Beautiful

I think Enniscorthy, with its magnificent cathedral and hillside location, beats New Ross hands down when it comes to the towns of Wexford. Of course, Wexford Town itself is also nice in its own way.

Hear hear for Enniscorthy! The view across the river flood plain on entering from the Dublin side, the view over the bridge through the Minch Norton buildings (sadly being mucked about for shops, yes, more shops), the qualities of its hillside location…
But Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny gets my no.1 vote. And Castlecomer comes near the top too. Then, like Kefu, I think Abbeyleix really has something special. And the formal arrangement of Fermoy deserves a mention.
And I nearly forgot Whitestown, Co. Louth, near Carlingford (itself a gem), though Whitestown is a one-off (AFAIK)- a dispersed cluster village of dwellings and farm/outbuildings.
And Lismore, with its shopfronts, bridge, castle, churches, and the fantastic Riding House.
And Villierstown, Co. Waterford…
I can’t really play favourites with these towns; each has its own character, which makes comparison difficult. Maybe in 20 years (or sooner?), when all Irish towns consist of a Spar, a Centra, a Lidl, a Starbucks, an internet cafe, a pub in a converted church, blanket suburban-style semi-ds and inappropriately located apartment blocks will comparisons be possible or worthwhile. For now, local distinctiveness and difference are what make places into, well, places. Treasure them.

There are regional variations in our vernacular architecture: ie, thatched cottages etc.

Regional variations exist not just in vernacular architecture, unless you define ‘vernacular’ very broadly. Kilkenny City has an unusual feature where the doors of two adjacent Georgian buildings are united under one fanlight (making for interesting solutions to the problem of internal partitioning). Many buildings in County Laois display a feature where the front door is recessed in a shallow ‘scalloped’ arch. Buildings in coastal towns such as Kinsale often have slate hanging on their (usually seaward) walls. Cork Georgian is markedly different from Dublin Georgian (and Limerick Georgian etc etc).
I must however disagree with you, Boyler, when you say that “All the old buildings in Ireland were designed on foreign architecture like French Gothic for churches and Italian Classical for the Customs House, Four Courts etc.”. This is far too simplistic a reduction. It might be true to say that there was no native style for large public buildings, but neither was Italian classical or French classical a native style, borrowed as it was from ‘the antients’. Each generation has taken a template and put a native spin on it, which has been used by many writers as an argument for the enduring validity of the classical model. If I must cite examples, then the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, the church on Pope’s Quay in Cork and the two Georgian churches (both Cathedrals?) in Waterford City spring readily to mind to refute your assertion re French Gothic. And the eighteenth century ‘barn’ church is one of Ireland’s most distinctive building types- a mix of large scale public with vernacular.

I think that Longford embodies what an Irish town should be, admittedly its not the most traditionally beautiful town but its cathedral is beautiful and the newly refurbished town hall is well done

The Couthouse in Longford is set for restoration it is potentially an absolute gem

Isn’t there a story about the courthouse in Longford where the pub next door has toilets in its basement…. I have a a vague memory of some story like that….

As that colour does to your text 🙂