Plans to restore eccentric designer's Limerick castle

After years of relative obscurity, light is falling once more on the Victorian designer and architect E W Godwin and, in separate developments, on the striking medieval-gothic castle he created on the Shannon estuary. Godwin (1833-1886), a friend and designer of choice of Oscar Wilde and James Whistler, was a leading design reformer of the 19th century.

Described by a contemporary as a "brilliant if somewhat eccentric figure," Godwin began his multi-faceted career as an architect and moved on to avant-garde furniture design and decoration before he finally focused on Victorian theatre, assuming the roles of costume designer, designer-manager and citic.

Now his works will be reappraised and celebrated later this month at an exhibition in New York curated by Susan Weber Soros, who is also the editor of a wide-ranging book on the designer due to be published this month by Yale University Press.

Tom Kelly and his wife Emer, owners of one of Godwin's most striking architectural creations, Dromore Castle near, Kildimo, in Co Limerick, will be guests at the November 18th opening of the exhibition at the Bard Centre for Graduate Studies in the Decorative Arts. Ms Soros, wife of the financier George Soros, is a founder and director of the centre in Manhattan.

Kelly joins the Godwin revivalists just as he is about to apply for planning permission for the first stage in a plan to restore Dromore, which has been rapidly falling into ruin since former owners removed its roofs and floors in the 1950s for tax purposes.

A businessman with forestry and other interests, Mr Kelly has enlisted Paul Walshe, a leading British conservation architect, to draw up the restoration plans for the castle and 150-acre adjoining estate, which Mr Kelly hopes to turn into an international education campus and mediation centre. Mr Walshe is the National Heritage Advisor to the Countryside Agency in the UK and an executive member of the World Heritage Sites Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).

"Dromore is one of the great buildings of Ireland. It would be such a loss to Irish heritage if it were to continue to fall into ruin," said Mr Walshe.

Initial planning permission will be sought from Limerick County Council for a stables-style courtyard apartment complex, which would be an integral part of the hoped-for overall restoration, said Mr Walshe. Mr Kelly, who purchased the ruined Dromore in the early 1970s and who lives on the estate, said that his family will be the investor in initial restoration work. He is actively seeking international and Irish support for the scheme, expected to cost in the order of $12-$15 million.

Dromore is one of the mid-west's most striking castles and its decline has been a source of regret in the region. Situated on the rocky top of a steep hill overlooking a lake, the castle's towering, quirky outline is one of the main visual features along the Shannon estuary. Up close, its highly unusual features - incorporating elements of old Irish architecture such as a round tower, Celtic crosses, a Norman keep and a church - combine in an exuberant fashion that for many people is reminiscent of the "fairy palaces" of the Rhine, which Dromore actually pre-dates.

Godwin's designs for the interior of the castle, built in 1867 for the 3rd Earl of Limerick, were reportedly just as striking, though comfort was apparently never a feature inside the lofty walls which were quickly streaming with damp, like another Godwin creation in Ireland, Glenbeigh Towers in Co Kerry.

Godwin's earliest identifiable work is the small Catholic church at St Johnston, Donegal, described by architectural writer Aileen Reid as "a small, rather severe building that gives little indication of the richness and quality of his later designs." Dromore, according to Ms Reid, lies between two extremes of Godwinian style, as exemplifed by the "doctrinaire Ruskinian Northampton Town Hall and the startlingly avant-garde first design for Frank Miles" house.

As well as designing and supervising the construction of Dromore, Godwin also designed the castle's furniture and stained-glass windows and selected the themes of the paintings embellishing its rooms.

Murals depicting the four seasons, the 12 months, and day and night featured on the walls of the first floor, whose stained-glass windows were illustrated around the theme of the "six days of the creation". On the walls of the great diningroom, guests may have found the murals little encouragement to over-indulgence; diners were surrounded by figures depicting the eight virtues of temperance, truth, humility, patience, chastity, charity, liberality and industry.

The castle's contents, which included some of Godwin's finest pieces, have long disappeared to auction houses and private collections in England and Ireland. Many of these works will feature in the comprehensive profile of Godwin's work at the upcoming exhibition in New York and in Susan Soros Weber's illustrated book, E W Godwin, Aesthetic Movement Architect and Designer. This book will cost $60 from Yale University Press.

Separate chapters of the book will examine the antiquarian and Japanese sources of Godwin's styles; his architectural achievements from early church restorations to the design of avant-garde house/studios and his contributions to design reform through writings as an architectural journalist.

The exhibition at the Bard Center at 18 West 86th St, New York City, runs from November 18th to February 27th, 2000.

For information, email generalinfo@bgc.bard.edu or telephone 001 212 501 3000.