Born: September 16th, 1960
Died: August 11, 2026
Christine Casey, one of Ireland’s leading authorities on Irish and European early modern architecture, historical craftsmanship and the decorative arts, has died aged 65, following an illness.
Professor of architectural history at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) at the time of her death, Casey was an internationally renowned scholar, award-winning author of books on architectural heritage and inspirational teacher and mentor to a generation of architectural historians.
Her comprehensive book on Dublin’s churches, public buildings and streets for the Buildings of Ireland series (Yale University Press, 2005) remains one of the most authoritative books on the city’s architecture. She also co-authored an earlier book in the Buildings of Ireland series on North Leinster with Alistair Rowan in 1993.
Her more recent books on architectural decoration have enhanced the knowledge and understanding of the role of traditional building skills and materials in architectural expression and production.
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These include Decorative Plasterwork in Ireland and Europe, edited with Dr Conor Lucey (2012), Making Magnificence: Architects, Stuccatori and the 18th Century Interior (2017) and Enriching Architecture: Craft and its Conservation in Anglo-Irish Building Production 1660-1760 (2023) edited with Dr Melanie Hayes.
In December 2025, her book Architecture and Artifice: The Crafted Surface in Eighteenth-Century Building Practice was published by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. A year of research as the Parnell Fellow in the Magdalene College in Cambridge University from 2021-2022 informed this book. Casey won Research Ireland’s Researcher of the Year award for 2024.
In a tribute to their late colleague, the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Trinity College Dublin said that rather than treat architecture as a paper exercise dominated by individual geniuses, Casey “focused on the communities, crafts and materials that made our lived environment”.
“She envisaged architecture as a social endeavour expressing the respect for materials and the human skills that went into its creation,” added Hayes, senior research fellow in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at TCD.
Any conference led by Christine was a hot ticket, a gift from the architectural gods, guaranteed to provoke, challenge and delight
— Graham Hickey
Lucey, a former PhD student of Casey’s and now associate professor in architectural history at UCD said: “She had beautiful prose and wrote with a well argued, lucid, readable and literary voice.”
With funding from the European Research Council, the research project she led, Stone-Work explored the journey of stone from quarries to columns and chimney pieces, and the skills, techniques and supports inherent in the process. An earlier research project, Craftvalue focused on the contribution of craft to 18th century classical architecture.
Graham Hickey of the Dublin Civic Trust noted that Casey’s recent work on the relationship of architecture to decoration highlighted the vital role of craftspeople, builders and material suppliers and “upended views about the top-down building production by architects and clients”.
“Christine was an authority on stucco and stuccatori, tracing the long line from Ireland’s decorative plasterwork of the 18th century to the slopes of the Ticino and a pan-European craft tradition,” said Hickey.
Casey’s boundless energy and enthusiasm found expression in her public talks. “Any conference led by Christine was a hot ticket, a gift from the architectural gods, guaranteed to provoke, challenge and delight – her distinctive Louth accent enlivening the occasion, accompanied by an inimitable wry twinkle,” added Hickey.
As a university lecturer, Casey transmitted passion and curiosity for her subject to her students. Warm and engaging by nature, she showed great generosity and loyalty to her students, bringing them on field trips in Ireland and guided tours across Europe to forensically study the architectural details of historic churches and public buildings.
She regularly lay on the floor of churches with students to better study the decorative detail of their ceilings.
Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science at TCD Carmel O’Sullivan said: “Christine was an intellectual powerhouse, fearless, curious, creative and deeply caring ... She was a well-known presence around Trinity and Dublin, always bustling with purpose, always making time for others, and bringing energy, humour and determination to everything she did.”
But Casey did not confine herself to academic circles in the capital city. She mixed with friends and neighbours in the village of Annasgassan, Co Louth where she moved full-time with her husband, Michael Byron and their two children around 2010. Casey was a regular sea swimmer at nearby Salterstown pier. She was also a long-time member of the Co Louth Archaeological and Historical Society for which she gave talks, wrote articles and led excursions.
A member of the Royal Irish Academy and an honorary member of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, she also served as a trustee, board and committee member of national organisations of architectural heritage including the Castletown Foundation, the Alfred Beit Trust, the Irish Architectural Archive and the Irish Georgian Society.
Christine Casey grew up on Carrick Road, Dundalk, Co Louth, the eldest of four children of Des and Mary Casey. Her father’s work as a trade union official left her with a strong sense of the importance of trade and artisan workers.
She attended St Louis’ girls secondary school in Castletown, Dundalk for her second-level education and studied history and history of art at UCD. She completed a Master of Arts at UCD, followed by a PhD in TCD in 1992.
Casey then held roles at the National College of Art and Design and UCD before becoming lecturer in the Department School of Art History and Cultural Policy in UCD between 1994 and 2008, thereafter taking up a post at TCD as associate professor in architectural history. She was head of the Department of History of Art and Architecture at TCD from 2013 to 2016. In that same year, she was elected a fellow of the college.
In a lecture at the Royal Irish Academy in 2021, Casey spoke about how her interest in architectural heritage began early. “Since childhood I have been absorbed by the structures that human beings make in the world, from the kerbstones of Newgrange to the rubble walls of demesne, farmyard and field that frame and fragment the rural landscape,” she said.
She is survived by her husband, Michael, her children, Catherine, Michael Desmond, her sisters, Anne (West) and Máiread (Martin), her brother Páraic and her mother, Mary. Her father Des predeceased her.
