LAUNCH: First Quarter by John Tuomey
This event has now passed.
The Lilliput Press cordially invites you to the launch of First Quarter by John Tuomey at 6pm in Books Upstairs on Thursday, 19 October, with guest speaker Vincent Woods. All welcome!
In this reflective and enriching memoir, John Tuomey navigates the places and memories of his life over the scope of twenty-five years. First recognised for the urban regeneration of Dublin’s Temple Bar, which included the construction of the Irish Film Institute, the National Photographic Archive and Gallery of Photography, his life in architecture led him to design social and cultural spaces such as the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, the Glucksman Gallery in UCC and the Victoria & Albert East Museum in London.
Imbued with many inter-textual references to poetry, drama and literature and written in limpid prose, this memoir is inherently literary in nature. Tuomey looks back to his early life where he was born in Tralee and lived in different counties around Ireland, from small towns to country landscapes, from schooldays in Dundalk to student activism at University College Dublin. He traces the pathways that led to his formation as an architect, reflecting on the many cultural and social influences on his life. He excels in capturing the social landscape of Dublin in the 1980s and pays particular attention to the many buildings and social hubs of the inner city. His transient years of moving from Dublin to London, and subsequently working in places like Nairobi and Milan, chronicle the international influences on his outlook. The key relationships in his life, including meeting his future wife, Sheila – a fellow student of architecture in UCD – and his pivotal employment by James Stirling in 1976, form the backbone of his personal and professional life.
Tuomey’s expertise in his field is unsurpassed, with meticulous detail given to the finer aspects of design and architecture. His thoughts on the challenges facing the encroaching erasure of city life in Dublin are essential reading for anyone with an interest in the future of building in the city.
‘First Quarter is a light, strong book, beautifully balanced and crafted; there is a sense of rightness to it. A wise and lovely read.’ ANNE ENRIGHT
‘I loved this beautifully constructed book. It is open and exploratory about place and feeling, promise and possibility – that is the DNA of Tuomey’s written and built work.’ EDMUND DE WAAL, The Hare with Amber Eyes
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Tuomey is an Irish architect, co-founder of O’Donnell + Tuomey and designer of cultural, social and educational buildings at home and abroad. He was the inaugural Professor of Architectural Design at University College Dublin and visiting professor at Harvard and Princeton. He is an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a member of Aosdána, the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland. In 2015 he was joint recipient with Sheila O’Donnell of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Brunner Prize, both awarded in recognition of a lifetime’s work.
ABOUT THE GUEST SPEAKER
Born in Co. Leitrim in 1960, Vincent Woods has worked as a journalist and radio broadcaster at RTÉ.
His plays include John Hughdy/Tom John, Song of the Yellow Bittern, Fontamara (adapted from the novel by Ignazio Silone), and At the Black Pig’s Dyke, which won the Stewart Parker Prize for drama in 1993.
A collection of poetry, The Colour of Language, appeared in 1994, and was followed in 2002 by Lives and Miracles, which featured illustrations by the artist Charles Cullen. He also edited an anthology of Irish and Australian poetry and is a member of Aosdána.
He has received the P.J. O’Connor Award for Radio Drama and the M.J. McManus Award for Poetry.
