Post Offices, Police Stations and Town Houses
Birr Post Office
The post offices erected in the early twentieth century were designed by the Office of Public Works and usually employed a combination of historic styles. Here in Birr the building has a large Dutch inspired gable decorated with Baroque scrolls.
Image courtesy of Kevin MulliganBirr Post Office
Image courtesy of Kevin Mulligan
Image courtesy of Kevin Mulligan
Birr Post Office
The post offices erected in the early twentieth century were designed by the Office of Public Works and usually employed a combination of historic styles. Here in Birr the building has a large Dutch inspired gable decorated with Baroque scrolls.
Image courtesy of Kevin MulliganPost Offices
The national programme to improve urban postal facilities in the first two decades of the twentieth century provided many towns with new post offices. These were unashamedly Classical buildings designed by the Board of Works, usually combining red brick with carved stone features in a style derived from the expressive classicism known as baroque, which was revived in the Edwardian period (1901-10). The same architectural style was used for the many public libraries erected under the patronage of the philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie.
Bennettsbridge
This unusual castellated building in Bennettsbridge, County Kilkenny was erected as a constabulary barracks in the nineteenth century and refurbished as a Garda station in 1927.
Image courtesy of Kevin MulliganBennettsbridge
Image courtesy of Kevin Mulligan
Image courtesy of Kevin Mulligan
Bennettsbridge
This unusual castellated building in Bennettsbridge, County Kilkenny was erected as a constabulary barracks in the nineteenth century and refurbished as a Garda station in 1927.
Image courtesy of Kevin MulliganPolice Stations
The consequences of the War of Independence (1919-1921) demanded the reorganisation of the police system, and over the following decades many new stations were built to the same standard plan. The designs reflect a desire to blend the buildings easily into the existing urban environment using conventional forms and materials, represented by the natural slate roofs and timber sash windows, while an implicit authority is invested in the recessed arches surrounding the ground-floor windows.
Birr Townhouse
Large townhouses like this one in Birr, Co. Offaly grace many provincial towns.
Image courtesy of Dr. Michael O'NeillBirr Townhouse
Image courtesy of Dr. Michael O'Neill
Image courtesy of Dr. Michael O'Neill
Birr Townhouse
Large townhouses like this one in Birr, Co. Offaly grace many provincial towns.
Image courtesy of Dr. Michael O'NeillTown Houses
Large market and estate towns developed trim residential terraces, usually plainly rendered town houses, perhaps symmetrical with a round-headed doorcase and a leaded fanlight. By having the ground floors raised above street level and accessed by a flight of stone steps, the houses were invested with a certain dignity and grandeur, no doubt to reflect the social and professional standing of the occupants. Birr preserves a particularly high concentration of these houses, which are amongst the best to be seen anywhere.
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