2001, Yale University Press,                                                                                                   252 pages

Photographs by David Davison

This innovative book examines the public architecture of Ireland from 1680-1760, a crucial period during which the country undertook the combined tasks of recovering from war and constructing a new and stable society. New buildings, and new types of buildings, were needed to express and sustain this society. Architectural historian Edward McParland explores the role of public architecture in this enterprise, focusing on public buildings as works of architecture and art, while also discussing the political, social, and economic contexts in which they were built. More than one hundred specially commissioned photographs by David Davison beautifully document this cultural process.

Edward McParland is lecturer in the department of the history of art and fellow of Trinity College Dublin. David Davison is an architectural and commercial photographer working in Dublin.