THE IRISH TIMES | The Women Shaping Irish Culture
The Irish Times have published a list of ‘70 Women Shaping Irish Culture’, by Gemma Tipton
“Women are a powerful presence in Irish architecture today, thanks to the brilliance of the likes of Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell of the multi-award-winning Grafton Architects, McCullough Mulvin’s Valerie Mulvin, O’Donnell & Tuomey’s Sheila O’Donnell, and Róisín Heneghan of Heneghan Peng. A new generation, including Rae Moore, Alice Clancy and Jennifer O’Donnell, are broadening the definition of architectural practice.
Going further back, Wexford-born Eileen Gray (1878-1976) was a pioneer of modernism despite having no formal training. Gray’s E-1027 pavilion of a house in the south of France is considered a masterpiece, and has become a place of pilgrimage for lovers of smooth straight lines and lots of concrete. But do not think Gray was a champion of the more soulless “machine for living” brand of modernism. “Modern designers have exaggerated the technological side,” she wrote in 1929, just as the house was being completed. “Intimacy is gone, atmosphere is gone,” she continued. “Formulas are nothing. Life is everything. And life is mind and heart at the same time.”