal of the Custom House and, most significantly, the Four Courts after Independence. That these buildings continue to be the defining elements of the city’s streetscape, roofscape and silhouette, and remain in viable civic use can be fully attributed to Byrne. Without his steely resolve (guaranteed by his engineering/constructional capacity and innovation), and his insistence that it was not just possible, but essential, to restore these monuments, Dublin would not enjoy the presence and grace of these beautiful structures.

An impressive figure in so many ways, Byrne continued to contribute not just in his role as State Architect from the 1920s onwards but through his involvement with the Architects Association of Ireland, Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and his teaching at the newly-formed School of Architecture at UCD. His openness to

08 ■ ■ ■ ■ ideas fostered the work of younger architects as his patronage of the iconic and mould- breaking Dublin Airport demonstrates.

Happily bridging architecture and engineering, technology and administration, public and private sectors, he is still a paradigm of what can be achieved by the socially and culturally committed architect. He is well-served by this evaluation of his life and work which is measured in its judgements.

South Dublin Libraries has an admirable track record in historical studies and this collaboration between T. J. Byrne’s grandson, John, and Michael Fewer adds a new resource as enjoyable as it is informative, to their already comprehensive catalogue. Michael Fewer is a respected architect, design teacher and prolific author of many memorable books on walking, architecture and history.

Eddie Conroy FRIAI County Architect South Dublin County Council

■ ■ ■ ■ 09 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

T. J. Byrne’s student work Introduction

Few Irish people are unaware of the names of the men and women who fought, and in many cases died, seeking national independence for Ireland in the turbulent early years of the 20th century. Behind all these patriots, however, there was another army: the many unsung heroes who kept everyday things going during the struggle and when peace finally came, picked up the pieces and worked tirelessly in the background to turn our diverse aspirations for nationhood into a reality.

While there was a civil service in place in Dublin to administer Ireland before independence, the bulk of the political, decision-making apparatus essential to the orderly running of the country was based in London, where critical decisions made were rarely fully in the interests of Ireland or its people or its future. When Britain’s rule in Ireland came to an end in 1922, although a large percentage of existing civil servants working in Ireland were happy to continue under the Saorstát, the structures of a new Irish civil service had to be constructed to formulate, quantify and administer the myriad of issues, policies and laws that formed the foundations of a progressive new democratic state.

Ireland was the first of what became a flood of small colonial countries to gain independence from the British Empire in the 20th century. For those in government making decisions, therefore, there were few precedents to look to and learn from. The country was like a great liner that had been abandoned by its crew, and now had to be navigated by a disparate group of its passengers, most of whom had never been on a ship before. The courage, imagination and hard work of Saorstát Éireann’s early politicians

■ ■ ■ ■ 11 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

and its new civil service is without doubt. Many of those who gave their working lives to laying the foundations of modern Ireland have, however, remained in the background, unknown and unacknowledged. Thomas Joseph Byrne was one of these; a man whose work, vision and quiet influence had far-reaching results in a broad range of aspects of Irish life from the improvement of housing standards to ushering Irish architecture into the age of aviation and radio communications.

Newly completed cottages c 1912

12 ■ ■ ■ ■ The Early Years

Family, education and work to 1901

In 1876, an economic depression that had begun in Europe and the United States three years previously was well established, and would last until 1895. The social reformist Benjamin Disraeli was the British Prime Minister, having defeated Gladstone in elections to Westminster’s Parliament two years before. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Mark Twain wrote Tom Sawyer, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed Swan Lake. The French artist Degas painted the beautiful Dancing Class, and native Americans had their last great victory over European Americans in the battle which came to be called Custer’s Last Stand, or Little Big Horn. Thomas Joseph Byrne was born into this world on the 15th November in the Military Barracks in Kingston-on-Thames to an English mother, Harriet (nee Knight) and an Irish father, Richard Byrne of the 3rd Royal Surrey Militia, a farmer’s son from Baltinglass, County Wicklow. Richard Byrne, as was common for British soldiers in those days, had served in the Royal Irish Fusiliers in many corners of the Empire, including India, China and Gibraltar. He was a good soldier, but he was cashiered on a number of occasions, and ended his career in the Fusiliers as a corporal. After 14 years of service he was discharged and joined the Surrey Militia, and he had achieved the rank of Colour Sergeant by the time his son Thomas was born.

■ ■ ■ ■ 13 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Richard Byrne died when Thomas was very young, and Harriet married again. Thomas’s new step-father was an ex-army man, George Alexander, who is described in the 1891 census as a Licensed Victualler. We have no evidence to say where the young T. J. developed his interest in architecture, but he began his training in that profession at the age of 15, articled to Edward Carter ARIBA, Architect, of Kingston-on-Thames.

At that time it wasn’t usual to attend a full-time academic course to study architecture: the first formal course offering a structured program of instruction in the United Kingdom was the Architectural Association school, founded in 1847 by Robert Kerr and Charles Grey. They were unhappy about the way young aspiring architects were educated and treated in the articled system, and they set up a school where an independent architectural education could be obtained. The Architectural Association is still an important school of architecture today, enrolling students from more than 60 countries worldwide.

In the 1890s, however, most entrants to the profession were still trained through the old system: pupillage usually lasted five or six years, often including a period of formal attendance at an art school, before the student took his final examinations with the RIBA. The articled system was a bit like the apprenticeship system, where an apprentice exchanged his labour for instruction from a master and basic living expenses. In the case of an articled pupil, however, the cash went in the other direction. The pupil actually paid to be taught, so T. J. Byrne was fortunate that his mother had re-married well after his father’s death: his training would not have been possible on an army sergeant’s wages. Byrne stayed with Carter for four years. In 1895, the opportunity arose for him to work in the office of Anthony Scott at 16 William Street, Drogheda, whose practice at the time involved individual houses, shops, schools and church work, in addition to designing and supervising housing schemes for the local authority. It is said that Anthony Scott designed more houses for the working classes than any other architect in Ireland, and he was described as having ‘wonderful vitality and energy’ and ‘an extraordinary love of work’.1

1 Irish Builder obituary, February 22, 1919

14 ■ ■ ■ ■ The Early Years

Portrait of T. J. Byrne as a young man

■ ■ ■ ■ 15 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

A member of the Council of The Society of Architects, he regularly travelled to London to attend meetings. He was also a founder member of the AAI, of which T. J. Byrne was later to be President. Scott expected much of his staff, and one senses there was a serious work- ethic in his office, which clearly impressed and influenced Byrne.

William Scott, Anthony’s son, was working in his father’s office at that time. Having spent some time at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin and working with his father, he was articled from 1890 to 1893 to Thomas Newenham Deane, a friend of his father. Rathmichael Church, which had been designed by Deane’s office, was completed during this time. William had been working in the Drogheda office for two years when T. J. Byrne arrived from London and although he was five years Byrne’s senior, it seems reasonable to imagine that they would have had a lot to talk about. Byrne would have brought the latest inspiring new and possibly radical ideas in architecture to the quiet eastern coast of Ireland, and they would have been mutually encouraging about the Arts and Crafts style which they both favoured. William was a talented and ambitious young architect and in 1897 he entered an open architectural competition for the design of the Enniskillen Town Hall. The architectural profession is perhaps unique in that the selection of designers for many large and often public projects is often conducted through the competition system. Apart from being an ideal vehicle for seeking out the best possible designs, the system provides a show-case for lesser-known and small firms to display the quality of their work. Usually none of the firms who take part, with the exception of the winner, are paid for the work they do in providing a scheme, and members of the office staff often work overtime to help with the preparation of the entry. The young T. J. Byrne worked in this way on the Enniskillen competition: at least one of the drawings submitted, a coloured drawing detailing the windows to the Assembly Hall, was prepared by him. Subsequently, William Scott’s design for the town hall won the competition. The building, which was not completed until 1901, displayed little of Scott’s later flair, but was one of the first projects of a short but very productive and distinguished career, and probably helped

16 ■ ■ ■ ■ The Early Years

May Scott The Scott family c 1895 Anthony Scott’s Drogheda office

■ ■ ■ ■ 17 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

secure for him the commission to design Cavan Town Hall a few years later. While Byrne was in Drogheda, William Scott left for London to sit his intermediate and final RIBA examinations.

For the young T. J. Byrne, getting hands-on experience working on local authority housing and becoming familiar with the use of local materials and craftsmanship that the elder Scott favoured had considerable influence. He must have impressed Anthony Scott, and indeed his family, during the three years he worked in Drogheda: by the time he was due to leave for London in 1898, he was ‘walking out with’ Anthony Scott’s daughter Mary Ellen, known in the family as May. There seems to be no doubt that this relationship was a major influence on his decision later to return later to Ireland and make his career there rather than in England.

In August 1898 Byrne went back to Edward Carter’s office in London while studying for his RIBA examinations; he was subsequently awarded First Place in his Intermediate Examinations, and seems to have swiftly advanced to his Finals. He took and passed his Final Examinations in November 1899 at the age of 23, eight years after starting out in the profession. Some of his student work, and in particular his Final Testimonies, survive. From these drawings one can see that he was a fine draughtsman, and that the design work in his Final Testimonies is informed by the Arts and Crafts movement. His influences at the time would surely have included John Ruskin, William Morris, Philip Webb and Charles Voysey as well as William Richard Lethaby. Later, during his time with LCC, Byrne may even have met Lethaby, who also worked for the Council as Art Inspector to the Technical Education Board, or attended some of his lectures. Byrne’s career, although in very different circumstances, has a number of parallels with that of Lethaby. Lethaby had worked as a Senior Clerk of Works for R. Norman Shaw’s London office, but his talent as a designer was soon spotted by Shaw. He went on to make valuable contributions to some of Shaw’s best-known projects such as Scotland Yard in London and Cragside House in Northumbria, and he eventually came to be much admired as a designer and

18 ■ ■ ■ ■ The Early Years

Byrne’s student scheme for a small country house 1898 theorist by Shaw himself. He was a co-founder of the Art Worker’s Guild in 1884, and had considerable influence on the Arts and Crafts movement: indeed, Morris and Webb were personal friends and greatly stimulated his thinking. He was a founder of the Central

■ ■ ■ ■ 19 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Byrne’s student scheme for a Mission Church 1899

School of Arts and Crafts in 1896, and later became influential in the embryonic stages of the Modern Movement both in Britain and in Germany: indeed, architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner saw him as a precursor of the movement.

20 ■ ■ ■ ■ The Early Years

When he graduated from the RIBA, T. J. Byrne joined the Architects Department of the recently established LCC, which, since its establishment in 1889, had built up a reputation for progressive work and ground-breaking ideas. Byrne worked as an Assistant Architect, initially on the design of new fire stations, before moving to the Housing Department. In the late 19th century most of the rented accommodation available for the masses of ordinary working men in London was squalid and overcrowded, and a number of hostels were established by the Council and by the philanthropist Lord Rowton to provide them with better living conditions. In these hostels each man enjoyed a private cubicle at very low cost, and excellent bathrooms were provided. George Orwell spent time in one of the Rowton hostels, and although he praised it, he did complain that the discipline was very strict, with tenants not allowed to play cards or do their own cooking. LCC provided similar hostels for workers. While T. J. Byrne worked in the Housing Department designing these hostels, it is said that he lived in one of them for a period to learn at first hand what improvements might be possible.

He was, at the same time, keeping in touch with his fiancé in Ireland, and may have been in Drogheda to celebrate the new century at the end of 1899, when he gave a present of two volumes of Kipling’s poetry to May.

William Scott, his future brother-in-law, entered another architectural competition, for the Presbyterian Assembly Building in Belfast, in 1899, and T. J. Byrne assisted him again - possibly during his holidays. They didn’t win the competition, but this time Byrne is listed with William as a joint entrant, suggesting that his input was significant. William moved to London and joined the Architects Department of the LCC in 1900, working first in the Housing Department and then in the Fire Station section. In March 1900, Byrne was elected an Associate of the RIBA: one of his proposers was the prolific Irish architect W. G. Doolin, who died two years later at the age of 52.

■ ■ ■ ■ 21 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

T. J. Byrne’s Chapelizod cottages today

22 ■ ■ ■ ■ South Dublin Rural District Council, 1901-1919

The South Dublin Rural District Council was established in 1899 to administer an extensive area of the southern suburbs and satellite villages of south County Dublin. In December 1900, the Council advertised for a Council Clerk who would also be a Civil Engineer, capable of preparing plans and specifications for sanitary and building works, in addition to his ordinary duties. This stirred up a controversy in the Irish Builder periodical. The long-time editor of the periodical, prominent architect R. M. Butler, wrote a letter stating that establishing such a post was a grave injustice to the allied professions of Engineering and Architecture and not in the best interests of the rate- paying public.2 He felt it deprived professionals of work, and it was generally accepted anyway that professional men should not hold a professional appointment ‘whilst they are engaged in the active pursuit of another calling…’ Butler suggested that the salary of

2 The Irish Builder, December 15, 1900

■ ■ ■ ■ 23 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

£200 per annum offered might attract half-fledged youths, but he doubted they would be competent to discharge satisfactorily all the duties expected of them.

Ignoring these criticisms the Council proceeded with their plans to fill the position. T. J. Byrne applied for the post, possibly on the advice of his father-in-law, who was carrying out work for the Council at the time. Four candidates were interviewed for the post, including Byrne. Despite the fact that he had no experience for the post of Clerk and no formal engineering qualifications the interview board agreed, unanimously, that Byrne should be appointed. It seems like a radical career change for him, and it also seems to have been a radical decision for the Council to make. The young man must have impressed them very much, and it is reasonable to suggest that Byrne’s enthusiasm for work which was to characterise his career, made him fully prepared to take on the role of County Architect as well as Clerk and Civil Engineer, and this would have been a major factor in their decision.

The position of Council Clerk, similar to the contemporary position of County Manager, would have been an onerous and complex one. It doubtless involved a steep learning curve for the young Londoner, whose previous experience of dealing with local authority bureaucracy and elected representatives was very limited. His duties as Clerk included a wide range of responsibilities ranging from dealing with the Council’s solicitors to acting as secretary at District Council Meetings, and from overseeing control of noxious weeds to administering major drainage and water supply contracts.

On 2nd January 1901, the 24-year old T. J. Byrne took up the position of Council Clerk and Engineer to SDRDC and moved into his new office at No. 1 James’s Street, Dublin. He now had to show that he could perform the tasks his role required, and it says a lot for his work ethic and the maturity of his interpersonal and political skills that this newcomer - a relatively young Englishman - soon became fully accepted and respected by both council staff and elected representatives.

24 ■ ■ ■ ■ South Dublin Rural District Council, 1901-1919

Byrne immediately immersed himself in the work, which seems to have involved an element of dealing with a backlog of business: when asked in Council two months later if the account books were up to date, he replied that when he came into office the books were only updated to the previous March, but that he was dealing with this and had already brought them up-to-date to the previous September.3

Meanwhile he was also carrying out his architectural duties: during the same Council meeting that unanimously approved his appointment as Council Clerk, a decision had been made to erect labourers’ cottages in the Crumlin area. He immediately began work on the design and layout for a scheme of 28 cottages, which was approved by the Council in June. The scheme was then submitted to the LGB for approval: at the hearing subsequently set up to consider the application, T. J. Byrne gave evidence that he had prepared the plans and that the cost of the scheme would be 0.4 of a penny on the rates. It was noted that the existing labourers’ cottages in Crumlin were in an ‘exceedingly bad state’, had no sanitary arrangements and were unfit for the use of even animals. The hearing was also told that applicants for the new cottages were currently living in very crowded conditions, with up to ten people to a room. Alderman Michael Flanagan, the future father-in-law of W. T. Cosgrave, was one of the six Councillors present: he owned the land on which the new cottages were to be built, and he stated that he had no objection to the scheme. The project was approved, and the comfortable and pleasant houses that resulted, using the Irish brick and granite that was to become characteristic of Byrne’s work, can still to be seen today at Rafter’s Road in Crumlin. It was the first housing development entirely designed by the young architect. He quickly learned that real progress in the local authority was only possible for those who understood the intricacies of finance and law, and it is clear from subsequent conference papers he had prepared and delivered that he read voraciously, familiarising himself with every relevant Government Act, every legal and financial paper and every report that he could find which would be of use to him in his work.

3 Council Meeting Minutes, 17 April 1901

■ ■ ■ ■ 25 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Rafter’s Road Cottages St Patricks Cottages 1902

When Byrne was first appointed, the erection of a housing scheme of 28 single- storey cottages for rural workers, called St Patrick’s Cottages, was well under way in Rathfarnham. They had been designed by Anthony Scott, but it seems likely on stylistic grounds that an additional 20 two-storey cottages that were added to this scheme were designed by Byrne.

On 29th August 1901 he married Mary Ellen (May) Scott in St Kevin’s Chapel of the Pro Cathedral in Dublin, and they moved into their first home at Morehampton Terrace in Donnybrook, one of eight terraced houses owned by Anthony Scott and built by him in 1897.

26 ■ ■ ■ ■ South Dublin Rural District Council, 1901-1919

The Terenure Drainage Scheme

New housing developments required up-to-date roads, lighting, water services and drainage, and all of these also came under T. J. Byrne’s remit. While designing a further 112 cottages authorised between 1901 and 1902, he was involved in the preparation of proposals to provide public lighting in Rathfarnham, Terenure and neighbouring districts. At about the same time, he was closely involved in what was at the time the largest drainage scheme proposed in the south county area: the Terenure Drainage Scheme. At the time the Harold’s Cross and Terenure areas had no public sewers, and the Council decided to invest in the development of a drainage scheme that would deal with the matter. Any such scheme would, of course, have to be connected downstream into the Rathmines and Pembroke trunk sewer network, and objections of the Rathmines Urban District Council, the Pembroke Drainage Board and the Dublin Port and Docks Board delayed the scheme from proceeding until November 1905. To fund the project, the SDRDC sought a loan of £15,000 from the LGB, and, as was usual in such cases, the LGB held an inquiry. It was conducted by Dr P. C. Cowan, the Chief Engineering Inspector to the Board.

T. J. Byrne gave evidence to the inquiry in his capacity as Clerk and Engineer to the Council. He reported that the scheme had been designed to take into account future needs as well as present needs, and that there were currently about 300 houses in the Terenure and Harold’s Cross area with no facilities. His evidence was supported by Spencer Harty, Dublin City Engineer, and by George Chatterton, Consulting Engineer. Chatterton had studied engineering at Trinity College and was the Corporation’s consultant for the Dublin Main Drainage Scheme, which was due to be completed in the following year. He said that he was well acquainted with the area in Terenure which it was proposed to drain and he thought that Byrne’s plans were very carefully and well prepared. He added that the estimate of cost was very good, that the scheme was as simple as could possibly be devised and that there would be no difficulty with the engineering. He felt that Dublin Corporation

■ ■ ■ ■ 27 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Terenure Drainage Scheme TJ Byrne 2nd from left had plenty of capacity to receive the additional loading: the proposal was designed to deal with four times the dry weather flow and it was ‘absolutely impossible’ that any blockage would occur in the sewer due to heavy rainfall.

The SDRDC proposal was approved and the call for tenders was advertised in the Irish Builder and Engineer on 16th May 1908. The plans had been prepared by Byrne with the assistance of P. H. McCarthy, a well-known consulting engineer who specialised in water supply and drainage schemes. There were five tenders, the lowest being that of Mr. D. Clarke of Rathmines in the amount of £15,548 4s 6d: T. J. Byrne’s original estimate was £15,000.

28 ■ ■ ■ ■ South Dublin Rural District Council, 1901-1919

The Labourers (Ireland) Acts

Five Labourers (Ireland) Acts were passed by the British Parliament between 1883 and 1891. They were designed to improve the lot of rural workers, particularly their housing conditions which, in many cases, were extremely poor. Under the Labourers (Ireland) Act of 1896, about 17,500 new cottages had been built for rural labourers by local authorities throughout Ireland, but the working of the Act and the administrative procedures were ‘slow, cumbersome, stupid and costly’,4 and the money that had been authorised under the Act had almost completely run out by the early 1900s.

The new Labourers Act passed by the British Parliament in 1906 was one of a series of welfare reforms carried out under the Liberal Government between 1906 and 1914. Under this new 1906 Act, £4.5 million was made available for loans to local authorities to enable a further 25,000 houses to be built, and the administration of the Act was much simplified. Local authorities had to advertise publicly, seeking representations and applications from the general public for new housing or improvements in existing housing. In response to advertisements, there were 45,456 applications, of which SDRDC received 106 applications for new cottages and 184 applications to replace insanitary dwellings. Authorisation was received by SDRDC in February 1908 to build 26 cottages at Clondalkin, 25 at Palmerstown, 88 at Tallaght, 63 at Terenure, 13 at Whitechurch and two at Rathfarnham.

T. J. Byrne’s work on rural housing for Anthony Scott, and his experience designing working men’s hostel accommodation in London seems to have instilled in him a keen interest in the subject of housing for the working classes, an interest that was to blossom and develop over the following two decades. In spite of previous Government Acts, typical rural cottages at the turn of the century were described later by T. J. Byrne himself, as ‘wretched hovels…sometimes slung together into miserable villages…four

4 Irish Builder 2 June, 1906, p. 438.

■ ■ ■ ■ 29 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Design for earlier labourers’ cottages Extensive plots provided with cottages

30 ■ ■ ■ ■ South Dublin Rural District Council, 1901-1919

walled structures, innocent of foundations or damp-proof courses, or of even clay or mortar binding to the stones themselves…sacking screens dividing space for beds from living space, sod roofs… worse than city slums.’5 The average floor area of cottages was a little over 200 square feet, and the average volume contained in the dwelling would have been just over 4,000 cubic feet.

The standards required under the government Acts and the increasing involvement of architects in the design of rural housing led to a considerable improvement in the quality of what was being built in the last decades of the 19th century. By 1900 the single-storey three-roomed cottages designed by Anthony Scott in Rathfarnham (St Patrick’s Cottages) had a floor area of 432 square feet, and a volume of 6,200 cubic feet. His son-in-law, T. J. Byrne, continued the trend.

From Byrne’s early years with the SDRDC the number of cottages constructed for rural workers increased substantially. In the year before he took up his appointment, 1900, a total of 26 cottages had been completed by the Council, but three years after his appointment this had increased to 180 per annum, and completions continued to increase until, in 1915, 480 dwellings were completed. Both inside and outside of the Council Byrne’s influence increased: he presided over insistent adherence to minimum standards and where possible increased floor areas and improved the design of cottages through the use of quality materials. On rural sites, wherever possible, Byrne attempted to use the lack of spatial restrictions to achieve the best orientation of dwellings and gardens in relation to the sun, and to provide the large rear gardens required by the Labourers Act so that rural workers would have the ability to grow plenty of fruit and vegetables for their families.

By 1907 the Council were using the model plans of the LGB as a minimum standard: this model called for a single-storied cottage to have a floor area of 533 square

5 Irish Builder and Engineer, January 15, 1916, p. 26

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Yewland Terrace Terenure

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T. J. Byrne’s slide depicting new cottages at Yewland Terrace (in pink) and the slums they replaced. Correspondence regarding water supply in Terenure 1910

feet and a volume of 9,600 cubic feet, which allowed for an additional room. A typical example of the improvements in accommodation being implemented by SDRDC through T. J. Byrne can be found at Yewland Terrace in Terenure, built in 1908. Here, a slum of cottages with a density of 28 units per acre was replaced by Byrne by a fine terrace of well-designed houses at a density of 12 per acre. Apart from providing a good standard of living accommodation for their tenants, the houses were, and still are, a fine contribution to the streetscape of the village of Terenure. They were built by Mr. P. J. Hussey at a cost of £109 per unit.

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Chapelizod Cottages under construction

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Chapelizod Cottages today

■ ■ ■ ■ 35 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Whitechurch corner 1915 Whitechurch Cottages c 1915 Whitechurch Cottages today Whitechurch detail today

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At the turn of the century many of the districts administered by SDRDC had no modern services. So, in addition to the Terenure Drainage Scheme, T. J. Byrne was involved in the provision of street lighting, modern sewage and water services, administering contracts, overseeing the design of installations, while at the same time attending meetings of the Council and dealing with the complex matter of financing the new infrastructure. Often, construction schemes that he dealt with were carried out using multiple contractors, probably in an effort to share out the work available. It made the operation of supervision of these projects, however, much more complicated. By 1908, when he had six separate housing schemes to look after, the broad range of his responsibilities made it difficult to fully deal with his architectural work, so he persuaded the Council to appoint his brother-in-law, William Scott, as assistant consulting architect. Scott’s duties were to carry out weekly inspections of housing schemes under construction using his own ‘means of locomotion’ for which he was paid 3½ guineas per week.

The Irish Builder publication criticised SDRDC for providing its own architectural services, which was preventing architects in the private sector from obtaining work. The publication complained in December 1908 that, in spite of £2.5 million being approved for the construction of labourers’ cottages over the previous two years, ‘regular’ architects reaped little benefit. At the same time, however, the work that Byrne was carrying out in south Dublin was frequently favourably referred to, and the quality of the architecture of SDRDC’s cottages was highly praised. When the Irish Builder published photographs of ‘types of labourers’ cottages in Ireland’ in August 1910, the majority of them were Byrne’s. The publication commented that ‘Mr Byrne… has been singularly successful in securing an effective treatment of the exteriors by very simple means.’ In a June 1911 edition of the Irish Builder a talk Byrne gave on housing reform was much quoted. Byrne remarked that there had been ‘a disposition to consider that anything was good enough for a labourer’s cottage’ adding that many housing schemes were ‘inartistic’ and lacking in variety. He held that architects should be employed to design schemes, and

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Palmerston houses

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Main Street Tallaght

town planning ideas should be used more in layouts. Moreover, he strongly urged local authorities to use Irish materials in their schemes. His influence in the area of workers’ housing was growing.

T. J. Byrne’s salary from the SDRDC must have increased on an annual basis; to celebrate his 7th wedding anniversary, he could afford to take May on a short holiday to London, where they attended The Merry Widow at Daly’s Theatre. Their first child, Brendan, was born on 28th December 1902, and their second child, Ethna, was born on 24th May 1904. Much of what is known about the Byrne family life comes from a book Ethna wrote in 1989, which is full of vivid descriptions of the places in which they lived and of members of the extended family, including an interesting pen portrait of her grandfather, Anthony Scott.6

6 Ethna Mary Twice, Ethna Bee Cee, Vantage Press, 1989

■ ■ ■ ■ 39 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

In March 1910, T. J. Byrne was granted permission to take leave of absence abroad for three weeks. It was for a trip to Rome, partly to have a holiday immersed in the history and architecture of the Eternal City, and partly to bring his daughter to stay for a period with Mary Hayden, whom she called Aunt Minnie. Mary was a kinswoman of Anthony Scott’s wife, and assisted by Ethna’s real aunt, Josephine Scott, she ran a small but luxurious hotel in Piazza Poli, just around the corner from the Trevi Fountain. Although only five at the time, Ethna retained vivid memories of the two-day journey to Rome by boat and train. She describes in her memoir how her father took her in a hansom cab in London - she thought the vehicle was called a ‘handsome’ cab, and didn’t think it looked particularly handsome. She remembered her father tapping his walking-stick, and ‘the big, red whiskery face’ of the cabby leaning down to speak to him. In Rome her father showed her, ‘not for the first time,’ how to hold a pencil or pen properly, and to sit in the best light for writing. Ethna stayed on and attended school in Rome, only returning to Dublin in the summer of 1913.

Chapelizod and the Bridge Inn

In July 1912, T. J. Byrne received four weeks leave of absence from his position in the Council to carry out a private commission, the design of the Bridge Inn and ten two-storey houses at Chapelizod. He undertook, at the same time, to supervise the construction of a nearby scheme of ten red brick council houses which he had designed for the SDRDC. One hundred years later the Bridge Inn still creates a fine corner between Chapelizod Bridge and St Laurence’s Road. Byrne had already designed an earlier scheme of houses at Chapelizod which were completed in 1910. Uphill, to the west of the village, one can find what is probably the last scheme of houses he was responsible for during his time with the SDRDC: a series of semi-detached Dutch gabled houses finished in brick and granite, which are still much sought-after today.

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Byrne’s Chapelizod Pub and Houses Byrne’s last scheme at Chapelizod

■ ■ ■ ■ 41 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Visit of the English National Housing and Town Planning Council

In September 1912, a party from the English National Housing and Town Planning Council paid a visit to Ireland to investigate how the 1883 and 1906 Labourers Acts had worked out, with the intention of promoting a similar act for England. There had been a failed attempt to promote such a bill and the National Council were going to try to influence the Government to establish a housing policy. The visiting party of ten, which included the President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Council, were given a tour of County Dublin in motor cars. They were accompanied by Dr P. C. Cowan, the Chief Engineering Inspector of the LGB, P. H. McCarthy, a consulting engineer specialising in water supply and drainage, William Collen, the County Surveyor, R. M. Butler, Consultant Architect to Rathdown No. 1 district, and T. J. Byrne. It seems likely that

T. J. Byrne and his family in his Spyker car

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Byrne, an enthusiastic motorist, conveyed some of the visitors in his Spyker car. They viewed houses at Sutton and Howth before proceeding through ‘delightful scenery’ to Palmerstown, Rockbrook, Rathfarnham, and Clondalkin to view T. J. Byrne’s cottages. Rathdown No. 1 district was visited to see the work of R.M. Butler, who was responsible for the garden village at Shankill and its Carnegie Library. The English party spent a week in Ireland, also visiting Cork and the North. The Irish Builder, of which R. M. Butler was editor, noted that the visitors were impressed by what they saw and considered that Irish rural housing was far in advance of England.

T. J. Byrne’s Public Housing Philosophy

Over the following years, T. J. Byrne continued to produce some of the finest housing schemes in the Dublin area. He saw no reason why rural cottages should not be designed to the highest standards, and many of those he designed are extant and much sought after today. His success architecturally and practically was partly due to his attention to every detail of the work, and a willingness to learn from his mistakes. Specifications were constantly improved as he experimented with different forms of construction seeking to achieve the best results. He found that it was not necessary to import many of the materials needed, and it was usually more economical to use appropriate local materials: in Crumlin, for instance, which he called ‘emphatically a brick district’, local brick was the predominant material used. In Rathfarnham, close to the mountains, Dublin T. J. Byrne’s RIAI membership certificate

■ ■ ■ ■ 43 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Riverside Cottages, Templeogue and Wicklow granite was widely used. Small details were not beyond his consideration: as an example, he made sure the fire grates in his houses were the best that could be provided, noting that a good quality grate made of one- inch square iron bars can last up to 30 years.

Apart from pushing forward improvements to the poor spatial characteristics of rural cottages, T. J. Byrne sought to improve the basic living standards of their inhabitants by squeezing in an additional room into as many houses as possible, what became known as the ‘Parlour’. The main room in the standard cottage, where all daytime activities went on, was the kitchen. Byrne felt strongly that an additional room provided a ‘retreat’, which was ‘the greatest convenience to the household’. He was also convinced that, with imaginative design, this additional accommodation would increase the cost of such cottages only a fraction more than cost of the kitchen type cottage.7 From the 1920s onward, it became widely regarded as normal to include a ‘parlour’ in all dwellings.

7 Irish Builder and Engineer, May 19, 1923

44 ■ ■ ■ ■ South Dublin Rural District Council, 1901-1919

In the midst of all his work, T. J. Byrne kept up his professional involvements, being elected a member of the AAI in 1914, and of the RIAI in 1915. Less than six years later he was elected a Fellow of the RIAI in recognition of his professional service. It seems clear that he also kept up to date with advances in civil and structural engineering, and he became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland in 1917. By the second decade of the century Byrne was widely regarded as one of the most efficient local authority clerks in Ireland, and there is no doubting that his professional versatility during his years with the SDRDC was extraordinary. It was, however, through his work in rural housing - and particularly his schemes in Rathfarnham, Tallaght, and Chapelizod - that his domestic architecture became well-known and influential. He delivered an important paper with the title ‘Rural Housing’ to the AAI in January 1916. In it, he criticised architects for their lack of professional contributions in the important work of what were often disrespectfully termed ‘labourers’ cottages’. He dealt with the history of Irish rural housing, how it had been radically improved in recent decades by a succession of Labourers Acts, and how light and solar orientation were important for healthy living. T. J. Byrne was above all else, a practical man, and he gave considerable attention to the subject of spatial qualities of dwellings, their materials and construction methods. He also touched on the question of urban expansion, making it clear that he believed that a nation’s people are better housed in rural districts rather than in towns.8

The Carnegie Libraries

The early architectural work that Byrne carried out in South Dublin established his abilities as an architect. When, in 1909, the SDRDC undertook the construction of two Carnegie Libraries in its area, at Whitechurch and Clondalkin, there was no hesitation in commissioning their Council Architect to carry out the work.

8 Irish Builder and Engineer, January 15, 1916

■ ■ ■ ■ 45 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Andrew Carnegie Clondalkin Carnegie Library

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Interior of Clondalkin Carnegie Library

■ ■ ■ ■ 47 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Whitechurch Carnegie Library

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Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was born in Scotland and moved with his parents to the United States as a child. From small beginnings, he amassed a great fortune in the steel industry and in railroads, and is thought to have been the second richest man in history, after John D. Rockefeller. From the beginning of the 20th century, Carnegie devoted himself to a wide range of philanthropic projects, mainly related to the social and educational advancement of the working classes. By the time of his death, he had provided over $350 million to deserving projects through the Carnegie Trust. In today’s money, this would translate to nearly four billion Euro. One of Carnegie’s favourite projects was assisting in the education of the working classes by the establishment of free public libraries. Grants were made available for communities that could demonstrate their need of a library, could provide a building site, and could also provide for the running costs for the library. Of the more than 2,500 public libraries worldwide that he funded, about 80 were built in Ireland. Today, 62 of these - including the libraries designed by T. J. Byrne at Whitechurch and Clondalkin - survive.

■ ■ ■ ■ 49 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

The Carnegie Trust gave a grant of £1,600 each to construct the libraries in Whitechurch and Clondalkin. After almost a decade in which Byrne’s architectural abilities were confined mostly to small-scale, domestic architecture, we see the design ability promised by his student work coming fully to fruition in these two buildings. Indeed, aspects of his Clondalkin Library particularly seem informed by his student project of 1899, ‘Proposed Mission Church and Institute of the Good Shepherd’, prepared for the RIBA. Both buildings are fine examples of the Arts and Crafts style which Byrne adopted during his student years in London, inspired by people like Lethaby, Morris and Ruskin. His use of a suite of quality materials that included local granite, brick and render, pitched roofs with generous overhangs, roof trusses exposed internally and well-proportioned open-plan spaces divided by glazed folding partitions are all marks of the Arts and Crafts tradition. He also incorporated split and complete Diocletian windows, suggesting the influence of architects such as R. Norman Shaw, who was at the forefront of progressive architecture when he was a student in London.

At Whitechurch, Byrne got the opportunity not only to display his considerable talent in the overall building design, but, in the true tradition of architect and furniture and textile designer Charles Voysey, he also designed all the fittings and furniture in the building. He seems to have completed his scheme for the Whitechurch building during the short few months between the awarding of the Carnegie grant in September 1909 and the submission of drawings for approval in December.

The Whitechurch Library opened on St Patrick’s Day 1911. It is possible that while supervising the construction of the library Byrne noticed a house nearby called Kingston Lodge that was for sale. It was a rambling late Georgian house with extensive gardens, very suitable for May and their children, so he bought it. When the family moved from their Morehampton Terrace house into what was then the country, the nearest tram terminus was in Rathfarnham village, a brisk 25 minute walk away. T. J. Byrne was a modern-thinking man, however: he was interested in everything mechanical, particularly

50 ■ ■ ■ ■ South Dublin Rural District Council, 1901-1919

motor cars, and became an early suburban commuter when he purchased a motor car for travelling to his James’s Street office and taking the family to Sunday Mass in the Church of the Annunciation in Rathfarnham. The car was a Spyker, a four cylinder, 18 hp tourer made in the Netherlands, based on one of the three cars to finish the 1907 Paris to Peking car race. His daughter Ethna recalled that it was not always easy to start, and even when it did, one never knew when it would give trouble. Her father seems to have spent a lot of time cranking the engine with a starting handle.

The garden at Kingston was full of flowers, and had an orchard and fruit bushes. It was tended by two gardeners, one of whom was elderly and lived in the living quarters of the nearby Whitechurch Library with his daughter, the librarian.

Mount Brown and the Cosgrave connection

By the early decades of the 20th century, Dublin, which had been a dying, decaying city since the Act of Union, had the worst slums in Europe. In 1913, in the wake of the

Mount Brown

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Mount Brown

Church Street disaster where seven people were killed when tenements collapsed, the Dublin Corporation Housing Committee was set up to expedite the provision of new, well-planned and well-designed housing for poor and low-paid citizens. The Chairman of the Committee was Alderman Thomas Kelly, and it included members such as Alfie Byrne and W. T. Cosgrave, the future President of the Executive Council of the Free State. Progress towards the provision of new and refurbished urban housing slowed almost to a halt by the onset of the Great War and the subsequent Irish Rebellion of 1916. In 1918, a survey of housing conditions on the north side of Dublin carried out by the Housing Committee of Dublin Corporation confirmed that matters had worsened considerably since a previous enquiry had taken place in 1913, subsequent to the Church Street disaster. The 1918 survey showed that 29 percent of the population of Dublin, or 87,000 people, lived in slums, a third of which were described as unfit for human habitation. Upwards of 20,000 families lived in one-room tenements. In such conditions illness was easily spread and premature death from diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, smallpox and typhoid was endemic.

52 ■ ■ ■ ■ South Dublin Rural District Council, 1901-1919

With the Great War coming to an end in 1918, some progress began to be made. One scheme for new housing that began construction in that year was for over 200 houses on the McCaffrey Estate, a site adjacent to the South Dublin Union Workhouse (now St James’s Hospital), called today Ceannt’s Fort or Mount Brown.

The City Architect, C. J. McCarthy, had prepared an outline proposal for 240 houses in 1914, but the Housing Committee had little funding and had to seek a loan from the LGB to buy the land. The LGB was a British Government supervisory body, founded in 1872, that oversaw local administration in Ireland. It essentially had an imperial veto over all decisions and spending plans made by local authorities, and at the very least provided an additional layer of decision-making that usually led to long delays in the implementation of local authority decisions. Indeed, the Chairman of the Dublin Corporation Housing Committee, Alderman Thomas Kelly, railed against the delays caused by the LGB. ‘Municipalities such as Edinburgh and Glasgow shape their own destiny without being hampered and impeded by well-paid inactivity or stupid harassing interference on the part of Government,’ he remarked, suggesting that there should be an enquiry into the LGB.

To deal with the request for a loan for the Ceannt’s Fort housing from the Housing Committee, as was usual, the LGB held an inquiry to consider the scheme. It was chaired by P. C. Cowan, their Chief Engineering Inspector. Born in Dundee, Scotland, Cowan had worked in the United States and Canada before coming to Ireland. He combined brilliance as an engineer and administrator with a strong social conscience, and he was appalled by the slum conditions he found in Dublin when he was appointed to the LGB in 1899.

The Housing Committee’s request for a loan was subsequently approved. Concern, however, was raised by Cowan about the uninspired and monotonous layout of McCarthy’s scheme. This was echoed in a letter to the Irish Times by E. A. Aston,

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Mount Brown Terrace an important activist in matters of housing and planning, a respected journalist and founder of the Housing and Town Planning Association of Ireland. He described the scheme as having ‘…narrow straight laneways, monotonous rows of red brick dwellings, enforced absence of foliage, back yards of a few square feet abutting on each other…’ As a result of Cowan and Aston’s comments the Corporation Housing Committee advised McCarthy to consult with T. J. Byrne, who they said had ‘a great deal of experience in the erection of working class dwellings.’

McCarthy did so, and Byrne took on the project as a private architectural commission, although he only charged a fee of 1 percent, rather than the going rate of 5 percent. He designed a scheme with a reduced density to McCarthy’s original scheme, and with a radically different layout: it was presented to the Housing Committee and approved in February 1915, but the loan from the LGB to purchase the site was subsequently refused due to restrictions caused by the war.

54 ■ ■ ■ ■ South Dublin Rural District Council, 1901-1919

In 1917 Dublin Corporation applied again to the LGB for the Ceannt’s Fort loan, requesting an increase in the amount due to the rise in building costs. This time, the loan was approved and arrangements made with the British Government to have it paid. Some improvements were incorporated into Byrne’s scheme, which he submitted in October 1917, and following approval, tenders were sought for the work. Byrne reported on the tenders in January 1918, and recommended that the lowest, submitted by Mr Louis Monks of Kingstown in the amount of £76,800, be accepted.

The project proceeded but by August 1919, only 80 of the 202 houses had been completed, although there were 2,000 applicants for properties. Strikes, along with procedural and funding difficulties, further delayed completion of the scheme. During the construction period it seems that W. T. Cosgrave got to know and appreciate at first hand Byrne’s architectural and organisational skills. At a Dublin City Council meeting in July 1921 during which the previous Housing Committee, the architect, the contractor and the officials concerned were all blamed for the delays, Cosgrave staunchly defended Byrne, stating were it not for ‘Mr Byrne, the architect, there would not have been a brick laid on the McCaffrey Estate now or possibly for years to come.’9

The finished Mount Brown scheme survives today, a wonderfully intimate series of housing clusters, gardens and playgrounds, and is regarded as one of the finest examples of urban housing of its day.

A Return to the City

The Byrne family home, Kingston Lodge, although six miles away and out in the country, was on high ground, and during the Rebellion of Easter 1916 the Byrnes watched the fires at night and heard the gunfire. St.Enda’s College, run by Patrick Pearse, was nearby,

9 Irish Times, July 17, 1920

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and Byrne’s eldest son, Brendan, attended school there for a while. His daughter Ethna recalled that her mother knelt beside Pearse and his brother Willie at mass in the church in Rathfarnham on that fateful Easter Sunday: the Rebellion broke out the following day. The Byrne’s elderly gardener died during the week that the fighting took place, and as no undertaker could come out from the city, Byrne helped to construct the coffin in which the old gardener was laid out in the upstairs room of the library.

Kingston Lodge was associated with nearby Newbrook Mill, a watermill where extensive paper manufacturing was carried on for many years; indeed both Kingston Lodge and the adjacent Newbrook House were originally occupied by the managerial staff of the mill. The mill ran on water drawn off the nearby Owendoher River, and the Ordnance Map of the time shows the millstream flowed under Kingston Lodge to get to the mill. T. J. Byrne suffered from bronchitis and asthma and when he fell seriously ill about 1917, there was a long delay in getting the medications he urgently needed. The family doctor, Dr Shaw, was concerned that Byrne’s asthma was a condition that required urgent attention when he had an attack, and such urgent attention was not possible to get living so far out of the city.

Anthony Scott playing with the Byrne children at Kingston Lodge

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In addition, it was also thought that the millstream flowing under the house created damp conditions in some of the rooms. The Byrnes very reluctantly decided therefore, to leave their country house and move back into the city. His health improved slowly, but when his convalescence was over and he returned to work, he had to get a man to drive him to and from the office every day. Ethna wrote that her father hated leaving Kingston Lodge, but this they did in early 1918, when they moved to a house in Terenure. Number 1 Victoria Terrace, built of yellow brick and with granite steps leading up to the front door, was described as ‘a two-storey over garden level desirable Victorian residence’, and Byrne’s only comment about the property was that it was unpretentious. Before they left Kingston Lodge Ethna described him walking through the house and into every room, as if to say goodbye.

Newbrook Mill closed down in 1935, and was damaged in a fire in 1942. It has since, like Kingston Lodge, been demolished to provide access to a new local authority housing scheme.

W. T. Cosgrave Courtesy of Library of Congress The Cosgrave Connection

W. T. Cosgrave and T. J. Byrne had a shared interest in the living conditions of the working classes, and subsequent to the Mount Brown project they got to know each other quite well. It seems probable that Cosgrave had a considerable influence on Byrne’s later career path.

William T. Cosgrave’s father owned a small public house in James’s Street, a poor area of the south inner city, and the young Cosgrave would have been aware from an early age of the poverty and deprivation endured by the poor of the city. His religious faith, his nationalist ambitions and the wish to improve the living conditions of the poor of Dublin led him into politics, firstly as a Sinn Féin member of Dublin Corporation, and subsequently as a Sinn Féin Member of Parliament for Kilkenny

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City in the underground Dáil of 1919-1921. His exemplary record of service in Dublin Corporation probably helped save him from execution in the aftermath of the Easter Rising of 1916, during which he had taken part as second in command to Eamonn Ceannt in the South Dublin Union, which was near his home.

Cosgrave was on friendly terms with T. J. Byrne by the time he was interned in Reading Jail by the British in 1918, along with 71 other Sinn Féin leaders, and it is reasonable to suggest that, as a politician, he would have ‘sounded out’ Byrne on matters of mutual interest such as local authority housing. Cosgrave believed that the housing question, directly or indirectly, affected every aspect of national life, and that there would be no genuine peace or contentment in Ireland until proper solutions were found for it, particularly in Dublin city. In February 1919, he wrote from Reading Jail to Mrs Byrne to sympathise with her ‘and Tom and all the members of your family’ on the death of her father, Anthony Scott, asking her to express his condolences to her sisters and brothers and ‘…particularly the Professor and Mrs Scott.’

Cosgrave’s letter to Byrne, January 1919, see appendix 1

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In January of 1919 a letter he wrote to Byrne from Reading Jail about Dublin’s housing problems suggests that they had had considerable previous correspondence about the matter. In the letter, it is clear that he was confident of his imminent release and that he would become the Minister for Local Government in the underground first Dáil. In such a capacity he would have some responsibility for the massive task of clearing the Dublin slums and providing new housing for what he terms the ‘working classes’. He writes as if the status quo would soon become irrelevant, and that, before long, the underground ministries of the Dáil would be deciding national policies and implementing them through their own organisations. He foresaw the need for ‘big housing reconstruction’, adding ‘we have got to do two things, build outside the centre and have slum clearances.’ He wanted to house the maximum number of people in the shortest possible time, and exhorted Byrne to carry on with his ideas on the improvement in accommodation and construction of cottages, and to seek out the means to secure the ‘best most inexpensive and from every point of view the most suitable scheme which will reconstruct the whole

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living accommodation of working classes.’ He foresaw opposition to his ideas from ‘the Robinson group’, presumably the Local Government Board, the Vice President of which was Sir Henry Robinson, and ‘Larkin’, presumably W. J. Larkin, who was President of the Dublin Tenants Association, but reckoned they wouldn’t have ‘enough courage to trouble me’.

Cosgrave probably felt Byrne’s view that the majority of the population should live in well-designed housing outside of the city centres, as outlined in his 1916 paper to the Architectural Association, fitted well with his own strong belief that the people currently living in the Dublin slums should be moved, and settled in new purpose-built housing ‘outside the centre’.

As it turned out, the measures taken over the next decade to address the Dublin slum problem laid the foundations of the future development of the whole of Dublin city and its environs. Because of a desire to avoid repeating the awfulness of the slums, high-density, central city housing was avoided in the main in the early years of independence. Cosgrave’s administration, seduced by dreams of garden suburbs, opted for suburbanisation, leading to the low-rise, low-density city that Dublin is today.

In his January letter Cosgrave inferred that he would soon be released from internment: ‘…my absence cannot be much longer extended,’ he wrote, and indeed he was released shortly after. In a letter to his widow after T. J. Byrne’s death, W. T. Cosgrave referred to him as ‘one of my oldest and best friends’ and said of him ‘the reconstruction of the Post Office, Custom House and Four Courts . . . provided scope for his remarkable ability.’ and that they stood ‘as an enduring memorial to his genius. His best work in my opinion was in the County of Dublin on behalf of poor people’.

60 ■ ■ ■ ■ The Local Government Board and the Local Government Department

Early in 1919, the Sinn Féin candidates who had been elected to the Westminster Parliament in the 1918 elections refused to recognise the United Kingdom parliament, and assembled their own revolutionary assembly, called Dáil Éireann. It met for the first time on 21st January 1919 at the Mansion House in Dublin. When W. T. Cosgrave was released from Reading Jail in April of 1919, he was appointed by Éamon de Valera, the President of Dáil Éireann, as Minister for Local Government.

During his 18 years with SDRDC, T. J. Byrne had built up a considerable and broad bank of experience, and although a modest man, shy of publicity, he was

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clearly ambitious. In the wake of the Great War, many radical changes in government legislation were made on a wide series of matters. The Housing (Ireland) Act of 1919 was of considerable importance in that it placed the onus on the appropriate Local Authority of thoroughly assessing all its working class housing needs and providing adequate urban housing to fill that need, making use of finance provided by the LGB for Ireland. In May 1919, in the middle of a period of frenetic political activity in Dublin, T. J. Byrne left SDRDC and took up a temporary post with the LGB at a salary of £600 per annum. He and three other inspectors had the task of overseeing the workings of the new Housing Act throughout the country and assessing requests for finance for housing projects. With their relationship up until that time in mind, it would be hard to believe that W. T. Cosgrave, (at the time the underground Minister for Local Government in addition to being chairman of Dublin Corporation Estates and Finance Committee and a member of the Dublin Corporation Housing Committee) would not have had some influence on this career move of Byrne’s. It is also interesting to note that SDRDC employed two men to take Byrne’s place.

Over the following months, Cosgrave worked at organising obstruction to Westminster authority by way of a policy of non-cooperation, while at the same time setting up all the structures of an alternative system of government. As part of this, he established the Local Government Department (LGD) as a parallel organisation to the LGB, which assumed all the functions that were formerly the responsibility of the LGB. By 1920, Sinn Féin controlled 28 of the 33 Irish local councils: these 28 severed their administrative links with the British pledging loyalty to the Dáil and Cosgrave’s underground LGD. During the period leading up to the Anglo-Irish Treaty both local government organisations competed for the allegiance of local councils. It seems reasonable to surmise that T. J. Byrne’s position as a senior executive in the ‘official’ local government organisation was part of a considered plan, and he would, doubtless, have kept Cosgrave fully informed on activities of his board, and how effectively Cosgrave’s department was serving its remit throughout the country.

62 ■ ■ ■ ■ The Local Government Board and the Local Government Department

The LGD was based in Dublin, and was for some time hidden away in the offices of the General Council of County Councils’ headquarters in Parnell Square. Besides Cosgrave, the Department staff consisted of an assistant Minister, in the person of Kevin O’Higgins, in addition to a clerk, a typist and an office boy. It is said that local authority council members were brought blindfolded to Cosgrave’s office for meetings.10 On more than one occasion the offices were raided by the army, but Cosgrave was absent each time.

The Local Government Board, where T. J. Byrne worked, had its offices in the Custom House, not far from Parnell Square. It seems that Byrne was not present, by design or accident, when the building was attacked and burned by the IRA in May 1921, an action which effectively paralysed the continuance of British civil administration in Ireland, and must have made Byrne’s work for the remainder of his time with the board very difficult.

Matters were progressing rapidly, however. A Truce was agreed in July, and in December 1921, after two months of negotiation in London between an Irish delegation and the British Government, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed. A provisional Government of Ireland was established in Dublin City Hall, close to Dublin Castle, and all the underground departments set up under the first Dáil were able to surface and operate openly. Under Article 10 of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, provision was made for civil servants who worked in the British administration of Ireland, including officials of the LGB, to take retirement on pension, but Cosgrave asked T. J. Byrne to come and work for the LGD. He was subsequently promoted to Acting Chief of the Local Government Housing Department. In this capacity, he continued to be influential in the development of housing policies.

10 The Cosgrave Legacy, Stephen Collins, 1996

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The GPO c. 1830 by Petrie The Office of Public Works

When Andrew Robinson retired from his post as Principal Architect of the Office of Public Works in February 1923, T. J. Byrne applied for and was appointed to take his place. This, his final career move, was a major change of direction: it seems to suggest that he was anxious to apply his talents and experience to a wider architectural and administrative canvas than public housing, and there could have been no wider canvas in early 1920s Ireland than the broad and growing range of building types and projects that the OPW became responsible for. His work-rate continued to be prodigious, evidenced by his continuing as Acting Chief of the Local Government Housing Department until a new chief could be appointed, even after his commencement in the OPW. In addition to these occupations, he was also elected President of the AAI in 1923.

In May of that year, the editor of The Irish Builder, R. M. Butler, who had railed against the conditions of Byrne’s appointment as Clerk of the SDRDC some two decades before, interviewed Byrne for the publication, and his description of the man is revealing. Butler wrote that he had some difficulty tracking down his interviewee.

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He called at the LGD only to be told that Byrne was probably at the OPW. He called there the next day only to be told that if he were not too busy he might be seen at Government Buildings in Merrion Street. Reckoning the man must stop for lunch, he eventually tracked Byrne down in a ‘certain bun shop in the city, where, over a cup of coffee and a buttered scone, he told me little and left me guessing a great deal.’ Butler had fast identified two particular characteristics of T. J. Byrne: his industry and his reticence about personal publicity. On the Council of the RIAI, Butler noted that Byrne’s comments ‘carry the weight which is attached to the views of one who is more of a thinker than a phrase-monger.’ Byrne was described physically as a man with ‘the silver hair that one associates with the sixties, together with a freshness of complexion and alertness of a man in the thirties.’ Butler mentioned his ‘charming personality’ and went on, ‘many who meet him for the first time may labour under the impression that a certain slowness of speech, and an unusual reserve, betray lack of interest in the matter under discussion. No deduction could be more erroneous. A false argument or a slovenly statement will at once discover to the unfortunate speaker that behind a quiet and unassuming demeanour, an active mind and an exceptionally retentive memory are working, and the Mr. Byrne is as shrewd in his judgement as he is strong in his determination.’ Butler, who was a friend of Byrne’s father-in-law, Anthony Scott, actually knew Byrne very well personally. On a professional level, they collaborated on the design of Gorevan’s Department store in Camden Street during the 1920s. This building is an example of a rationalised Classical style combined with an up-to-the- minute reinforced concrete frame.

Although his role as Principal Architect was largely an administrative one and he now had a comparatively large and well-qualified staff to carry out work, T. J. Byrne continued to get personally involved in projects, particularly major works. From the beginning with the OPW, he faced a considerable task. In parallel with the normal, everyday projects his office dealt with, he was tasked with providing replacement accommodation for public buildings which were destroyed all over the country during

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the War of Independence and the Civil War, including 98 coastguard stations, 147 police barracks and 10 post offices. In addition, office accommodation had to be found for the new Oireachtas and the new government departments.11 Architecturally, however, the most important national projects in T. J. Byrne’s early years with the OPW were the reconstruction of three iconic buildings in Dublin city: the General Post Office, the Custom House and the Four Courts. All of these had been nearly completely destroyed during the Rebellion of 1916 and the Civil War.

The General Post Office

Liberty Hall and much of Abbey Street and O’Connell Street, or Sackville Street as it was then, had been bombarded by the British gunboat Helga and field guns on the Trinity College campus during the Easter Rising in April 1916. Fires spread rapidly, destroying the east side of O’Connell Street from Cathedral Street to Eden Quay and much of the north side of Middle Abbey Street. It was not until late in the week that the headquarters of the Rebellion, the General Post Office, came under heavy fire. By the late afternoon of Friday in Easter week, the building and much of Henry Street was engulfed in flames.

For the next two years the GPO and most of the area around it lay in ruins, a scene reminiscent of the devastation on the Western Front. It can be argued that this shocking evidence of violent destruction in the nation’s capital by British artillery helped swing national empathy towards the independence movement as much as the executions of the Rebellion’s leaders. The ruined centre of Dublin lay untouched until summer of 1918 when, with the Great War coming to an end, work finally began on the reconstruction of the area. Enormous volumes of building rubble were cleared and

11 Irish Times, April 3, 1924

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The GPO after the Rebellion O’Connell Bridge May 1916 GPO May 1916

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Near the GPO May 1916

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GPO interior after Rebellion

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The interior during reconstruction

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Ceiling detail The interior today

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T. J. Byrne’s drawing for the new GPO Clock The GPO Clock today GPO Arcade today. Shop units were designed by Patrick J. Munden

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The new GPO buildings on Henry Street

removed to Fairview, where they were used to reclaim the coastal mudflats and form the foundations of Fairview Park.

Of all the buildings that had been destroyed in O’Connell Street, the General Post Office complex, designed by Francis Johnston and completed in 1818, was the most extensive. Its tall and imposing Ionic portico, surmounted by the statues of Hibernia, Fidelity and Mercury, had dominated Dublin’s main street for almost a century. The importance of the GPO, however, went well beyond its architectural presence: the part it played in the opening actions of the Easter Rising ensured it became a major symbol of Irish Nationalism.

Work to rebuild the GPO did not begin until 1924, eight years after its destruction. T. J. Byrne’s master plan for the reconstruction involved considerable replanning of the complex, including the creation of new offices for the Post Office and a spacious new

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James Gandon Bartlett’s Custom House The Custom House on fire 25 May 1921 Custom House after the fire, May 1921

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telegraph instrument room, but it was found possible to retain Johnston’s granite façade and great portico. A covered shopping arcade, a new concept in Dublin, was established between Princes Street and Henry Street, while a row of shops was planned on the ground floor of ‘an imposing and well balanced façade’ along the Henry Street elevation which the Irish Builder and Engineer said would greatly add to the attractions of the street.12 Ireland’s first radio station, 2RN, which had been operating from a studio in nearby Little Denmark Street, was moved to a new purpose-designed studio in the GPO in 1928.

T. J. Byrne had an excellent architectural team working on the GPO project, including Harold Leask, W. H. Cooke, D. M. Turner and J. M. Fairweather, an assistant principal architect who had once worked for Byrne’s father-in-law, Anthony Scott. Somehow, Byrne found time to design individual elements, such as the elaborate bronze decorative clock that was mounted on the front of the building, and his original design drawing for this is extant. The GPO complex was finally completed and opened by W. T. Cosgrave in 1929.

The Custom House

In 1781, the Commissioner for Revenue for Ireland, John Beresford, commissioned James Gandon to design a new Custom House for Dublin. Although Gandon had been involved in some previous works in Ireland, the Custom House was the first large-scale commission of his career. In April 1781, at the age of 39, he moved from his birthplace in London to Dublin to carry it out, beginning a prolific career in Ireland. Widely regarded as Gandon’s finest work, the Custom House complex was completed in 1791, and today houses the Irish Government Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

12 Irish Builder and Engineer, July 26, 1924

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Custom House, the parapet level after the fire May 1921 The Custom House without its dome The interior of the dome after the fire The exterior of the dome after the fire 78 ■ ■ ■ ■ The Office of Public Works

Interior damage The dome under reconstruction The facade after the fire New reinforced concrete structure of dome

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During the time of British rule, the Custom House was a major centre of British civil administration in Ireland. In an attempt to create a major propaganda coup, it was attacked and burnt by IRA forces on 25th May 1921. Nearby fire stations were occupied to prevent any brigades attending the fire, which quickly took hold in the building. The raid only took 30 minutes but the building was gutted and continued to burn for several

The Custom House today days. While the operation had disastrous results for the IRA (five volunteers were killed, many wounded and a hundred captured), it was also a major blow to Britain. Within weeks Lloyd George formally invited de Valera to talks that resulted in a truce being signed on 9th July 1921.

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Work on the reconstruction of the building began in 1925 under T. J. Byrne and the OPW. The dome and peristyle were in a dangerous condition and had to be dismantled down as far as roof level. The 11-ton sculpture of Commerce that topped the dome, carved by Thomas Banks, was surprisingly undamaged. Although the front block of the Custom House was substantially retained, the central block, the northern ranges and the wings were rebuilt as modern offices. Because funding was low for the project, T. J. Byrne had to replace the original stone with Ballyknockan granite in the lower part of the drum and Ardbraccan limestone in the peristyle. The dome was rebuilt using an internal structure consisting of a cone of reinforced concrete that supported the statue of Commerce: the copper dome was erected on a timber frame supported on the concrete cone. Other sculptures, including the keystones representing the rivers of Ireland by Edward Smyth, were also saved. Gandon, it is said, thought Smyth’s work was ‘equal to that of Michaelangelo’.

It was a difficult project to administer, as much of the work was carried out piecemeal under a series of separate contracts due to shortage of funds. The entire project was not completed until 1928.

The Four Courts

Dublin’s other great quayside building is the Four Courts, with its imposing green copper dome. Architect Thomas Cooley began the work in 1776, but died after one wing had been completed, and James Gandon was appointed in his place. It is Gandon that produced the tour-de-force that is so well-known today. The dome is said to have been inspired by the colonnaded drum on St Paul’s Cathedral in London, which Gandon knew well. The building was completed in 1802, and is well described by architectural historian Christine Casey as an architectural example of ‘boldness, depth, virility and power’.

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Bartlett’s Four Courts

In April 1922, four months after the signing of the Treaty with Britain, the National Army was well established, but some IRA volunteers who were against the Treaty retained their arms and organisation. In April the Four Courts complex was occupied by an anti-Treaty military force of over 300 men, including Sean Lemass and Todd Andrews, under the command of Rory O’Connor. Michael Collins wanted at all costs to avoid confrontation between the two sides, hoping that the anti-Treaty forces would give up their arms if the pro-Treaty side won the General Election planned for June. The pro- Treaty side did win the election, but the anti-Treaty side refused to sit in the new Dáil, and their military force in the Four Courts showed no sign of vacating the buildings.

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Four Courts explosion June 1922 The Fire Brigade at work Four Courts poster

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Facade being surveyed after the fire Shell damage to front wall Four Courts, interior damage

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Clearing up Aftermath

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Four Courts - the original ground foor plan Four Courts damage to dome

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Sketch Plan - new ground floor plan

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Four Courts, scaffolding for new dome

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The British garrison was still in place in Dublin: when London threatened to bring the occupation to an end using aircraft and tanks, Collins moved to assert the authority of the democratically elected majority, and accepted a British offer of two eighteen-pounder field guns. These were brought to bear on the Four Courts from across the river on 28th June, and the Civil War began. On the third day of the bombardment, the garrison’s ammunition dump in a basement in the west of the complex was blown up, perhaps deliberately, creating an enormous explosion. Most of the contents of the Irish Records Office were destroyed, including records that went back to medieval times. Records, steel shelving, columns and floors were fused into great blocks of solid matter, and it was said the history of Ireland was descending on the city in ashes for a week afterwards. The anti- Treaty garrison surrendered shortly afterwards.

While there was no question of not rebuilding the GPO, which had become synonymous with the Rebellion, there was initially some doubt whether the new and very poor Irish Free State would restore the Four Courts, a symbol of British Justice 3 and Imperialism. It was a very large project of some 76,000 square feet (1 /4 acres) or five million cubic feet of buildings, and could cost a young government with scant resources an enormous amount of money. Since the destruction of the buildings, the Law Courts had found alternative accommodation in Dublin Castle. Some work was done, even as far as the preparation of sketch plans, on the idea of demolishing Gandon’s Courts and building the new Irish parliament buildings on the site. The site featured in a variety of planning ideas being discussed in professional circles at the time, including The Greater Dublin Reconstruction Movement’s proposal that the complex might be used as the Central Art Gallery, with the GPO becoming the new City Hall and the Custom House becoming the new GPO. The movement also recommended that the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham might become the home of the Oireachtas.

An initial structural assessment of the condition of the main elements of the Four Courts suggested that the entire complex should be demolished and a completely new

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The dome during reconstruction

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building erected. T. J. Byrne, however, was confident that much of what stood could be saved. He believed that, with careful planning and the use of modern construction methods, he could have the Four Courts rebuilt at a reasonable cost. He had the ear of W. T. Cosgrave, and this may have been pivotal in the eventual decision of the government to accept his proposals.

In 1925, therefore - a year into the rebuilding of the GPO and at about the same time that work commenced on the Custom House - Byrne embarked on a major programme of reconstruction of the Four Courts. He tasked himself with giving back all the main elements of Gandon’s building to Dublin but re-planning, on the original foot-print, the courtyard ranges and the north block. In his own words, Byrne aimed at ‘reconciling the old plan lines with the requirements of modern public office buildings and modern office practice…’ Accordingly, a simple corridor system was laid down, and thereafter reinstatement of the wings and pavilions of the main building proceeded apace.’ Sir Philip Hanson CB, the Commissioner of Public Works, commented afterwards that ‘instead of the gloomy labyrinth that the old Four Courts were, the lawyers of the future were to have a brighter, lighter, and pleasanter building.’13

After work commenced, latent weaknesses in the original structure came to light to make Byrne’s task even more difficult. The process of the reconstruction is well documented: it is clear that, without the ingenuity and imaginative thinking of Byrne and his project team (which included W. H. Cooke and W. H. Ward) there is little doubt that the costs of the project would have proved prohibitive.

Once the main structures had been secured and strengthened, the principal technical problem was the reconstruction of the dome and peristyle, a complex operation that required a good mix of imagination and technical expertise. Byrne

13 Some Reconstruction Work at the Four Courts, Dublin, Paper given by T. J. Byrne to the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland, 9 January 1928

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Peristyle, damaged capital today photograph courtesy of the OPW himself called it a task ‘bristling with difficulties.’ There were 24 detached Portland stone Corinthian columns in the peristyle surrounding a drum that was only 18 inches or 45 centimetres thick. The drum wall was pierced by 12 windows and 12 niches, and the peristyle and this wall supported a deep stone ring which in turn supported the dome. Nearly all the column shafts had been shattered by the heat of the fire, two had lost their ornate capitals completely and most of the rest were damaged. The reveals of the window openings in the drum wall had been damaged by heat, and there was a shell hole right through the wall in one place. In addition, a detailed survey revealed a large old crack in the drum wall, which Byrne felt dated back to the time of the original construction. Problems of settlement had caused some alarm at the time of the construction of the Four Courts - Ormond Bridge, which had been destroyed in a flood in 1802, and was to be built right in front of the complex, was moved because of fears that the driving of the piles during its construction would endanger the building.

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A forest of scaffolding was erected and the damaged drum was carefully reconstructed and reinforced. Byrne originally insisted that aside from components that could not be obtained in Ireland, everything else should be Irish made or supplied, but relaxed this direction in relation to the replacement of damaged Portland stone. ‘Even at considerable extra expenditure,’ he said later, ‘it was important to preserve the beautiful appearance which Portland stone gives to a straight shaft.’14

Another problem requiring a pragmatic solution was the damage to the 24 very visible, detached Corinthian columns in the dome peristyle, a major feature of Gandon’s design. While it was possible to economically replace the shafts of the columns, the cost of carving 24 new capitals would have been prohibitive. It was found, however, that the original capitals had been carved perfectly all round, and the sides facing the drum were undamaged. It was decided to simply rotate the capitals on their axes to bring the good faces out and turn the damaged parts to the wall. Two of the capitals were completely missing, and they were cast in artificial stone, using a mould from one of the least damaged originals. Artificial stone, cast in situ, was also used for much of the repair work in the less important areas.

The replacement of the structure of the dome itself was considered in various materials, including timber as in the original, steel and a combination of timber and steel. Byrne’s engineering skills, and particularly his knowledge of the properties of the relatively new reinforced concrete were brought to bear when he made the radical decision to cast a six-inch (150mm) thick reinforced concrete shell dome. He was convinced that a concrete solution had all the advantages of the other options but considerably better durability, and if carefully designed, would have only a slightly increased weight. Most importantly, the dome would bind the damaged and cracked supporting drum together. From his paper on the matter delivered to the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland in January 1928, it is clear that he did the engineering calculations for the dome himself.

14 Dublin, Christine Casey, 2005, p. 146

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For the dome to work as a single homogeneous shell, it was necessary that all the concrete would be placed in one extended pour. This operation, more than 100 feet (30m) above the street below, had to be planned very carefully. Probably for the first time in Ireland, a construction elevator was used. It was set up at the front portico, and delivered 14 cubic feet of concrete at 115 feet per minute up to roof level, where an ingenious one-way timber bridge system allowed a continuous supply of concrete to be barrowed to the placement site. The operation of pouring the dome in one operation was successfully achieved ‘with the cheerful co-operation of the contractors, Messrs J & P Good, the workmen and the supervisors’ by 20 men in 30 hours.

For security reasons, the re-opening of the Four Courts took place on 12th October, 1931 without any formal ceremony. Chief Justice Hugh Kennedy, presiding over the Supreme Court, noted ‘that it would be an omission which could never be made good if I failed to express in some way my appreciation…of the magnificent work of re-construction and restoration which had been accomplished through the Office of Public Works…Everyone who was familiar with the old building from 1924 timber dome proposal

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Drawing for the reinforced concrete dome

within would be moved with admiration of the manner in which Mr Byrne, the Principal Architect of the Board of Works, had restored the main architectural features…’15

T. J. Byrne and his project team, Assistant Architects Cooke, Geoghegan and Ward, were closely involved right through construction; almost every aspect of the work

15 Irish Law Times and Solicitors’ Journal 246, October 10, 1931

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Drawing for the interior of the dome required imaginative solutions, particularly if the project was to be completed both properly, and economically. In spite of the difficulties and complexities involved in the works, there were no casualties during the construction period, a tribute to the careful planning of the project by the OPW and the contractors. It is clear from the paper that Byrne presented to the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland that there was no issue in the project and its realisation that was too minor for his attention.

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Drawing for New Court No 5

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OPW Housing

Byrne’s interest in housing matters continued after he joined the OPW. The 40 houses designed for members of the army by the Architects Section of the OPW in 1923 and built in Sandymount are usually attributed to W. H. Cooke, one of Byrne’s assistant architects, but it is difficult not to see similarities with some of Byrne’s designs for houses for the SDRDC.

It is thought that he was the main influence behind the 1924 Housing (Building Facilities) Act, which legislated for subsidies to be provided to both private builders and local authorities for the provision of all new houses with the required floor areas.16

In 1925, at the request of President W. T. Cosgrave, he managed to squeeze into his busy schedule a trip to Amsterdam and Rotterdam with the Dublin City Architect, Horace O’Rourke, for the purpose of inspecting and reporting on the different systems of house construction there. O’Rourke was a traditionalist, however, and it was not until a separate Dublin City housing architect’s department was formed in 1932 under Herbert Simms that some fine apartment schemes based on Dutch models were eventually developed in the city. By then, however, the culture of catering for city expansion and re- housing through low-density suburban sprawl was already very solidly in place.

A significant upgrading of Baldonnel airfield outside Dublin, the headquarters of the Irish Air Corps, was undertaken by the OPW from the 1920s onwards. Although the housing and the officer’s mess built there between 1929 and 1931 were also designed by W. H. Cooke, it is once again difficult to dismiss the influence of the Principal Architect.

From the early 1920s onwards, Byrne was adding to his already heavy workload by getting involved in the workings of the RIAI, and he was elected president of the AAI in 1923. He took great interest in the courses of lectures and instruction in architectural

16 The Buffer State – The Historical Roots of the Department of the Environment, Mary E. Daly, IPA

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Officers quarters, Baldonnell Sandymount Road army housing

design being run by the AAI, similar to the Continued Professional Development courses run by the RIAI today, and he strongly encouraged members to take part. R. M. Butler was Professor of Architecture in the UCD School of Architecture from 1926 to 1942, and he brought Byrne into the school to give lectures, and Byrne was also appointed an External Examiner to the course. Although he formerly favoured an apprenticeship

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system with appropriate formal art and science input for the education of architects, his involvement with UCD seems to have brought him to believe that the formal school system allowed students the very valuable chance to develop sustainable ideas through the architecture school’s culture of criticism and discussion. His involvement in education also ensured that he continued to keep in touch with the latest developments in architecture and architectural technology, and that he was in a good position to cherry-pick the most promising students to bring new blood into the OPW.

The Academy of Christian Art

T. J. Byrne was a founder member of The Academy of Christian Art of Ireland which was first proposed by the writer, scholar and revolutionary George Noble, Count Plunkett, at a meeting in Wynn’s Hotel on 26th June 1929, during the week when the centenary of Catholic Emancipation was being celebrated. The ACAI had the aim of promoting the study of all branches of Christian art including architecture, painting and sculpture and in particular, influencing the quality of church art and architecture in Ireland. Count Plunkett, a devout Catholic, (he had been created a Papal Count by Pope Leo XIII in 1884), wanted the ACAI to inspire a renaissance in Irish art. Other attendees of this early meeting included J. J. Robinson, a noted architect of Dublin churches, and Liam S. Gogan, Deputy Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum.

At the first general public meeting of the ACAI on 22nd April 1930, Count Plunkett outlined the objectives of the Academy, criticising the lack of unity in the design of churches, and the fact that Irish churches were furnished with ‘incongruous’ elements from Belgium, Bavaria, and France rather than native artworks. He also decried ‘walls splashed over by house-painters with designs that could hardly be called Christian.’ A paper was read by Daniel Corkery with the title ‘A Plea for Modern Architectural Ideas in Church Building’, in which he argued for the greater use of concrete in churches.

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The Council of the Irish Academy of Christian Art, 1928 with T. J. Byrne standing at the rear right. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.

T. J. Byrne, who seconded the vote of thanks after the talk, stated that he did not see any great artistic merit in concrete, but favoured the use of native materials such as stone, brick and lime.

T. J. Byrne served as a council member and Vice-President of the ACAI, and chaired most of the meetings until his death in 1939. He also gave five public lectures, one each year from 1932 to 1936. Three were on modern architecture, one on St Peter’s Basilica in Rome and one was titled ‘Dublin Churches a Century Ago’. His dislike of the extensive use of concrete was clear when he suggested, in his paper of 1934, that the craze for the alleged universal efficiency and economy of common concrete would soon die. He thought that the cross-channel and continental neighbours had long since turned to brick and stone, and urged a return to the artistry of craftsmanship, arguing that nothing could be worse than uniformity of work, wage rates and the dominance of the machine.

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His eldest daughter, Dr Ethna Byrne (later Professor Byrne-Costigan of University College Cork) held the post of secretary to the Academy until 1939, and she contributed several papers, notably one titled ‘Recent Art-Work in Italy’, which was described as remarkable. When T. J. Byrne died in January 1939, L. S. Gogan reported his death to a meeting the following month stating that his constructive criticism and tact had constituted for the ACAI a valuable asset for its formative years, and he expressed the hope that the Academy would consider his commemoration in some fitting manner. In the Journal of the Academy, Vol. 2, Part 1, 1939, the following notice appeared:

‘The Academy has suffered a severe loss during the year by the death of Mr. T. J. Byrne, ARIBA, its esteemed Vice-President. One of its original members, his devotion to its welfare grew with the years and contributed greatly to the success it has achieved.

In Refrigerio et in Pace’

In the years after 1939 the membership of the ACAI declined, and the final lecture under its auspices took place in March 1946.

International Influences

During this period T. J. Byrne travelled extensively in Europe and he knew Rome, where his sister-in-law lived, quite well: he gave an illustrated lecture about the architecture of the city to the RIAI in January 1931. In addition to his trips to Gotenburg, Stockholm and Amsterdam, he visited the Irish legations in Paris and Berlin and the Irish delegation headquarters at the League of Nations in Geneva as part of his responsibilities with the OPW. In 1936, he visited Prague and Brno on a trip organised by the British Architectural Association, and brought his two daughters, Joan and Ethna. In the same year he was appointed to the Industrial Research Council, the forerunner to the Institute of Industrial Research and Standards.

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T. J. Byrne at the 5th Congress of the International Federation of Building and Public Works (Employers) in Britain Byrne’s slide of Housing in Lindern, Norway One of Byrne’s slides of a reinforced concrete bridge at Gothenburg, Sweden

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National War Memorial The National War Memorial, Islandbridge at Islandbridge, Dublin

In 1932 work began on the Irish National War Memorial at Islandbridge, commemorating the 49,400 Irishmen who gave their lives in the Great War. It was designed by the well- known British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, who had designed other such monuments around Europe, including the monumental Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme. T. J. Byrne and the OPW were closely involved with the Islandbridge project from the outset. Indeed, according to Byrne’s obituary in the Irish Times,17 he was ‘associated’ with Lutyens in the planning of the Memorial. Byrne would have been an admirer of Lutyens and particularly his Arts and Crafts work, from his student days, and to eventually

17 Irish Times, January 28th 1939

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get to work with the man must have been an interesting and inspiring experience for him. Lutyens was no stranger to Ireland: his mother was Irish,18 and he had been the architect for Lambay Castle on Lambay Island and Heywood House gardens in County Laois, in the early 1900s. He had also, in 1912, prepared proposals for the controversial Gallery of Modern Art to house the Sir Hugh Lane collection: the gallery was to be accommodated in a new Liffey Bridge that would replace the popular Halfpenny Bridge, but the project was never realised.

When he visited Dublin in connection with the National War Memorial, Lutyens used to stay at the Shelbourne Hotel, only a few minutes from the OPW offices, so

18 Ireland and the New Architecture, Sean Rothery, Lilliput, 1991 p. 49

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it seems reasonable to suggest that he and Byrne would meet during the visits. Byrne took a very personal interest in the project, taking on a role of ‘Executant Architect’: Chambers Dictionary describes this term as meaning someone who carries out or performs something, especially a technically accomplished musician. Byrne is said to have called to the site and inspected the work most mornings on his way to work. As Executant Architect, it would be unusual if he did not have some influence on the realisation of design details.

A total of 164 men were employed on the project, 50 percent ex-British army and 50 percent ex-Irish Army, and it was carried out with as little mechanical equipment as possible to ensure maximum employment. Only ten years after the end of the War of Independence, the matter of the Irish who had served with the British Army was still a delicate one, evidenced by the fact that the memorial was not officially and formally dedicated until 1982.

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Like so many established architects with a staff, Byrne’s responsibilities in the OPW were mainly involved in management, co-ordination and encouragement of the assistant architects on his staff, and he would not have had the time, as much as previously, to put pencil to paper and actually produce design drawings. There can be no doubt, however, as would be normal in the architectural profession, that he was involved in and oversaw all the design work that was carried out in his office. Nearly 20 years before, Byrne’s half-brother, Sydney Alexander, during a visit to Kingston Lodge, had commented to May Byrne that her husband was over-devoted to his profession and worked too hard. As years went on he continued to protest at Byrne’s ‘excessive devotion to duty’. Byrne suffered from bronchitis and asthma from his early years, and his health began to fail from the 1930s onwards, probably assisted by over-work. While the number and complexity of building projects he was responsible for as Principal Architect increased, he still could not stand back, in spite of his poor health, particularly when it came to the more challenging projects that came along. The two major jobs that he devoted considerable time to in his last years were, in architectural terms, radically new building types: Ireland’s first radio transmission station and Ireland’s first international airport.

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Eucharistic Congress, floodlighting at City Hall Athlone transmission station under construction and nearing completion

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Moydrum Transmitting Station, Athlone

While the first radio station to broadcast programmes in Ireland was 2BE in Belfast in 1924, regular broadcasts from the Irish Free State’s first radio station, 2RN, began in January 1926, from the General Post Office in Dublin. The station’s 1.5 kilowatt transmitter had only limited coverage, so, early in the 1930s T. J. Byrne’s office designed a new transmitting station, referred to as the High Power Station 19, housing a 60 kilowatt transmitter. The site chosen was Moydrum in Athlone, and work commenced in early April 1932.

The year 1932 was regarded as the 1,500th anniversary of St Patrick’s arrival in Ireland, and Dublin was chosen that year as the location for the 31st International Eucharistic Congress. It was decided that the proceedings of the Congress would be broadcast by 2RN from Moydrum, and it was arranged that signals from the new 60kw transmitter would be picked up and relayed by BBC and several European stations. This put enormous pressure on the project team to sufficiently complete work by July, when the Congress was to take place. T. J. Byrne took a close interest in the realisation of the project. As he would not have had the time to travel to Athlone regularly to supervise the work, he had a comprehensive set of photographs of the building under construction sent to him each week, to allow him to monitor progress. In spite of the difficulties involved and the narrow timeframe, the building was sufficiently completed to have the transmitter equipment installed and commissioned in time for the Congress.

Broadcasting the Congress was the largest broadcasting event in the early years of Irish radio, and the coverage included Count John McCormack singing at the High Mass. The city of Dublin was specially and elaborately decorated with bunting, flags and fresh flowers, and it was arranged for all the major buildings to be floodlit at night.

19 Irish Times July 2, 1932

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T. J. Byrne introduced floodlighting to Ireland when he led an OPW team to design and install searchlights, floodlights and coloured lamps to illuminate major buildings such as the GPO, the Bank of Ireland in College Green, Trinity College and O’Connell Bridge. The results were regarded as a major feat of technological skill, and Byrne received a commemorative gold medal for his work. The Moydrum transmitting station was completed and fully operational by the end of October 1934.

Collinstown Airport

In the early 1930s international aviation was exercising the minds of progressive ministers of the Free State government, including Sean Lemass, Minister for Industry and Commerce. In April 1935, 16 years after the first trans-Atlantic flight by Alcock and Brown, it was officially announced that a civil airport was under consideration for Dublin. Lemass was convinced that Ireland could play a major part in the development of trans-Atlantic passenger and cargo routes, and at a 1935 conference in Ottawa, the Irish, British, Canadian and Newfoundland governments agreed to establish a regular mail and passenger service in which flying boats would be used, initially at least. A similar agreement was made with the United States authorities, and subsequently Foynes in the Shannon Estuary was chosen to be the Irish terminus. While the establishment of facilities for flying boats was the initial priority, Foynes had also been selected because of its proximity to a large flat area of land at Kilconry that would be suitable for a conventional airport.

The first Irish governmental interdepartmental meeting on the matter of Ireland’s airports took place on 18th September 1936, chaired by the secretary of the Department of Industry and Commerce, John Leydon. Born in County Roscommon, Leydon was regarded as one of the brightest and most talented men in the civil service, and was a close and trusted advisor to the Minister for Industry and Commerce.

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An early photo of the terminal at Dublin Airport’

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The OPW, which would have responsibility for the design and construction of the airports, was represented, and there were also representatives from the Defence Forces (the Irish Air Corps) and the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. Initial meetings of the interdepartmental committee dealt mainly with proposals for the flying boat terminus at Foynes and the conventional airport at Kilconry, County Limerick20, which was to eventually become Shannon Airport. In November 1936, a group of Pan American Airlines executives visited Ireland and encouraged the government to provide, as a matter of urgency, a European landplane terminus for the air routes that would originate in Gander, Newfoundland.

The most ideal site for such a terminus was Kilconry, but no preliminary work had been carried out there by this time, and it still consisted of rural fields reclaimed a hundred years before from the Shannon Estuary. It was proposed that Dublin would be suitable: while a number of sites were considered, including the Phoenix Park and Sandymount Strand, the Irish Air Corps recommended Collinstown, a former military airbase on the north Dublin plains with existing aircraft hangars and grass runways, as the best option. The existing runways could be relatively quickly upgraded, which meant there was a good opportunity to meet the needs of the trans-Atlantic carriers in the shortest possible time, particularly as most of the lands at Collinstown were already in State ownership.

At a meeting of the Airport Construction Committee on 7th December 1936, which T. J. Byrne attended, Leydon declared that Collinstown must go ahead ‘immediately.’21 It is not clear that he understood the complexities involved in the design process on a completely novel building type, and the importance of providing the architects with a comprehensive design brief before any design work could commence. Byrne, however, did not receive any briefing on the accommodation that would be required in the new

20 The OPW suggested that the airport should be called Kilconry Airport, while the Air Corps representative recommended Rineanna as being more ‘euphonic’. John Leydon, however, felt the name should be Shannon, and from November 1936 all references were to the Airport being known as ‘Shannon Airport’. 21 Minutes of 7th December meeting

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complex until 20th January 1937, when the Department produced data that was ‘put forward simply for information’. Fortunately, although no official approval to proceed had been received, Byrne had moved in December to set up an Airport Section in the OPW, and had taken on Desmond Fitzgerald as Assistant Architect for the section. The elder brother of the late Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald, he had, in 1934, won a far- sighted design competition for an airport for Dublin set by T. J. Byrne for the Final Year students of the School of Architecture in UCD. He started work at the OPW on 11th January 1937. About the same time, Dermot O’Toole was also employed to assist Fitzgerald during the initial design work.

Byrne reported on 18th January that the post of Senior Architect had been advertised adding that ‘the filling of this post is a necessary preliminary to any further staff expansion but when instructions upon the accommodation to be provided at the airport have been received and sketch plans approved, two or three Architectural Assistants (draughtsmen) will be required for the contract drawings.’22 Although a number of applications were received for the post of Senior Architect in charge of the Airport Section, Byrne did not employ anyone in this capacity. According to his contemporaries, Fitzgerald was a man of enormous self-confidence.23 Byrne, who had started his own career in Ireland even younger than Fitzgerald and with little experience, was perhaps convinced that, with good direction and assistance, the young man was fully capable of carrying out the necessary work, despite his inexperience. Besides Dermot O’Toole, who was 27 in 1937, the other architects that are known to have worked on Collinstown, Charles Aliaga Kelly, Daithi Hanley and Kevin Barry, were also relatively inexperienced, and quite young. They were employed later, when the contract drawings, and therefore the finer details of the design, were commencing. From his continual and intense level of involvement during all the initial phases of the project

22 Memo from Byrne to the Chairman of the Commissioners of Public Works, 18 January 1937 23 Ireland and the New Architecture, Sean Rothery, 1991, p. 219

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Airport Design by Desmond Fitzgerald 1934, Elevation Airport Design by Desmond Fitzgerald 1934, Plan Courtesy of the Irish Architectural Archive. Desmond FitzGerald Collection, Irish Architectural Archive.

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suggested by the available records, it can be surmised that Byrne decided that Ireland’s first airport was so important that he would oversee the architectural work himself.

Regarding the briefing data received from the Department on 20th January, Byrne stated in a later memo,24 that ‘the information then given was too scanty to enable anything to be done beyond a preliminary survey of the siting and other problems.’ However, under pressure from Leydon, he and the Airport Section had no choice but to create their own project brief based on the inadequate information received. Dermot O’Toole, Fitzgerald’s assistant, recalled that Fitzgerald went for a long holiday during the early stages of the work. During this time, in spite of the paucity of briefing information received, O’Toole completed the sketch drawings,25 and they were presented by Byrne to the Airport Construction Committee. After a series of consultations, approval was given to proceed to final sketch plan stage.

Taking all these circumstances into account, it is quite notable that the Airport Section managed to produce final sketch plans for such a complex and novel building type (based on, at best, a fragmentary set of briefs) for presentation to the committee at the beginning of May 1937.

Formal approval to proceed to contract drawings was issued on 8th June 1937. Further discussions led to the sketch design being altered by the addition of a fourth floor and the shortening of the wings of the building. These alterations constituted what would be normally regarded as a major design change; in spite of this, contract drawings were completed by 10th September. While this achievement is remarkable, it is even more remarkable that the architectural design produced by Byrne’s office between February and September 1937 has since been recognised as one of the finest buildings of the International Style, not only in Ireland, but in Europe.

24 Byrne’s report to the Chairman of the Commissioners of Public Works on progress of the architectural work on the airport, in response to a query from the Minister, 18th October 1937 25 Ireland and the New Architecture, Sean Rothery, 1991, p. 219

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Collinstown Airport ground floor and 1st floor plans Courtesy of the Irish Architectural Archive. Desmond FitzGerald Collection, Irish Architectural Archive. 116 ■ ■ ■ ■ Last Years

Collinstown Airport, elevations Courtesy of the Irish Architectural Archive. Desmond FitzGerald Collection, Irish Architectural Archive.

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The foundations for the terminal building were being laid by the beginning of October 1938,26 and on a visit in 1939, Lord Sempill - an aviation expert and a leading figure in the Royal Aeronautical Society - described the airport as ‘one of the best- planned airports I have ever seen, well in advance of anything that will be required by air transport for the next two or three years…the planning of Collinstown shows that the Eire authorities have the necessary vision, and its design is somewhat reminiscent of the latest re-designing of Templehof Airport at Berlin’ he added.’27

Despite the advent of war, the main building works were completed and Ireland’s first international commercial airport was ready for use by early 1940. Because of censorship and wartime reporting restrictions, little was published about the new airport until after 1945, which meant the building and its radical architecture got little public recognition.

The architecture of the terminal has been described as ‘the most adventurous... elegant, graceful and majestic example of the International Style in Ireland,’ and without doubt it is Ireland’s most important pre-war building. As in the Arts and Crafts tradition, all the contents and fittings in the building were regarded as part of the overall design: lighting, door furniture and even the cutlery and delph used in the restaurant, were all designed by the architectural team.

The question has often been asked in architectural circles how such sporadic briefing and a rushed and complicated series of design stages could have resulted in such a fine piece of architecture. Although Desmond Fitzgerald is acknowledged as the architect of Collinstown (he received the Triennial Gold Medal of the RIAI for the project in 1943) it seems clear that the finished building was the result of considerable teamwork.

26 Irish Times, October 13 1938 27 Irish Times January 7 1939

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Hanger No. 1, seen on the left of the terminal, is attributed to T. J. Byrne and G. R. Dawbarn Courtesy of the Irish Architectural Archive

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The airport design that Desmond Fitzgerald produced in UCD in 1934 has been described as ‘stripped Classical in form and functional in an unexciting fashion’28 and, apart from the hint of a curve in the plan, it bears no resemblance whatever to what was built at Collinstown. It has also been remarked that Fitzgerald never produced another building of such quality over the course of his long and busy career. After graduating from UCD, however, he worked for a while with Adams and Fry of London on the Town Plan for Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex. A central feature of the Town Plan was the De La Warr Pavilion, designed by Erich Mendlesohn and Serge Chermayeff, which was under construction at the time. It was one of the first truly Modern Movement buildings in Britain, and is still to this day a magnificent work, with lots of horizontality, glass, swirling circular forms, cantilevers and balconies: Fitzgerald must have seen it, and it would have been difficult for any young architect not to be startlingly impressed by its futuristic character. When Mendlesohn came to Dublin to give a lecture to the AAI in 1937, it is reasonable to surmise that Fitzgerald attended.

Dermot O’Toole, the assistant Byrne appointed for Fitzgerald and who clearly had a key involvement in the early sketch design stages, was also familiar with Mendelsohn’s work, and had seen his milestone Schocken Department Store in Stuttgart. Described by Sean Rothery as ‘one of the most important pioneers of modern architecture in Ireland,’29 it would not be realistic to disregard the importance of his influence in the design of Collinstown.

Although in his early career he was a devotee of the Arts and Crafts style, it would be unusual if T. J.Byrne’s architectural thinking did not evolve over time. This was the case with William Richard Lethaby, who was at the forefront of the Arts and Crafts movement when Byrne was a student. By 1912 Lethaby was looking forward to a new architecture, and was in his latter years a great supporter and encourager of the Modern Movement. He

28 Ireland and the New Architecture, Sean Rothery, 1991, p. 216 29 Ireland and the New Architecture, Sean Rothery, 1991, p. 213

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De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea Courtesy of Peter Robinson

wrote: ‘The modern way of building must be flexible and vigorous, even smart and hard. We must give up designing the broken-down picturesque which is part of the ideal of make- believe. The enemy is not science but vulgarity, a pretence to beauty at second hand.’

From his lectures and talks, it seems clear that, although conservative in outlook, Byrne was supportive of many aspects of the Modern Movement by the early 1930s, extolling the culture of functionality, simplicity and use of light, tempered by a strong dislike of the widespread use of concrete, which, he felt, lent itself to the monotonous, repetitive forms that often characterise the style. He was also concerned that there was a tendency for the new forms of construction to adversely affect the lot of building workers and particularly craftsmen. In a November 1933 lecture to the Academy of Christian Art on the ‘Modernist Trend’, he said that ‘directness, fitness and economy were now the paramount requisites, while simplicity, a maximum of sunlight…would be large factors in

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modern building.’ His vision of the new architecture accepted the structural advantages and flexibility of concrete - indeed, he had used it very effectively in a number of projects - but it seems that he saw it as a background, structural element, and believed that the use of natural local materials and craftsmanship were still central to good architecture.

Harry Allbury worked as deputy to Byrne in the OPW. In his obituary30 on Byrne he noted ‘as an official directing the operations of a large professional staff ‘T. J.’ was sometimes over-meticulous. Every detail of the work of his subordinates had to be considered personally, and to receive the impress of his own mind.’ It is very doubtful, then, that Byrne would have countenanced such a radical architectural approach to the design of Ireland’s first airport if he was not a fully committed part of the process by which his young team, assembled and no doubt advised and encouraged by him, produced the most important Irish building in the International Style.

T. J. Byrne was unfortunately not to see the results of his team’s efforts: he sadly died suddenly of a heart-attack in January 1939. A very large crowd attended the Requiem Mass that was celebrated at the Church of St Joseph in Terenure, and the funeral that followed to Glasnevin Cemetery, including W. T. Cosgrave, P. S. Doyle, the acting Lord Mayor, Major General Brennan, Chief of Staff of the Army, Joseph Connolly, the Chairman of the OPW, Laurence J. Kettle, Chairman of the Industrial Research Council and R. F. McGuinness, the Secretary of the Currency Commission.

In Byrne’s absence Desmond Fitzgerald came to the forefront of the Airport Section in the OPW, energetically pushing the Dublin project through to completion and proceeding with the Shannon project. Although he became known as the acknowledged architect for Dublin Airport, there is little doubt that a share of that Triennial Gold medal belongs to T. J. Byrne and the airport team he assembled; in a way, indirect as it may be, Dublin Airport stands today as one of Byrne’s finest architectural achievements.

30 The IrishTimes, January 28th 1939

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De Havilland 86 and terminal, c 1940 Courtesy of the Irish Architectural Archive

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The available evidence indicates that T. J. Byrne nurtured a very solid work ethic all his life, and there is no doubt that he would not have achieved what he did without a heavy investment of time and care. He was far from the conceptual architect who suggests solutions with broad strokes. To him, good architectural design encompassed such matters as craftsmanship, materials, practicality, usability and sustainability, and it reached down to the finest details: the fittings and the hidden parts, from the right kind of domestic fire grates to the exact number, location and diameter of the reinforcing bars in particular concrete beams. While he was not the only architect in early 20th century Ireland championing the improvement of living conditions of rural workers through the design of their dwellings, he was the most influential.

For the last three decades of his life he frequently suffered severe attacks of bronchitis and asthma. Although he was absent from work for periods, there is no evidence that his illnesses affected his output. His work, however, was only a part of his life. The best portrait that we have of T. J. Byrne as a family man is from his daughter Ethna’s book Ethna Mary Twice. She describes him as undemonstrative, silent and aloof most of the time, absorbed in thought, but very compassionate and kind, and ‘quick to come to your aid if you were in distress over some scolding, even if you did not really deserve much sympathy.’ One of his mottos was, ‘Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well.’ He never preached, but taught his children patience, perseverance and politeness, by example rather than precept. He read a lot, and owned many works of history, archaeology, architecture and science, together with complete sets of Scott, Thackeray and Dickens. He was very fond of Dickens and is said to

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have read and many times re-read all his novels: he knew all the characters ‘inside out and backways.’ He made a life-long study of Balzac, and his copies of Balzac’s books were full of pencilled annotations. On the lighter side, he liked P. G. Wodehouse, and he subscribed to Punch and the Spectator magazines.

T. J. Byrne enjoyed travel, and, given the times and circumstances, he did travel quite extensively in Europe. He took a full part in extra-curricular activities such as his involvement in the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (of which he was vice-president in 1938) the Architectural Association of Ireland, the Institute of Civil Engineers of Ireland and the Academy of Christian Art of Ireland. He did not, however, see them as simply clubs that one should belong to: in an address to the Architectural Association in 1923, he said ‘There is no more room for slackers in our ranks, than there is in any other association or community in the Saorstát. We want workers!’

Although his responsibilities broadened greatly as his career progressed, he was not a man who could detach himself from all the intricate details of the projects he had responsibility for. The volume of work being handled by the OPW meant that he had to delegate much of the work being carried out, although there is no doubt he found it difficult. Many a lesser man would buckle under this self-imposed pressure, but Byrne’s accomplishments are what they are because he worked so intensively – and, it has to be said, effectively. In a working life of 38 years, few could have achieved as much.

He had no interest in self-publicity and despite playing a central role in so many matters of national importance, he avoided the limelight successfully for the entirety of his career. In evidence of this, there are very few photographs of T. J. Byrne extant: only once does he seem to have appeared in the national press, posing with Count Plunkett and a group of officers of the Academy of Christian Art in November 1937.

Two of T. J. and May Byrne’s sons, Brendan and Niall, became engineers, and both followed careers that came close to their father’s footsteps. Brendan was responsible for

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local authority housing in South County Dublin after WW2, overseeing the erection of housing estates at Pearse Brothers Park and Ballyboden, close to houses that his father had designed, and to Whitechurch Carnegie Library. Niall was Assistant County Surveyor for Dublin County Council. One of his daughters, Joan, worked with the Currency Commission and the other daughter, Ethna, graduated with an MA from the National University of Ireland, before taking her PhD in the Sorbonne, Paris, in 1929, and becoming Professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Philology in University College Cork.

Modern housing pays homage to Byrne’s cottages at Poddle Park, Kimmage, 100 years later

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The Byrne family headstone at Glasnevin Cemetery

128 ■ ■ ■ ■ Appendices

Appendix 1 Map of South Dublin Rural District Council area.

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Appendix 2

W. T. Cosgrave’s letter to T. J. Byrne regarding Dublin re-housing

PLACE OF INTERNMENT, READING Jan 22nd 1919, My dear Byrne, I suppose you expected to hear from me but failing a letter from you there was nothing to add to my p.c. There has not been any replies to letters I wrote at the time and on the whole perhaps there could not have been as it was rather late to make changes. In a letter to Mr Eyre last week I deprecated a blank cheque to Dublin architects suggesting competition. Even if one is buying a suit of clothes the number of tailors to be selected from seldom exceeds three or four, and with physicians possibly the same course with a strong preference according to nature & of the disorder. In any case you need scarcely worry except to go on with the ideas you have in trying further types of cottages, improvements in their construction and accommodation etc. My absence cannot be much longer extended. But even if in office again there appear to be many difficulties ahead in a big housing reconstruction. Have you been considering it all. Mr Eyre seems to have much interest in Communal Kitchens. You ought to see him about it. Its impossible to deal with that sort of thing in 20 lines on each page & I simply threw cold water on it expecting that he’ll develop the idea in next letter. We have got to do two things, build outside the centre and have slum clearances. There is no other way of getting rid of slums. It’s a tall order & expensive but like cancer you must cut it out. Larkin and others may make trouble, but they have not enough courage to trouble me. There will be trouble from another source, the Robinson group, each of whom will pass responsibility in turn. One thing necessary is the best most inexpensive and from every point of view the most suitable scheme which will reconstruct the whole living accommodation of working classes. You ought consider the best means to adopt and secure that end. It’s too much for one man and if parcelled out each head must follow directions. Bearing in mind necessity in earlier years of maximum addition to rehousing the greatest number. You must put out of your mind widening north side at Mt. Brown. Minimum cost 3 times that of South. Are you against doing the South side? W T Cosgrave

130 ■ ■ ■ ■ Sources Consulted

Bee Cee, Ethna, Ethna Mary Twice, Vantage Press, 1989. O’Connor and O’Regan (eds.), Public Works, The Architecture of the Office of Public Works 1831-1987, Architectural Association Of Ireland, 1987. Pevsner, Nikolaus, The Sources of Modern Architecture and Design, Thames and Hudson, 1968. Pevsner, Nikolaus, Pioneers of Modern Design, Pelican, 1960. Grimes, Brendan, Irish Carnegie Libraries, Irish Academic Press, 1998. Rothery, Sean, Ireland and the New Architecture, Lilliput Press, 1991. McManus, Ruth, Dublin 1910-1940 Shaping the City & Suburbs, Four Courts Press, 2002. Duffy, Hugo, James Gandon and his Times, Gandon Editions, 1999. Richards, J. M., Modern Architecture, Pelican, 1962. Saint, Andrew, Richard Norman Shaw, Yale University Press, 1976. Kidson, Murray and Thompson, A History of English Architecture, Pelican, 1965. Corlett, Christiaan, Darkest Dublin, Wordwell, 2008. Fraser, Murray, John Bull’s Other Homes, Liverpool University Press, 1996 Williams, Jeremy, Architecture in Ireland 1837 – 1921, Irish Academic Press, 1994

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Daly, Mary E, The Buffer State – The Historical Roots of the Department of the Environment, IPA, 1997. Furneaux Jordan, Robert, Victorian Architecture, Pelican, 1966. Breathnach - Lynch, Sighle, The Academy of Christian Art (1929-1946): An Aspect of Catholic Cultural Life in newly independent Ireland, Irish American Cultural Institute. Vol. XXXI: 3 and 4, 1996. Casey, Christine, Dublin (Pevsner Architectural Guides), Yale University Press, 2005. Costello, Caroline (ed.), The Four Courts: Two Hundred Years, Incorporated Council of Law Reporting For Ireland, 1996. South Dublin Rural District Council Archives, Fingal County Council. The T. J. Byrne Archive, Irish Architectural Archive. Irish Independent, various. Irish Arts Review, various. Irish Times, various. Royal Institute of British Architects Journal, various. Flight Magazine, various. The Irish Builder, various. The Irish Builder and Engineer, various. L. S. Gogan Archives LA 27/866 to LA 27/896, UCD. The OPW Archives, The National Archives. The ACAI Archive, Central Catholic Library. Journals of the ACAI, Dublin City Archives. The John Byrne Archive.

132 ■ ■ ■ ■ Index References to images are in bold

3rd Royal Surrey Militia, 13. Architectural Association, 60. Architectural Association of Ireland (AAI), 16, 45, 65, 98, 99, 120, 126. A Architectural Association School, 14. architectural pupillage, 14. Abbey Street, 67. ARIBA, 14, 102. Aberdeen, Lord and Lady, 7. Army Housing, Sandymount Road, 99. Academy of Christian Art of Ireland (ACAI), 100, artillery, 67. 101, 102, 126. Arts and Crafts, 104. Act of Union, 51. Arts and Crafts Movement, 19. Adams and Fry (London), 120. Arts and Crafts style, 5, 16, 18, 50, 120. Addison Act, 1919, 5. Arts and Crafts tradition, 118. aircraft, 89, 112. Art Worker’s Guild, 19. Airport Construction Committee, 112, 115. asthma, 56, 107, 125. Airport Section, OPW, 113. Aston, E. A., 53, 54. airport, 107, 122. Athlone, 109. Alcock and Brown, 110. Athlone Transmission Station, 108. Alexander, George, 14. Alexander, Sydney, 107. Allbury, Harry, 122. B ammunition dump, 89. Amsterdam, 8, 98, 102. balconies, 120. Andrews, Todd, 82. Baldonnel Airfield, 98. Anglo-Irish Treaty, 62, 63, 82, 89. Ballyboden, 5, 7, 127. Arbraccan limestone, 81. Ballyknockan granite, 81.

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Baltinglass, 13. Byrne, Alfie, 52. Balzac, Honoré de, 126. Byrne, Brendan, 56, 126. Bank of Ireland, College Green, 110. Byrne, Ethna, 39, 40, 51, 56, 57, 102, 125, 127. Barry, Kevin, 113. Byrne, Harriet, 13, 14, 58. Bavaria, 100. Byrne, Niall, 126. BBC, 109. Byrne, Richard, 13, 14. Belfast, 21, 109. Byrne-Costigan, Dr. Ethna, 102. Belgium, 100. Bell, Alexander Graham, 13. Beresford, John, 77. C Berlin, 102, 118. Bexhill, 120. cabbage patch, 8. Boundary Street, London, 5. Camden Street, 66. Brennan, Major General, Irish Army Chief of Staff, Canada, 53, 110. 122. Cantilevers, 120. Bridge Inn, Chapelizod, 40. Capital (Architectural Feature), 92, 93. Britain, 11, 20, 80, 82, 120. Carnegie Library, 45. British Architectural Association, 102. Carnegie Library, Shankill, 43. British Army, 106. Carnegie Library, Whitechurch, 127. British Civil Administration in Ireland, 63, 80. Carnegie Trust, 49, 50. British Empire, 11. Carnegie, Andrew, 46, 49. British garrison (army), 89. Carter, Edward ARIBA, 14, 18. British Government, 31, 42, 53, 55, 63, 110. Casey, Christine, 81. British gunboat, 67. Cathedral Street, 67. British Parliament, 29. Catholic Church, 8. British Prime Minister, 13. Catholic Emancipation, 100. British soldiers, 13. Cavan Town Hall, 18. Brno, 102. Ceannt, Eamonn, 58. bronchitis, 56, 107, 125. Ceannt’s Fort, 53, 55. bronze, 77. censorship, 118. Butler, R.M. (Rudolf Maximilian), 23, 43, 65, 66, 99. census, 14. Byrne Family Headstone, 128. central city housing, 60.

134 ■ ■ ■ ■ Index

Chapelizod, 40, 45. Cosgrave, William T., 7, 25, 52, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, Chapelizod cottages, 22, 34, 35. 61, 62, 63, 77, 91, 98, 122. Chapelizod pub and houses, 41. cottage, 12. Chatterton, George, 27. cottage (kitchen type), 44. Chermayeff, Serge, 120. cottage schemes, 7. Church of the Annunciation, Rathfarnham, 51. council houses, 40. Church Street disaster, 1913, 52. Council of the RIAI, 66. civil administration (British), 63. Council of the Society of Architects, 16. civil engineer, 23, 24, 45. County Dublin, 42. civil service, 11, 12. Cowan, Dr. PC, 27, 42, 53, 54. Civil War, 67, 89. Cragside House, Northumbria, 18. Clarke, Mr. D.,28. Crumlin, 25, 43. Clondalkin, 29, 43. Custer’s Last Stand, 13. Clondalkin Library, 7, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50. Custom House, 60, 76, 78, 79, 80. Coastguard stations, 67. Collen, William, 42. Collins, Michael, 82, 89. D Collinstown Airport, 110, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 123. Daly’s Theatre, 39. Collinstown Military Airbase, 112, 113. De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, 121. column shafts, 92, 93. de Valera, Éamon, 8, 61, 80. Commissioner for Revenue for Ireland, 77. Deane, Thomas Newenham, 16. Commissioner of Public Works, 91. Dept of the Environment, Community & Local concrete, 94, 100, 101, 121, 122, 125. Government, 77. concrete beams, 125. Degas, 13. Connolly, Joseph, 122. DeHavilland, 86, 123. Cooke, W.H., 77, 91, 95, 98. Desmond Fitzgerald Airport Design, 114 Cooley, Thomas, 81. Dickens, Charles, 125. copper, 81. Diocletian windows, 50. Corinthian Columns, 92, 93. Diphtheria, 52. Cork, 43. Disraeli, Benjamin, 13. Corkery, Daniel, 100. Donnybrook, 26.

■ ■ ■ ■ 135 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Doolin, W.G., (Architect), 21. Eden Quay, 67. Doyle, P.S., 122. Edinburgh, 53. drainage, 24, 28, 37, 42. eighteen-pounder field guns, 67, 89. draughtsman, 18, 113. England, 8, 18, 42, 43. drawings, 16, 18, 50, 77, 107, 113, 115. English, 13, 43. Drogheda, 14, 16, 18, 21. English National Housing and Town Planning Dublin Airport, 9, 111, 118, 120. Council, 42. Dublin Castle, 63. Enniskillen Town Hall, 16. Dublin Churches a Century Ago (Book), 101. Eucharistic Congress 1932, 109. Dublin County Council, 127. Eucharistic Congress, floodlighting at City Hall, 108. Dublin Corporation Estates and Finance Committee, Europe, 13, 51, 102, 104, 115, 126. 62. Executions of 1916 leaders, 67. Dublin Corporation Housing Committee, 52, 53, 54, Executive Council of the Free State, 52. 55. Dublin City Architect, 98. Dublin City Council, 55. F Dublin City Engineer, 27. Dublin City Housing Architect’s Department, 98. Fairview Park, 75. Dublin Corporation, 7, 52, 55, 57, 58. Fairweather, J. M., 77. Dublin Main Drainage Scheme, 27. fire grate, 44, 125. Dublin Port and Docks Board, 27. Fitzgerald, Desmond, 113, 114, 115, 118, 120, 122. Dublin Tenants’ Association, 60. Fitzgerald, Garrett, 113. Dundee, 53. Flanagan, Alderman Michael, 25. Dutch apartment schemes, 98. floodlighting, 109. Dutch gabled houses, 40 floodlights, 110. Four Courts, 8, 60, 67, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 97. E Foynes, Co. Limerick, 110, 112. France, 100. Easter, 55, 56, 58, 67, 75. Fraser, Murray, 7. Easter Rebellion, 1916, 52, 55, 56, 67, 89. Free State Council, 52. Easter Rising, 58, 67.

136 ■ ■ ■ ■ Index

G H

Gaelic Revival, 7. Hanley, Daithi, 113. Gander, Newfoundland, 112. Hansom Cab, 40. Gandon, James, 77, 81, 89, 91, 93. Hanson, Sir Philip CB, 91. Garden City, 7. Halfpenny Bridge, 105. garden suburbs, 60. Harty, Spencer, 27. Geddes, Patrick, 7. Hayden, Mary, 40. General Council of County Councils, 63. Helga (Ship), 67. Geneva, 102. Heywood House gardens, Co. Laois, 105. George, Lloyd, 80. Homes for Heroes campaign, 5. Georgian, 50. hostel, 21, 29. Germany, 20. Housing (Building Facilities) Act, 1924, 98. Gibraltar, 13. Housing (Ireland) Act, 1919, 62. Gladstone, William, 13. Housing Department, LCC, 21. Glasgow, 53. housing reform, 37. Glasnevin Cemetery, 122. Howth, 43. Gogan, Liam S., 100, 102. Hussey, P.J., 33. gold medal, 122. Gorevan’s (Department Store), 66. Gotenburg, 102. I Government Buildings, 66. Government, Local, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65. Irish Independence, 60. GPO (General Post Office), 60, 64, 67, 68, 71, 72, 73, India, 13. 75, 77, 89, 91, 110. Industrial Research Council, 102, 122. GPO Arcade, 74. Institute of Civil Engineers of Ireland, 126. GPO Clock, 74. Institute of Industrial Research and Standards, 102. granite, 25, 40, 50, 57, 77. Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland, 93, 96. Great War, the 5, 52, 53, 54, 62, 67, 104.Greater internment, 60. Dublin Reconstruction Movement, 89. International Federation of Building and Public Works in Britain, 103. Ionic portico, 75.

■ ■ ■ ■ 137 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

IRA, 63, 80, 82. L IRA Volunteers, 80, 82. Irish Army, 106. Labourers’ cottages, 25, 37, 45. Irish Builder (Publication), 23, 37, 43, 65. Labourers’ cottages plots, 30. Irish Builder and Engineer (Publication), 28, 77. Labourers’ cottages programme, 5. Irish Government, 7, 11, 25, 67, 77, 89, 91, 110, 112. Lambay Castle, Lambay Island, 105. Irish National War Memorial, Islandbridge, 104, 105. Land Wars (1883), 5. Irish Nationalism, 75. landplane terminus, 112. Irish Records Office, 89. Laois, 105. Islandbridge, 104. Larkin, James, 60. Italy, 102. Larkinites, 7. Leask, Harold, 77. Lemass, Seán, 82, 110. J Lethaby, William Richard, 18, 50, 120. Leydon, John, 110, 112, 115. John Bull’s Other Homes (Book), 5. Liberal Government, 29. Johnston, Francis, 75, 77. library, 7, 9, 45, 49. lime, 101. Little Denmark Street, 77. K local authority housing, 18, 57, 58, 127. local authority, 14, 18, 25, 29, 39, 45, 53, 57, 62, 63, Kelly, Charles Aliaga, 113. 98, 127. Kelly, Thomas, Alderman, 52, 53. local councils, 62. Kennedy, Hugh, Chief Justice, 94. Local Government, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65. Kerr, Robert, 14. Local Government Board (British Government), 25, Kettle, Laurence J., 122. 27, 31, 42, 53, 54, 55, 62, 63. keystones, 81. Local Government Department (Free State), 62, 63, Kilconry, 110, 112. 66. Kingston Lodge, 50, 51, 55, 56, 57, 107. Local Government housing, 63, 65. Kingston-on-Thames, 13, 14. London, 11, 16, 21, 29, 39, 40, 50, 63, 77, 81, 89, Kingstown, 55. 120, 124. Kipling, Rudyard, 21. London County Council, 5, 18, 21. Knight, Harriet, 13.

138 ■ ■ ■ ■ Index

Lunette windows, 7. Native Americans, 13. Lutyens, Sir Edwin, 104, 105. New Liffey Bridge, 105. Newbrook Mill, 56, 57. Newfoundland, 110, 112. M Northumbria, 18. Norway Housing, Lindern, 103. McCaffrey Estate, 53, 55. McCarthy, C.J., 53. McCarthy, P.H., 28, 42, 54. O McCormack, Count John, 109. McGuinness, R.F., 122. O’Connell Bridge, 69. Main Street, Tallaght, 39. O’Connell Street, 67, 75, 110. Mendelsohn, Erich, 120. O’Higgins, Kevin, 63. Merrion Street, 66. O’Rourke, Horace, 98. Metropolitan School of Art, 16. O’Toole, Dermot, 113, 115, 120. Michaelangelo, 81. Officers’ Quarters, Baldonnell, 99. Millbank, London, 5. Oireachtas, 67, 89. Monks, Louis, 55. OPW (Office of Public Works), 65, 66, 67, 81, 96, 98, Morehampton Terrace, Donnybrook, 26, 50. 100, 102, 104, 105, 107, 110, 112, 113, 122, 126. Morris, William, 5, 18, 19, 50. Ormond Bridge, 92. mortar, 31. Orwell, George, 21. Mount Brown, 51, 52. Ottawa, 110. Mount Brown Terrace, 54. overtime, 16. Moydrum Transmitting Station, Athlone, 109, 110. Owendoher River , 56.

N P

National Army, 82. Palmerstown, 29, 43. National Museum, 100. Palmerstown Houses, 38. National University of Ireland, 127. Pan American Airlines, 112. National War Memorial, Islandbridge, 104. Papal Count, 100.

■ ■ ■ ■ 139 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Paris, 102, 127. R Paris to Peking car race, 51. parlour, 44. radio station, 2BE, 109. Parnell Square, 63. radio station, 2RN, 77. Pearse, Patrick, 7, 55. Rafter’s Road Cottages, 26. Pearse, Willie and Patrick, 56. Rafter’s Road, Crumlin, 25. Pearse Brothers Park, 127. railroads, 49. Pembroke and Rathmines trunk sewer network, 27. Rathdown No. 1 District, 42, 43. peristyle, 81, 91, 92, 93. Rathfarnham, 26, 27, 29, 31, 43, 45, 50, 56. Pevsner, Nikolaus, 20. Rathmichael Church, 16. philanthropic projects, 49. Rathmines, 28. philanthropist, 21. Rathmines Urban District Council, 27. philology, 127. rebuilding of the GPO, 75, 89, 91. Phoenix Park, 112. reinforced concrete, 66, 81, 93, 103. Piazza Poli, 40. RIAI (Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland), 45, 98, playgrounds, 55. 99, 102. Plunkett, Count, 126. RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects), 14, 18, Plunkett, Count George Noble, 100. 21, 50. Poddle Park, Kimmage, 127. Riverside Cottages, Templeogue, 44. police barracks 67. Robinson, Andrew, 65. Pope Leo XIII, 100. Robinson, JJ, 100. portico, 75, 77, 94. Robinson, Sir Henry, 60. Portland stone, 92, 93. Rockbrook, 43. Prague, 102. Rockefeller, John D., 49. Presbyterian Assembly Building, Belfast, 21. Rome, 40, 101, 102. Princes Street, 77. Roscommon, 110. Pro Cathedral in Dublin, 26. Rothery, Sean, 120. public house, 57. Rotterdam, 98. public housing, 65. Rowton, Lord, 21. public libraries, 49. Royal Aeronautical Society, 118. public lighting, 27. Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, 89. Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, 8, 126.

140 ■ ■ ■ ■ Index

Royal Irish Fusiliers, 13. sewage, 37. Ruskin, John, 18, 50. sewer, 27, 28. rural housing, 29, 31, 43, 45. Shankill, 43. rural workers’ cottages, 26, 29, 31. Shankill garden village, 43. Shankill Library, 43. Shannon, 122. S Shannon Airport, 112. Shannon Estuary, 110. Sackville Street, 67. Shaw, Richard Norman, 18, 19, 50, 56. Sandymount, 98. Shelbourne Hotel, 105. Sandymount Strand, 112. shopping arcade, 77. Scheme for a Mission Church, 20. Simms, Herbert G., 8, 98. Scheme for a Small Country House, 19. Sinn Féin, 7, 57, 58, 61, 62. Schocken Department Store, Stuttgart, 120. slum, 7, 33, 53, 59, 60, 31, 51, 52, 59, 60. School of Arts and Crafts, 20. smallpox, 52. Scotland, 49, 53. Smyth, Edward, (Sculptor), 81. Scotland Yard, London, 18. social housing, 7. Scott, Anthony, 14, 16, 18, 26, 29, 31, 39, 40, 56, 58, Somme, 104. 66, 77. Sorbonne, 127. Scott, Anthony (Drogheda Office), 17. South County Dublin, 23, 127. Scott family, 17. South Dublin, 7, 8, 45. Scott, Josephine, 40. South Dublin Union, 53, 58. Scott, Mary Ellen (May), 26. Spyker (Car), 42, 43, 51. Scott, May, 17. St. Enda’s School, 7. Scott, William, 18, 21, 37. St. Patrick’s Cottages, 26. sculpture, 81, 100. St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, 81. SDRDC (South Dublin Rural District Council), 23, St. Peter’s Basilica, 101. 24, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33, 37, 39, 40, 45, 61, 62, 65, St. James’s Hospital, 53. 98. State Architect, 8. searchlights, 110. State housing, 5. Second World War, 8, 118, 127. statue, 81, 75. Sempill, Lord, 118. Statue of Fidelity, 75.

■ ■ ■ ■ 141 Thomas Joseph Byrne Nation Builder

Statue of Hibernia, 75. Town Hall, Enniskillen, 16. Statue of Mercury, 75. Trinity College Campus, 67. steel, 49, 89, 93. Trevi Fountain, 40. Stockholm, 102. Triennial Gold Medal, RIAI, 118. street lighting, 27, 37. Trinity College, 27, 67, 110. Stuttgart, 120. Truce, the, 1921, 63, 80. suburbanisation, 60. trusses, 50. Sussex, 120. tuberculosis, 52. Sutton, 43. Turner, D. M., 77. Swan Lake, 13. typhoid, 52. Synge J. M., 7.

U T UCD, 120. Tallaght, 29, 45. UCD School of Architecture, 8, 99, 113. Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich, 13. Unionists, 7. Templehof Airport, Berlin, 118. United Kingdom, 14, 61. tenements, 7, 52. United States of America, 13, 49, 53, 110. Terenure, 29, 33, 57, 122. University College Cork, 102, 127. Terenure water supply (correspondence), 33. Urban District Council, Rathmines, 27. Thackeray, 125. The Army, 98, 122. V The Free State, 89, 109, 110. The Irish Times, 53, 104. Victoria Terrace, 57. The Labourers (Ireland) Acts 1883-1891, 29, 42. Voysey, Charles, 18, 50. The Local Government Board, 60, 61. The Netherlands, 51. The Terenure Drainage Scheme, 27, 28, 37. W Thiepval Memorial to the missing, 104. T. J. Byrne’s RIAI membership certificate, 43. War of Independence, 66, 67, 106. Town Hall, Cavan, 18. Ward, W.H.91, 95.

142 ■ ■ ■ ■ Index

watermill, 56. Webb, Philip, 18, 19. Westminster, 13, 61, 62. Whitechurch, 7, 29. Whitechurch Cottages, 36. Whitechurch Library, 5, 45, 48, 49, 50, 51, 127. Wicklow, 13. Wicklow granite, 44. window, 16, 92. Wodehouse, P.G., 126. workhouse, 53. Wynn’s Hotel, 100.

Y

Yeats, W.B., 7. Yewland Terrace, Terenure, 32, 33.

■ ■ ■ ■ 143 Authors’ biographical notes: Born in Dublin in 1933, John Byrne was educated at Belvedere College and Trinity College, Dublin. He graduated in Civil Engineering in 1956 and after a short period in Birmingham he studied Concrete Technology in Imperial College, London. He registered in TCD for a PhD in 1958 and it was here that he fi rst became acquainted with computers. When in 1962 the School of Engineering bought an IBM 1620 computer he began teaching Computer Science, starting with an MSc Course in Computer Applications. The Department of Computer Science was set up in 1969. He was appointed Professor of Computer Science in 1973, holding the post until his retirement in 2003. Michael Fewer enjoyed thirty years as a practising architect and academic and was a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland when he changed direction more than a decade ago to take up writing. Since his fi rst book was published in 1988 he has written on matters such as walking, travel, history, architecture and the environment, including in 2002 The New Neighbourhood of Dublin with the late Dr Maurice Craig and in 2008 Doorways of Ireland, and many articles on landscape, the environment and travels in Europe. His last book, Michael Fewer’s Ireland, was published in October 2011. Thomas Joseph Byrne Thomas Joseph Byrne FRIAI RIBA MICEI was an architect whose work, vision and quiet infl uence had far-reaching results in a broad range of aspects of Irish life in the fi rst half of the 20th century. During a busy career in South Dublin Rural District Council, the Local Government Board, the Local Government Department and the Offi ce of Public Works, his achievements included close involvement in the improvement of standards and design of local authority housing, the reconstruction of important buildings after the War of Independence and the Civil War and the ushering of Irish architecture into the age of aviation and radio communications.

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