The Irish Times

A new handbook for homeowners shows how it's possible to renovate traditional rural houses to meet contemporary needs. Images of thatched, white-washed houses nestling in the landscape used to be part-and-parcel of Bord Fáilte brochures and John Hinde postcards. But traditional Irish houses have become so rare now, compared to the ubiquitous modern bungalow, that they qualify as an endangered species Encouraged by the Sustainable Rural Housing guidelines, the tide of development sweeping the countryside is creating a new Irish vernacular "architecture" to replace what went before - though it is highly improbable that tourists would be seduced by images of what is being built nowadays. In the Dunfanaghy area of north Donegal, it is estimated that nearly half of the once-typical single-storey "longhouses" are gone and only 12 per cent remain intact, the rest having been altered often beyond recognition, according to a case-study by Clive Symmons and Seamus Harkin published last year.