Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland, Known and Unknown

   Since 2012 Robert O’Byrne has produced theirishaesthete. com, an award-winning site exploring the country’s extensive architectural heritage through words and pictures, In 2024 Lilliput Press published a collection of his texts and photographs: The Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland, Lost and Found, which quickly sold out. Now Robert has devised a second book, The Irish Aesthete:Buildings of Ireland, Known and Unknown which, like its predecessor, introduces readers to an extraordinary range of buildings, in this instance all under the care of the Office of Public Works. Some, such as Castletown, County Kildare and Garinish Island, off the coast of West Cork, will be familiar. But many others are likely to be unfamiliar, like towering Pallas Castle, County Galway and the richly decorated early Christian church at Killeshin, County Laois. There are country houses, monastic ruins, historic gardens, Norman castles and round towers. Despite their diversity, they have two characteristics in common: they are all OPW managed properties and all accessible to the public. Covering some 150 sites, each photographed by Robert O’Byrne, The Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland, Known and Unknown will serve as the ideal gazetteer for anyone travelling around the country, acting as a guide to discover and enjoy our rich architectural heritage. 

A former Vice-President of the Irish Georgian Society, Robert O’Byrne is today one of Ireland’s best-known writers and lecturers specializing in the country’s historic houses and gardens. He is the author of more than a dozen books, among them Hugh Lane: A Biography, Luggala: The Story of a Guinness House, Digging New Ground: The Irish Country House Garden 1650–1900, Left Without a Handkerchief and Romantic Irish Homes. For many years he has been a contributor to Apollo Magazine, The Burlington Magazine and the Irish Arts Review. During 2021/22 Robert curated a number of events, including exhibitions, lectures and a conference, all on the theme of Ireland’s country house gardens for the Irish Georgian Society. In autumn 2021, his series on the same subject, Ireland’s Historic Gardens, was shown on RTÉ 1 television.