Bantry Library: Bantry’s Brutalist Bibliotheque

Bantry Library: Bantry’s Brutalist Bibliotheque is an architectural archive celebrating Bantry Library’s fiftieth anniversary. It explores the conception and construction of one of Ireland’s finest examples of modern architecture. Cork County Architect Patrick McSweeney’s experimental ‘warehouse of knowledge’ emerged as Ireland experienced unprecedented socio-economic and cultural transformation in the 1960s and 1970s. With contributions from critic Shane O’Toole and project architect Harry Wallace, this book captures a sense of that radical time and the arrival of a brutalist, space-age megalith to West Cork. This story is presented with original drawings, models, evocative images of the library’s construction, and newly-commissioned photography and illustrations. It is published by Gandon Editions in Kinsale.