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Henry O' Neill of the 'Celtic Cross' : Irish antiquarian artist and patriot / Peter Harbison.

By: Publication details: Dublin : Wordwell Ltd, 2015.Description: 115 p. : ill. ; 30 cmISBN:
  • 9781905569878 : (pbk.)
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 23 920
Subject: Henry O' Neill is best known as an artist, archaeologist, publisher and polemicist, as seen through his various books - The sculptured crosses of ancient Ireland, Ireland for the Irish and The round towers of Ireland (County Dublin only). But they give a mere inkling of the impressive compendium of work that O' Neill did throughout a long and active career spanning 40 years and more. We find out a lot more through the sketch-books of his that survive, and realise what an incredible amount of travelling and sketching he did through his interest in castles or tower-houses, though he also covered a wide variety of other monuments, from prehistoric times almost up to his own day. O'Neill has, however, been largely airbrushed out of Ireland's antiquarian story because he came off second best to his great adversary George Petrie in the controversy about Irish round towers which raged throughout much of the nineteenth century. O'Neill was convinced that they were of pagan origin, whereas Petrie argued correctly in favour of their Christian associations. Nevertheless, even if he failed in academic argument, O' Neill must - along with Petrie, G.V. Du Noyer and W.F. Wakeman - be ranked very highly among Irish antiquarian artists of the late Georgian and Victorian periods, hence the need to restore his reputation on this volume.
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Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Loanable Book Library Irish Collection 920 O'NE (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Lost 000449960
Loanable Book Library Oversized Reserve 920 O'NE (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Copy 2 Available 000438378

Includes appendix and index.

Henry O' Neill is best known as an artist, archaeologist, publisher and polemicist, as seen through his various books - The sculptured crosses of ancient Ireland, Ireland for the Irish and The round towers of Ireland (County Dublin only). But they give a mere inkling of the impressive compendium of work that O' Neill did throughout a long and active career spanning 40 years and more. We find out a lot more through the sketch-books of his that survive, and realise what an incredible amount of travelling and sketching he did through his interest in castles or tower-houses, though he also covered a wide variety of other monuments, from prehistoric times almost up to his own day. O'Neill has, however, been largely airbrushed out of Ireland's antiquarian story because he came off second best to his great adversary George Petrie in the controversy about Irish round towers which raged throughout much of the nineteenth century. O'Neill was convinced that they were of pagan origin, whereas Petrie argued correctly in favour of their Christian associations. Nevertheless, even if he failed in academic argument, O' Neill must - along with Petrie, G.V. Du Noyer and W.F. Wakeman - be ranked very highly among Irish antiquarian artists of the late Georgian and Victorian periods, hence the need to restore his reputation on this volume.

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