Sir - Kevin Myers (An Irishman's Diary, May 14th) rightly applauds the work carried out by the OPW on the facade of the National Museum of Ireland on Kildare Street, where the rotted honey-coloured Mount Charles sandstone from County Donegal is being restored and replaced where necessary with similarly coloured reconstituted stone. It is unfortunate that when similar work was carried out on the National Library some 30 years ago, a pale grey limestone from County Meath was used which imparted a rather sombre look to the building.
He suggests, perhaps correctly, that this and other Victorian buildings are not generally appreciated as much as are the major buildings dating from Georgian times such as the GPO, the west front of Trinity College, and the Bank of Ireland on College Green. However, he also asserts that the Victorian edifices in Dublin reflect "the cultural values of British identity", and "have no claims to national correctness".
Much of Dublin's Victorian building stock which survives, most notably in the form of ecclesiastical, educational and commercial buildings, was designed by Irish-born architects including Benjamin Woodward, the three Thomas Deanes, and J.J. McCarthy, although the work of English-born architects, including Philip Hardwick and J.H. Pollen, is also represented. Many Irish architects at the time were influenced by prevalent and varied stylistic developments originating in Britain, including Gothic, Neo-gothic, Greek revival, Scots baronial, Byzantine, and Lombardo Romanesque. Classical designs were not neglected. Woodward and T.N. Deane, in particular, utilised Venetian and Veronese designs which can be seen in the Museum Building in Trinity College Dublin, and in the commercial buildings at the Palace-Dame Street, and College-Westmoreland Street junctions. How these can be interpreted as having a "British identity" I do not know.
In 1852 and 1853 National Exhibitions were held in Cork and Dublin and were partially underwritten by the Cork architect Sir Thomas Deane (father of T.N. Deane the architect of the National Museum building). At these exhibitions various Irish decorative stones were displayed, and these events, together with the installation of forty panels of Irish stone in the foyer of the Museum of Economic Geology (1843) at 51 St Stephen's Green, did much to promote the use of native stone.
While it cannot be denied that Irish architects on occasion used British stone, such as russet and liver-coloured sandstones from Scotland and Cheshire, and yellow sandstone from Lincolnshire, many in preference used, and thus actively promoted, Irish decorative marbles, grey limestone, yellow sandstone, and Leinster granite from County Wicklow. In 1836, some 56,000 tonnes of Cork Red Marble was extracted from the quarry at Little Island near Cork city alone. Fine examples of decorative marbles from Armagh, Connemara, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, and Offaly can still be seen in the Museum Building in Trinity College and in the Rotunda of the National Museum of Ireland. Use of these materials, in my opinion, imparts to these buildings an Irish identity, and in no way can they be described as lacking "national correctness". These and other building materials, are fully described in my book The Building Stones of Dublin: a walking guide (1993). - Yours, etc., Patrick Wyse Jackson,
Department of Geology, Museum Building, Trinity College, Dublin 2.