Peter Pearson recalls one of Ireland's most prolific architects

Few Irish architects in the 19th century designed as many fine houses and other buildings as JS Mulvany. His distinctive classical style can be seen in public buildings, particularly in the Dublin area but also in Clonmel, Waterford and the midlands.

It is a tribute to the quality of his designs and the solidity of the construction methods of the time that most of these buildings are still in daily use and are well preserved.

Frederick O'Dwyer, architect and historian, has produced a detailed account of Mulvany's architecture which has been published in Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, the journal of the Irish Georgian Society. O'Dwyer is especially interested in Ireland's neglected 19th-century buildings and their designers. He is also the author of Lost Dublin, which was published in 1981.

JS Mulvany was involved with the founding of the Royal Hibernian Academy, now known more for its painting and sculpture, but where architectural drawings were once equally prominent. He was an admirer of James Gandon, Dublin's greatest classical architect, whose influence is occasionally in evidence in Mulvany's buildings.

Mulvany cultivated people of wealth and influence in Victorian Dublin, mainly Quakers, and gained many important commissions, such as the design of major railway stations, yacht clubs in Dun Laoghaire and impressive private houses.

The ghost of Mulvany would be shocked to realise that houses designed by him, even terraced ones in places such as Monkstown, sell today for over £1 million.

In common with many Victorian architects, he made extensive use of Roman cement or stucco to create an inexpensive but striking effect or replicate a classical comice.

Remarkably, much of this reddish cement, which was always painted, has survived very well, and many elaborate architraves, porticos, pediments and balustrades are still in perfect condition. These can be seen on houses in such places as Brighton Terrace in Monkstown or on the yacht clubs in Dun Laoghaire.

He was equally adept in the use of stone, especially cut granite, which he used so successfully on Broadstone Station (now for many years used as a bus depot and deserving of some better life, perhaps as a transport museum) and Dun Laoghaire railway station.

Many of his houses feature handsome gate piers (often slightly Egyptian in style), crisp flights of granite steps and unusual stone porticos.

It can be said that Mulvany evolved his own style, a me(lange of classical elements and proportions with curious, almost nautical, details such as hood mould-ings or rounded canopies.

These features, which were usually described by the catch-all phrase as `Italianate style' were very popular, and can be seen, for instance, in his now derelict but impressive Portlaw House in Co Waterford.

He was fond of what might now be considered a lightly funereal style, making much use of wreaths, ponderous arched openings for windows and doors and solid walls and entrances. Indeed he did design several tombs in the Egyptian style; Broadstone Station looks rather like a gigantic mausoleum which might have escaped from Glasnevin cemetery.

Mulvany could also build in a light and whimsical manner, especially when it came to gate lodges. At Portlaw, he produced a circular lodge with an onion-dome roof topped by a pair of chimney pots.

He was fond of a lightly oriental reference, and in some of his houses, notably the Villa Marina at Dunmore East and Glenvar in Cross Avenue, Blackrock, the projecting roofs with their wide eaves and huge wooden brackets have a magical concave profile and hint at India or the Far East.

Some of his wealthy Victorian clients fancied the idea of incorporating towers into their houses, and here again Mulvany had the knack of balancing the vertical emphasis of a tower with the rest of the building.

A good example is Mount Anville convent and schools, originally built as William Dargan's private house, where the tower rises three storeys above the house and provides spectacular views of Dublin Bay.

In his article, O'Dwyer explores the involvement of various Quaker merchants in Ireland's principal railway companies, and shows how Mulvany (though a Catholic) ended up designing many railway stations and hotels such as the Galway Railway Hotel on Eyre Square.

His first recorded building job was to design an extension to the old house at Dun Laoghaire in 1838 to create the Salthill Hotel -- then the railway terminus of Ireland's first commercial railway, the Dublin and Kingstown.

One of the most spectacular of all his buildings has to be the Royal Irish Yacht Club's clubhouse, which was completed in 1850. The single-storey frontage incorporates a long collonade which gives emphasis and grandeur to the entrance, and proved a dignified and spacious home for what was then the up-and-coming sport of yachting.

Ingeniously, the back of the building has two levels and provides for wide balconies, a boathouse and boatslip. It is sad that the uninterrupted view of Dublin Bay and the open quality of the harbour has now after 150 years been destroyed by the erection of a new breakwater for a marina.

Mulvany's masterpiece remains unspoilt and intact, dominating the waterfront, and all of the original rooms are still in daily use. Mulvany became a member of the yacht club, and through this, no doubt, he made many contacts with new clients.