Throughout the nineteenth century, the developing professionalisation of architecture, history, and archaeology, together with the popularity of antiquarianism and the passing of legislation protecting and preserving ancient monuments, resulted in an increased focus on architectural ruins and remains across the Irish landscape.
This essay examines the production of knowledge about architectural history in Ireland throughout the nineteenth century. In doing so, it considers the formative influence of ideals of civility and barbarism that were central to discourses on Irish culture throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and that had facilitated and underpinned colonial expansion. The essay also traces the development of the discipline of architectural history more broadly, and the enduring relationships between imperial expansion, cultural power, and structures of canonicity. The production of knowledge on Irish architectural history throughout the nineteenth century, and the subsequent development of a 'regional' canon focused on the identification of a uniquely Irish architectural identity, are therefore situated in these ideological contexts.