Re: Re: Fast-Track Infrastructure legislation

Perhaps its because of the influence of the diaspora that our contemporary vernacular architecture is a mish-mash of some pseudo Americanesque styles (the big eagles and large surrounding gardens, the two garages etc). In that context, these houses reflect the cultural influences that have seeped into irish culture since the famine and emigration and are therefore valid as an element of the broader Irish cultural experience. To that end, they represent irish culture as it now stands – its ambitions and influences, its bold self-confidence, perhaps its conflict with its own process of self-identification. These buildings are an archictural embodiment of a culture shaping itself anew – facing the 21st century as a confident and bold nation, able to encapsulate some historic self-ironies into the fabric of its buildings. Truly wonderful. Have we have stepped beyond the Pale and the limitations of a peasant pyschology? I do hope so. More the reason we should celebrate these buildings.