Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect and architectural draughtsman, of Dublin and New York. Alfred Ignatius McGloughlin - often referred to as Alfred J. McGloughlin - was born on 28 July 1863,(1) the second son of JOHN McGLOUGHLIN GLOUGHLIN , art metal worker of 48 Great Brunswick Street, Dublin, the address from which he exhibited a design for a detached villa at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1883.(2) It may be he, rather than his father or his brother John, who was the 'J. McGloughlin' of 48 Great Brunswick Street who won the Irish Builder's competition for designing a mortuary chapel in October 1882.(3) Earlier in the year he had written to the journal, in relation to another of its competitions, suggesting that it might sponsor the formation of a designing club, 'the right of membership being the sole right to compete in the club competitions…and the premiated designs to be published in your valuable journal'.(4) From circa 1884 to circa 1891 he appears to have been been a pupil or assistant in the office of GEORGE COPPINGER ASHLIN GEORGE COPPINGER ASHLIN ;(5) he first appears in the directories in 1892, with the designation 'architect' and an address at 3 Walter Terrace, Richmond Road, Drumcondra. Having applied unsuccessfully for the post of Dublin City Architect in 1893,(6) by the end of the following year he had opened an office in Dame Street.  By October 1895 he was working in Ashlin's office at 7 Dawson Street again.(7) Ashlin had won the commission to designing Portrane Lunatic Asylum in 1895, and McGloughlin was placed in charge of the work.(8) He was active in the AAI after its revival in 1896; on 26 April 1897 he delivered a lecture on architectural draughtsmanship to the association(9) and in July 1899 conducted a party of members over Portrane Asylum.(10) Soon afterwards a domestic scandal - a liaison with a servant in the house(11) - compelled him to leave Ireland for the United States. His wife, Mary Emily, a daughter of the ecclesiastical sculptor James Pearse and a half-sister of Padraic Pearse, whom he had married on 5 July 1884,(12) remained in Ireland with their children, practising as a midwife. In the United States McGloughlin worked as an architectural draughtsman. He was one of the principal assitants in the draughting department for the construction of the Ernest Flagg's Singer Building, New York (1906-08),(13) and was also employed on the design of a building at Yale University.(14) He married twice in America; by the first marriage he had a daughter and two sons. He died in New York on 20 March 1939.(15)

Designs for the O'Connell Memorial church at Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry in the Irish Architectural Archive (Ashlin & Coleman collection, Acc. 76/1) include a bird's eye view of the church by McGloughlin, dated 1884.

AAI: on first committee of revived association, 1896.(16)

Addresses: 44 & 45, Dame Street, 1895; 7 Dawson Street, 1895-1897.
Home: 48 Great Brunswick Street, 1883; 3 Walter Terrace, Richmond Road, Drumcondra, 1891-1893; 4 Adelaide Terrace, Glenageary, 1895-96; 2 Esplanade Villas (or View), Dollymount, 1897-1898.

See WORKS, BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from two letters to Alfred Jones, one from Peter McGloughlin, of J. & C. McGloughlin, Jamestown Rd, Inchicore, 3 April 1967, and the other from J. Joseph McGloughlin, Dunboy, Brighton Rd, Foxrock, Co. Dublin, 7 Oct 1970 (both in Jones file Mc70), from the obituary of Alfred McGloughlin's brother, Charles.J. McGloughlin in IB 74, 18 Jun 1932, 561, and from Thom's and Post Office directories.

(1) www.familysearch.org.
(2) No. 552. (30IB 24, 15 Oct 1882, 308.
(4) IB 24, 1 Aug 1882, 216.
(5) Perspective views by McGloughlin of various Ashlin designs appear in IB 26, 1 Aug 1884; 27, 1,15 Jul 1885; 28, 1 Jun 1886; 33, 15 Jul 1891; 42, 15 Jul 1900, 418; also Architect 31, 28 Mar 1885.
(6)   Irish Times, 5 Dec 1893.
(7) IB 37, 15 Oct 1895, 245.
(8) B 71, 22 Aug 1896, 159.
(9) IB 39, 1 May 1897, 87.
(10) IB 41, 15 Jul 1899, 89.
(11) Information from McGloughlin's grandson, Alfred McGloughlin, Salthill, Galway.
(12) See note 1, above.
(13) O.F. Semsch, ed., A History of the Singer Building Construction (New York, 1908).
(14) According to Peter McGloughlin (letter as above), his daughter was told by Alfred McGloughlin's son William, whom she met in the United States, that Alfred had worked at Yale and 'has his effigy somewhere on the building'.
(15) www.familysearch.org.
(16) AAI Green Book (1918), 18.


3 work entries listed in chronological order for MCGLOUGHLIN, ALFRED IGNATIUS


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, DAME COURT, NO. 001 (STAG'S HEAD)
Date: 1895
Nature: Alts. & adds., for G.W. Tyson. Contracotr: H. & J. Martin, Grand Canal St, Dublin, & Belfast.
Refs: IB 37, 15 Oct 1895, 245

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, SACKVILLE PLACE, NO. 016
Date: 1895
Nature: ATo be rebuilt as 1st class bar & restaurant.
Refs: IB 37, 15 Jun 1895, 155

Building: CO. DUBLIN, RATHFARNHAM, GRANGE ROAD, ST ENDA'S
Date: ?
Nature: Drawings in NLI catalogued as proposed adds. & alts. for P.H. Pearse (Pearse was the half brother of AIM's wife, but AIM had left Ireland in disgrace by 1910 when Pearse leased the Hermitage for his school, St Enda's)
Refs: 4 drawings in NLI, AD 2210-2213 (numbers not fully legible)

Author Title Date Details
Mcgloughlin, Alfred J. 'Our gate lodge competition' 1882 IB 24, 1 Aug 1882, 216. (Letter to editor.)