First opened for service on Christmas day 1814, the 200-year-old Chapel Royal is taking its place in 21st-century Dublin, writes Judith Hill
The Chapel Royal is one of several exquisite chapels that survive from late 18th- and early 19th-century Dublin, but compared to those that serve the Rotunda Hospital and Trinity College, the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle is less well-known, less well-understood, and less well-loved. Confusion about its status – is it really a chapel royal? – and bafflement about the baroque and in places Catholic character of the sculpture decorating a Protestant institution have exercised many commentators. Like every Gothic revival building erected before the architect, AWN Pugin set standards of accuracy for the reproduction of medieval models in terms of materials and design, the Chapel Royal has been criticized by architectural historians for failing to achieve these standards; it has a stuccoed interior painted to resemble stone, while Perpendicular and Decorated styles intermingle inside and out.
As Europe confronts its current refugee crisis, Kathryn Milligan looks back to 1916 when a Belgian artist was one of the 2,300 Belgian refugees who sought shelter in Ireland.
Peter Murray reflects on the cool Nordic aesthetic of Patricia Burns whose work is on view in January at the Taylor Galleries, Dublin.
Recent excavations at Rathfarnham Castle have brought the former inhabitants into focus, prompting Simon Loftus to recall some vivid episodes from the family’s history.