28 March 2017

Georgian and Regency doorcases
recall Rathkeale’s elegant past

Strolling the streets of Rathkeale, I am impressed by the surviving, elegant doorcases from the Georgian and Regency period (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

I spent much of Sunday and Monday in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, with the parish Eucharist in Holy Trinity Church on Sunday, visiting the school on Monday, bringing schoolchildren to visit the parish church, and visiting the Rathkeale Social Cohesion Project. These two days have been like warm, bright summer days, and strolling through the streets of Rathkeale I am impressed each time by the number of houses and shopfronts with Georgian and Regency doors, with doorcases, columns and fanlights that have survived throughout the town for 200 years or more.

Many of these doors date from around 1800-1820, but some are older, and at times I have to have a second look at the them to decide whether they date from the early 19th century or they are modern imitations.

Here are some of the doors and doorcases I have spotted in recent weeks:


And here is a door that is in a sad and neglected state:


Finally, this surviving portion of stucco work from a doorcase, seen on Main Street, Rathkeale, is a reminder of how much of Rathkeale’s elegant past has been lost in recent years:


Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2017

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