William Laffan discusses the architectural ambitions of Waterford’s Bishop Este and his successor Richard Chevenix whose imposing 18th-century residence is now restored to its original splendour.
Alongside the ‘dotards, dullards, boors, sots and gourmands’ on the Church of Ireland’s bench of bishops in the 18th century, sat notable philosophers (Berkeley), administrators (King), statesmen (Agar) – and builders. Indeed, the collective importance of Episcopal patronage on Irish Georgian architecture – and non-ecclesiastical architecture at that – cannot be overstated. If the appointment of English clerics to high office in the Irish Church (a practice famously attacked by Swift) had other, less felicitous, consequences, at least – thanks to their education, as often as not at Oxford, and travel overseas – ‘bishops and the wealthier clergy exerted a disproportionate influence over the reception of classical architecture into Ireland’.
Stephanie McBride talks to Mike Bunn about the craft of old school photography and his plans to establish an academy for photographers
Losing faith in the early success of her work led Miseon Lee on a journey of self-discovery, both in artistic terms and geographically, writes James Hanley