Irish Arts Review

Mausolea Hibernica by Maurice Craig; Michael CraigReview by: James HowleyIrish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 26, No. 4 (Winter, 2009/2010), p. 136Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40421398 .

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REVI EWS

BOOKS

MAUSOLEA HIBERNICA MAURICE CRAIG & MICHAEL CRAIG

Associated Editions, Dublin, 2009 PP 1 12 ill 33 b/w &1 6 vignettes h/b €50.00 ISBN 978-1-906429-05 & p/b €25.00 ISBN 978-1 -906429-03-4

James Howley

reprinting of Maurice and Michael Craig's Mausolea Hibernica, first published ten years ago, is long

overdue. It is, however, all the more wel- come for the long and frustrating wait

many have endured since it became unavailable, so soon after first appearing in the bookshops. Publication of this

redesigned edition is timed to coincide with Maurice's ninetieth birthday, an occa- sion that everyone on this island who treas- ures historic buildings, or great writing, or both, will wish to celebrate. Spanning a

period of more than sixty years, Maurice's

bibliography is as impressive as it is varied. From poetry, to book bindings, to historical

described as the literary equivalent of a Schubert Lied. A perfect duet of two con-

trasting media, each distinct and complete in its own right, while at the same time

enhancing the qualities of the other, in a

symbiotic whole much greater than the sum of its very significant parts. The clarity and authority of the prose is fully reflected in the intricate beauty of the full plate illustrations of the buildings; while the author's subtle wit is also echoed in several of the plates and vignettes. I particularly

NOT TO BE OUTSHONE BY HIS ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER, MICHAEL CRAIG SHARES AN EQUALLY ELEVATED POSITION AMONGST HIS PEERS AS ONE OF IRELAND'S MOST ACCOMPLISHED ILLUSTRATORS

biography, to travel guides, to probably the best book yet written on the city of Dublin, and that is even before you look at all the books on architectural history, each one is

recognised as a classic. Not to be outshone by his illustrious

father, Michael Craig shares an equally ele- vated position amongst his peers as one of Ireland's most accomplished illustrators, with a wide range of published works

including books, stamps, letterheads, bookplates, together with his many topo- graphic and architectural drawings. Father and son have collaborated before, most

notably in Maurice's Architecture of Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1880, where Michael pro- vided a number of the architectural illus- trations. In Mausoleo Hibernica, however, we have much more than an artist adding visual richness to the written word. This collaboration offers what can best be

enjoyed the flock of helicopters hovering above the Belfast skyline, while sinister shadows close in around the Greg Mausoleum in Knockbreda Churchyard.

The book contains a long introductory essay on the general theme of mausolea and graveyards in Ireland, followed by thirty-three selected buildings arranged by province. Each structure has a full

plate illustration with a short block of text on the adjoining page in which their context, history and the briefest of

descriptions are set out in succinct, per- fectly honed prose. In these short accounts you can see a lifetime of crafts-

manship in writing, which conveys so much with such economy of words. Little more than long captions, they sit back

modestly in deference to the more com-

plete descriptions and sublime settings brought to life in the drawings. Inistioge,

136 IRISH ARTS REVIEW I WINTER 2009

Carbury, Killadysert and Dartry, together with the nocturnal views of Ballymore, Oughaval and Drumcar and the snow- bound Arless are particularly rich in

atmosphere. All are drawn in astonishing detail, some with expansive landscapes reaching away to a distant horizon as at Fore; some with a closer focus on archi- tectural detail as in the celebrated Neoclassical designs by Adam at

Templepatrick and Gandon at

Coolbanagher. Within the tranquil soli- tude of the various graveyard settings dwells a rich scattering of peacocks, owls, buzzards, rooks and other assorted bird life, not to forget the aforementioned hel-

icopters and a jet airline taking off at St

Margarets, located close to Dublin

Airport. Like Maurice's adjoining prose, the plates are small in size but rich in content.

The new imprint appears both in

paperback and hardback and is slightly larger in size than the first edition. This is no bad thing for a book with such finely drawn illustrations. The new cover is rather too cluttered visually for my taste, with six of the plates competing for attention in too confined a space. However, we should not judge a book by its cover - particularly not a little master-

piece like Mausoka Hibernica. ■ James Howley is an architect and an author.

KNOCKBREDA: ITS MONUMENTS & PEOPLE LYDIA WILSON (ED) The Follies Trust, Belfast, 2009 PP 56 full col ills, p/b £5.00 p+p No ISBN James Howley

Follies Trust is the latest of

many distinguished heritage organisations in Ireland that have

attracted the indefatigable energies of Primrose Wilson. Having conceived and established the Trust in July 2006, she set out to prove that it would be no mere talk-

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