Christine Casey 1960-2026
The Society has learnt with immense sadness of the death of Christine Casey, our former Trustee (2021-2024), and Professor of Architectural History at Trinity College, Dublin.
Christine was renowned both as an outstanding scholar, a wonderful colleague, and as an inspirational and enthusiastic teacher in her academic posts at University College, Dublin (1994-2008) and then at Trinity College (2008-2026). Her early work focussed on Irish architecture and she wrote two volumes in the Pevsner Buildings of Ireland series; ‘Leinster’ with Alistair Rowan (1993) and ‘Dublin’ (2005). Her expertise lay in the eighteenth century and she pioneered new ways of interpreting its architecture in publications such as The eighteenth-century Dublin town house (2010).
In more recent years Christine has focussed on the relationship between architecture and decoration and the role of craftsmanship in architectural production across early modern Europe. She has become the leading authority in this area publishing a number of groundbreaking books including ‘Making magnificence: architects, stuccatori and the eighteenth-century interior’ which was awarded the SAHGB’s Alice Davis Hitchcock Prize in 2018. She held two major research grants to undertake this work from 2109, the most recent of which was a highly prestigious European Research Council Advanced Grant on interdependence in architectural production entitled STONE-WORK. Christine leaves a great legacy in her books and the group of scholars who were inspired by her. We mourn of the loss of a greatly respected and loved colleague who was still at the height of her powers. Her last book which was written while she was ill, ‘Architecture and Artifice: The Crafted Surface in Eighteenth-Century Building Practice’ (2025) has been short-listed for this year’s Alice Davies Hitchcock Award.
We extend our sincere condolences to Christine’s family, colleagues, students and friends and we will greatly miss her enormous contribution to studies of architectural history. You can sign the Book of Condolences or send a donation to Irish Cancer below.
All updates:
