Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architectural draughtsman. Joseph George O'Brien was a pupil of the Dublin Society's School of Drawing in Architecture and was awarded a first class premium on 28 December 1820.(1) He appears in Wilson's Dublin Directory for the years 1833 to 1835, or later,(2) as an architectural draughtsman, living at 4 Church Lane, College Green. By 1841 he was working in the office of FREDERICK DARLEY FREDERICK DARLEY , who was a member of the Committee of Fine Arts of the Royal Dublin Society; in August of that year Darley proposed that O'Brien should be appointed temporary acting head of the Society's School of Drawing in Architecture, when JOHN PAPWORTH  JOHN PAPWORTH was granted leave of absence on health grounds.(3) O'Brien was duly appointed and remained in charge until the appointment of DUNCAN FERGUSON  DUNCAN FERGUSON the following June,(4) having himself applied unsuccessfully for the post.(5) A Joseph G. O'Brien of 32 Lower Pembroke Street exhibited a carving in alabaster at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1850.(6)



References



(1) MS. transcript from Royal Dublin Society minutes of School of Architectural Design admissions and prizewinners (in IAA).
(2) Directories for 1836 and 1837 - or transcripts from them not available in IAA.
(3) Proceedings of Council of Royal Dublin Society (1841), 78/3,10 (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44).
(4) John Turpin, A School of Art in Dublin since the eighteenth century (1995), 106.
(5) Proceedings of Council of Royal Dublin Society (1842), 78/128 (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44).
(5) No. 354 (RHA Index, III, 24).