As president of the Architects Association of Ireland in 1948, Desmond FitzGerald suggested: “It is possible that if public interest in architecture is lacking, it will be produced in such a rarefied atmosphere that it will gasp for breath amid subtleties of interest only to architects themselves. If this should happen, illusion and vulgarity will readily fill the place – illusion to meet the nostalgia of some and vulgarity the aspirations of others.”

FitzGerald’s assertions underlined some of the challenges facing those designing buildings during the infant decades of this state: how to find the right balance between innovation, respect for heritage and the demands of urban expansion, and also to prioritise local needs while allowing international influence to breathe.

The challenges became even more acute with population and economic expansion and the disdain shown towards Ireland’s Georgian heritage. The historian Kevin B Nowlan, central to the campaigns to preserve Dublin’s heritage from the 1960s by establishing with others the Dublin Civic Group, recalled his growing alarm that “Dublin was being destroyed in the cause of a debased nationalism that saw its Georgian houses as the relics of British rule in Ireland”.

Deirdre Kelly, founder of the Living City Group in 1970, became a vigorous opponent of Dublin community........

© The Irish Times