Editing Architecture of Ireland (section)

==The Restoration and after==
{{Life in Ireland}}
[[File:RHKilmainhan.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Royal Hospital Kilmainham]], designed by [[William Robinson (architect)|Sir William Robinson]] and completed in 1684]] 
In the decades after the [[Stuart Restoration]], [[English Baroque architecture|English Baroque]] architectural styles, including [[Queen Anne style architecture]], were popular in Ireland. This was epitomised by the buildings designed by [[William Robinson (architect)|Sir William Robinson]] between the 1670s and early 1700s, most notably the [[Royal Hospital Kilmainham]] and [[Marsh's Library]]. Also notable was [[Thomas de Burgh|Thomas Burgh]] (1670–1730), the architect of [[Trinity College Library, Dublin|Trinity College Library]] (1712), [[Dr Steevens' Hospital]] (1719) and the [[Collins Barracks (Dublin)|Royal Barracks]] (1702). 

In the early 18th century classical [[Andrea Palladio|Palladian architecture]] swept through Ireland, the driving force behind this new fashion was the Irish architect [[Edward Lovett Pearce]]. Pearce, born in [[County Meath]] in 1699, had studied architecture in Italy, before returning in 1725 to Ireland to oversee, and later, almost, co-design Ireland's first Palladian mansion [[Castletown House]].

Castletown house was a milestone in Irish architecture, designed originally by the Italian Alessandro Galilei, circa 1717, in the manner of an Italian town palazzo, for Ireland's most influential man, the politician Speaker [[William Conolly]], it set a new standard and fashion in Irish architecture. The original architect had returned to Italy before the first stone was laid, subsequently the Irish Pearce was responsible not only for the construction, but modification and improvement to the original plan. From the mid-1720s onwards almost every sizeable building, in Ireland, was cast in the Palladian mould.

[[File:Russborough House, Ireland 1826.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Russborough House]], designed by the German [[Richard Cassels]] circa 1750]] 
Through Castletown and his later work, including the [[Irish Houses of Parliament]], Pearce had firmly established many of the Italian architectural concepts in Ireland. Following Pearce's death in 1733, his protégé [[Richard Cassels]] (also known as Richard Castle) was to design many of Ireland's finest buildings in a similar, if not more robust, form of Palladian. Many fine [[English country houses|country houses]] were built in the Palladian style around the country by the rich Ascendancy in Ireland. Some, such as [[Leinster House]], designed by Sir William Chamber <ref>{{cite web |title=Leinster House |url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/ |website=Oireachtas |publisher=Houses of the Oireachtas |access-date=22 November 2024}}</ref>and [[Russborough House]] (''illustrated above''), were among the finest examples of [[Palladian architecture]]. Palladianism in Ireland often differed from that elsewhere in Europe because of the ornate [[rococo]] interiors, often with [[stucco]] by Robert West and the [[Lafranchini brothers]]. Although many of these mansions, such as Pearce and Cassels' joint design Summerhill House, were destroyed in the numerous Irish rebellions, many examples of this unique marrying of the rococo and Palladian still remain today as unique examples of Irish Palladianism.

Elsewhere in Dublin, [[George Semple]] built [[St Patrick's University Hospital|St Patrick's Hospital]] (1747) and [[Thomas Cooley (architect)|Thomas Cooley]] the [[City Hall, Dublin|Royal Exchange]] (1769; now City Hall).