Judith Alison Hill (born 30 October 1959) is an Irish architectural historian, built heritage consultant and author, best known for her biography of Anglo-Irish dramatist and folklorist Lady Gregory.[1]
Judith Hill | |
---|---|
Born | Judith Alison Hill 30 October 1959 |
Nationality | British/Irish |
Academic background | |
Education | North London Collegiate School |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge (MA), Trinity College Dublin (PhD) |
Education
editHill was born in London and educated at North London Collegiate School. She graduated from Girton College, Cambridge in 1982 with a BA in the History of Art and from Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brooks University) in 1989 with a diploma in architecture. She was awarded a PhD in Architectural History by Trinity College Dublin with a thesis on the Gothic revival in post-Union Ireland.[2]
Career
editHill moved to Ireland in 1989. After completing The Building of Limerick (1991), Hill developed a business as a built heritage consultant. She published Irish Public Sculpture in 1998. This was followed by two biographies; Lady Gregory: An Irish Life (2005) on the Anglo-Irish dramatist, folklorist, theatre manager and leader of the Irish Literary Revival, and In Search of Islands: A Life of Conor O’Brien (2009),on the Anglo-Irish architect, author, mountaineer and pioneering sailor.
Hill has published widely on art and architectural history, and appeared on Irish TV and radio, most recently in the two-part RTÉ documentary on Lady Gregory starring Miriam Margolyes and Lynn Ruane. She is currently Visiting Research Fellow, Trinity College Dublin. She is a contributor on art and architecture to the Irish Arts Review[3] and Country Life (magazine)[4].
Critical reception of Lady Gregory: An Irish Life
editIn The Times Literary Supplement, Declan Kiberd wrote: "Judith Hill, a noted architectural historian with a deep feeling for the houses in which this story is enacted, does very well in raising Gregory’s profile as a cultural revivalist, but she also makes a spirited case for her as a folk artist. Her book, at once judicious and warm, is a nuanced portrait of her subject’s role in the invention of modern Ireland, a role which Gregory herself discharged with a similar blend of discretion and feeling. [Augusta Gregory’s] time has come – and in this impressive and affecting study Judith Hill does Lady Gregory justice."[5]
In Books Ireland, Robert Greacen wrote: "Judith Hill, in this well-researched and lucidly written biography … reveals the passionate woman behind the cold, sombre mask. In short it brings to vivid life the story of a remarkable Irishwoman who, in a farewell note to Yeats, could truly say, “I have had a full life.”[6]
Publications
editBooks:
- The Building of Limerick, 1991, Mercier Press, Cork and Dublin.
- Irish Public Sculpture: A History, 1998, Four Courts Press, Dublin.
- Lady Gregory: An Irish Life, 2005, recent reprint 2023, Sutton Publishing, Stroud.
- In Search Of Islands: A Life Of Conor O'Brien, 2009, The Collins Press, Cork.
- An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of Limerick City (Environment, Heritage and
Local Government, Dublin, 2008).
- An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of County Limerick (Environment, Heritage and
Local Government, Dublin, 2011)
Selected articles and chapters in books:
- "Finding a voice: Augusta Gregory, Raftery, and Cultural Nationalism, 1899–1900", Irish University Review, 34:1 (2004), 21–36.
- "Lady Gregory’" in David Holdeman and Ben Levitas (eds), W.B. Yeats in context (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010), pp 129–138
- "Gothic in Post-Union Ireland: the uses of the past in Adare, Co. Limerick", in Terence
Dooley and Christopher Ridgeway (eds), Irish Country Houses, Past, Present and Future, (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2011), pp 58–89
- "Architecture in the aftermath of Union: building the Viceregal Chapel in Dublin Castle,
1801–1815", Architectural History (journal), Vol. 60 (2017), 183–217
References
edit- ^ Hennessy, Caroline (30 December 2005). "Lady Gregory: An Irish Life by Judith Hill". RTÉ. ISSN 1943-2348. Retrieved 30 December 2005.
- ^ Hill, Judith Alison (2016). Perceptions and uses of Gothic in Irish domestic and ecclesiastical architecture, 1800–1815 (PhD thesis). Trinity College Dublin. OCLC 53497646.
- ^ Hill, Judith (1 September 2004). "The conservation of Irish houses". Irish Arts Review. ISSN 0791-3540. Retrieved 1 September 2004.
- ^ Hill, Judith (15 June 2004). "Pot-walloping Palladianism". Country Life. ISSN 0045-8856. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
- ^ Kiberd, Declan (3 March 2006). "Judith Hill on Lady Gregory". The Times Literary Supplement. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 3 March 2006.
- ^ Greacen, Robert (1 December 2005). "Coole Lady". Books Ireland. ISSN 0376-6039. Retrieved 1 December 2005.