Rather than the monuments, places and things that dominate most accounts of architectural modernity, INFRA ÉIREANN – Infrastructure and the Architectures of Modernity in Ireland 1916–2016 shifts attention to less visible net works, systems and connections. Emphasizing the effects of Ireland’s rurality, and of its position midway between Europe and the USA, it makes the case for stuff like electrification, telephone networks, highways, airports, and data storage as being most symptomatic of the Irish experience of the modern. This is fresh research, and a valuable contribution to the now growing number of alternative narratives of modernity. – Adrian Forty

Dr Gary A. Boyd is a Reader in Architecture at Queen’s University, Belfast and has published widely on issues regarding Ireland’s architecture, past and present, including the

book Ordnance: War + Architecture & Space, together with Denis Linehan. In 2013 he curated the Folly: Art after Architecture exhibition at the Glucksman Gallery in Cork, and together with John McLaughlin he was appointed joint- commissioner/curator of the Irish pavilion for the 14th Architectural Biennale, Venice 2014. Their book Infra Éireann is the record of this exhibition.

Dr Anna Ryan is a Lecturer at SAUL since 2007 where, as an architect and geographer, she follows interests in landscape, writing, cultural geography, drawing and

photography through her teaching and research. Her publications include the book

Where Land Meets Sea: Coastal Explorations of Landscape, Representation and Spatial Experience, while her research essay for Infra Éireann focuses on Shannon

airport, its spatial origins and the impact of jet aircraft on its architecture.

“Futures of the past” looks at buildings of the past and how we think about their future. Aware of the necessarily creative and destructive role of architecture we hold a

deep interest in what exists. This series of talks is a public forum intended to address a range of questions on architecture’s role, past and present. The current suite of lectures focuses on architects in the role of curators of historic buildings as well as the technologies of preservation.