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 Mulligan

Birr Post Office
Image courtesy of Kevin Mulligan

Birr Post Office

Image courtesy of Kevin Mulligan

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Post 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 Mulligan

Bennettsbridge
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 Mulligan

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Police 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'Neill

Birr Townhouse
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'Neill

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Town 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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