Buildings of Ireland Lost and Found with Robert O'Byrne, the Irish Aesthete

The Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland, Lost and Found was born from O’Byrne’s tireless work charting the hidden glories of Ireland’s buildings. 

Robert’s collection of photographs, covering everything from grand country houses to ancient monasteries, now runs to over 100,000 images and covers all 32 counties in Ireland. This new volume contains some 150 from his own selection of his best work with each photograph accompanied by illuminating descriptions and anecdotes.

Join Robert as he talks to us about his tireless work charting the hidden glories of Ireland’s buildings.

A former Vice-President of the Irish Georgian Society, Robert O’Byrne is today one of Ireland’s best-known writers and lecturers specialising in the country’s historic houses and gardens. He is the author of more than a dozen books, among them Hugh Lane: A Biography, Luggala: The Story of a Guinness House; Romantic Irish Homes and Left without a Handkerchief. For many years a contributor to Apollo Magazine, The Burlington Magazine and the Irish Arts Review, during 2021/22 Robert curated a number of events, including exhibitions, lectures and a conference, all on the theme of Ireland’s country house gardens for the Irish Georgian Society. In Autumn 2021, his series on the same subject ‘Ireland’s Historic Gardens’ was shown on RTE One television. Since 2012 Robert has written an award-winning blog called The Irish Aesthete chronicling Ireland’s architectural heritage. An exhibition of his photographs was held in the Irish Architectural Archive in December 2022 and last May a book - The Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland, Lost and Found - was published by Lilliput Press.