Bantry Library, Co. Cork, 1962-74 (Pre published)

Abstract

Set amidst the small market town of Bantry, near the site of a former mill and surrounded by one of the spate rivers which drain from the Knocknaveagh range to the south, is one of Ireland’s most unusual examples of Modernist architecture. Bantry Library was designed in 1962 by the Cork County Council architect Patrick McSweeney and the project was developed and overseen by his assistant Harry Wallace. The design is said to have been conceived when McSweeney and his daughter were recovering from the flu, and to pass the time he made a model of a library building. His excitement with this design led him to present the model to a Convention of Librarians in Dublin, where it was enthusiastically received.