Richard Brash

[Praxiteles]

Starting this thread on the Cork architect and antiquarian Richard Brash (???? - 1876) to collect material on him.

So far, the following works can be identified as his:

1. The Protestant Assembly Hall on the South Mall in Cork

2. The Town Hall in Bandon, Co. Cork

3. The monument to the Cork antiquarian John Windele in St. Joseph's Cemetery, Cork

4. The interior of St. Mary's Church, Buttevant, Co. Cork

5. The Sacristy of St. Mary's Church, Buttevant, Co. Cork

If anyone can add anything else. please feel free!

[Praxiteles]

Here is the Windele monument

BTW does anyone know if it is still in St. Joseph's or, perchance, has it fallen victim to a liturgical requirement?

[Praxiteles]

The Protestant Assembly Hall, South Mall, Cork


"Assembly Rooms / Protestant Hall
A religious controversy in 1858 in Cork led to the building of the Protestant Hall, later called the Assembly Rooms. The Committee of the Athenaeum, now the Opera House, refused permission for an ex-priest called Gavazzi to lecture there. The Committee disliked the anti-Catholic tone of Gavazzi's sermons. Many Protestants in the city were outraged at the refusal. Those attending a public meeting held in the Primitive Wesleyan Church on 17 December 1858 decided to build the Protestant Hall for the use of all citizens of Cork. The Earl of Bandon laid the foundation stone in 1860 and opened the hall on 12 April 1861. The entrance to the hall was not completed until 1869. Richard Rolt Brash designed the building. Brash was a distinguished antiquarian as well as an architect. He published articles in many learned journals. His major work is The ogam inscribed monuments of the Gaedhil in the British islands which was published in 1879 after his death. He died at his house in Sunday's Well on 18 Jan 1876 and is buried in St Finbarr's Cemetery. Many events were held in the hall over the years including operas and a boxing match involving the well-known Cork fighter Pakie Mahony. The Assembly Rooms was the first place in Cork where moving pictures were shown in 1896. It was a cinema from the early 1900s until 1964 and had the reputation of being a flea-pit. The best-known member of the staff at the cinema was the usher George O'Sullivan. Members of the audience would shout 'Georgie, remove the body' whenever anyone died on screen. The Capuchin order bought the hall after it closed as a cinema. The interior of the hall was gutted in 1970. The exterior survives unchanged except for the name over the entrance. Boys from the St Francis Training Centre for young people with problems, run by the Capuchins, opened a coffee shop there in 1989. Later it became a restaurant called The Assembs. Threshold, the National Housing Agency, took over the premises in 2005. (Image from: Irish Builder, Vol.11, 15 December 1869, p.289)

Cork City Libraries"

[Praxiteles]

St. Mary's Church, Buttevant, Co. Cork

The sacristy is the building on the left side of the picture and was built in 1855.

The large west window seen here had its tracery bars designed by Brash in 1855/1856. The window tracery is based on that of the west window of Winchester cathedral. While Winchester's west window works on a system of 3 bays of 3 lancets, the Buttevant tracery system is developed on the bases of a 3 bays of 2 lancets.

[Praxiteles]

St. Mary's Church, Buttevant, Co. Cork

The West window with tracery of 1855/56 with its prototype of c.1350 at Winchester Cathedral.

[Praxiteles]

Two important studies published by Richard Brash:

1. The Ecclesiatical Architecture of Ireland to the Close of the Twelfth Century Accompanied By Interesting Historical and Antiquarian Notices of Numerous Ancient Remains of That Period published in 1857.

2. The Ogam Inscribed Monuments of the Gaedhil in the British islands ; with a dissertation on the ogham character, &c. Edited by George M. Atkinson postumously in 1879.

[Praxiteles]

Here is the Windele monument

BTW does anyone know if it is still in St. Joseph's or, perchance, has it fallen victim to a liturgical requirement?

For a contemporary account of the erection of the Windele monument see the Cork Examiner 4 April 1867.

[PTB]

For a contemporary account of the erection of the Windele monument see the Cork Examiner 4 April 1867.

Hmmm.. I think I only have papers going back to 1895. I might try that old woman up the road who has kept all the papers she has bought since 1953. She actually cant bear to throw them all away. She also keeps all her burnt matches in a drawer. She scared me when I was young

[Praxiteles]

Richard Brash was an early member of the Cuvierian Society, the forerunner of the Cork Arcccheological and istorical Society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuvierian_Society


The regulations of the Society are preserved in the Crofton-Croker Correspondence which is kept in the Cork CIty Library.

A record of the transactions of the Society are to be found in Manuscript 227 of the Boole Library at UCC.

[Praxiteles]

Proceedings of the Cuiverian Society:

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/asset?id=7117

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/asset?id=7109

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/asset?id=7118

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/asset?id=7135

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/asset?id=7154

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/asset?id=7777

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/asset?id=7107

[Praxiteles]

On Richard Brash from the data base of the Irish Architectural Archive:

http://www.dia.ie/architects/view/648#feedback