Judith Hill, "Gothic: Building Castles in Post-Union Ireland" (Four Courts Press, 2026)

About this episode

Dr. Judith Hill discusses her book on the architectural significance of castles built in post-Union Ireland.

Castles speak. Especially in an age when they are no longer necessary. The Act of Union of 1800, which brought Ireland into closer association with Britain, challenged the status of Irish landed proprietors, and not a few responded by building castles. In Gothic: Building Castles in Post-Union Ireland (Four Courts Press, 2026) Dr. Judith Hill explores the projects of two Irish proprietors: the Burys, later Lord and Lady Charleville, who commissioned Francis Johnston, then Ireland’s most important architect, to design Charleville Castle; and Lawrence Parsons, later 2nd Earl of Rosse, who reimagined seventeenth-century Parsonstown House as early nineteenth-century Birr Castle. Architecturally the castles belong to Georgian Gothic, a style that in Britain is overshadowed by later nineteenth-century Gothic and is largely overlooked in Ireland. In this fascinating new book, Dr. Hill investigates Georgian Gothic in its own terms as both a British and Irish phenomenon, demonstrating how antiquarian understanding, associative thinking, awareness of family pedigree and historicised design ideas resulted in a uniquely Irish response to the Gothic revival. Using the ample surviving archives…

People in this episode

Host: Miranda Melcher

Guest: Judith Hill

Topics covered

• Gothic architecture
• Irish history
• Georgian Gothic
• cultural unionism
• post-Union Ireland
• castle architecture

Keywords

• castles
• Irish architecture
• Gothic revival
• historical design
• political concerns
• cultural artifacts

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Four Courts Press, Francis Johnston

Books & works: Gothic: Building Castles in Post-Union Ireland, Charleville Castle, Birr Castle

Places: Ireland, Britain

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