Fonsie Mealy's RARE BOOKS & COLLECTIBLES December 7th & 8th, 2021

99 A collection of Papers, Surveys, Reports, Photographs associated with the talented and versatile Charles Guilfoyle Doran (1835- 1909) “Charlie”Doran began his career as a plasterer in Dublin, and “through diligence and study” succeeded in qualifying as an architect and engineer. For most of his life he was actively involved in the Fenian movement; after the failure of the 1867 rising he escaped to France, and on his return to Ireland lived at Dunworth House, Queenstown (Cobh). He was clerk of works during the building of St Colman’s Cathedral, and contributed to several public water schemes in Co. Cork. From 1883 he was one of the QueenstownTown Commissioners. He was also a keen member of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, contributing several papers to its journal, and assembled a fine private library. The Archive comprising the following items, from aspects of Doran’s Life: • Scrapbook: “The Irish Agrarian Rebellion 1880-1881.” Contains news cutting from the Illustrated London News, Graphic etc. with reports on parliamentary debates, full-page illustrations, caricatures. A graphic record of this troubled and contentious period in Irish history. Hardback (disbound), 45 x 31 cm. • “Map of Paris with the latest improvements 1855.” Compiled as a record of Queen Victoria’s visit to Paris in August of that year (there are illustrations of her reception by Napoleon III on the back). Cloth backed; fragile. 70 x 55 cm. • Manuscript list of 143 publications, many concerning Cork, with comments on some added in red ink. • 42cms x 26.5 cms “Specifications & Quantities for the New Cathedral of Queenstown. Messrs Pugin & Ashlin Architects.” Oct 1868. Bound vol with text and diagrams, with MS notes added. St Colman’s Cathedral, dramatically situated overlooking the town of Cobh and Cork Harbour, was begun in 1868 to the designs of AugustusWelby Pugin andGeorgeAshlin. On Pugin’s death in 1874, Ashlin appointed as his assistant a Dublin architect appropriately named Thomas Aloysius Coleman. Construction work continued for many years, and the cathedral was not consecrated until 1919. Doran was Clerk of Works throughout, until his death in 1909. The steeply sloping site and French Gothic design, which necessitated the use of a wide variety of building materials, presented special challenges, and the successful completion of the project is a tribute to his skill as an engineer. • “Specification of Waterworks for the Queenstown Town Commissioners (Tibbotstown Gravitation Scheme) 30 December 1896.” Proof copy with MS additions and copy of revised edition. As a civil engineer, Doran was involved in several public water schemes in Co. Cork, the Tibbotstown reservoir in particular. • “QueenstownWater Works Arbitration 1883. Town Commissioners v Queenstown Waterworks Company.” 56 pp + Manuscript additions. • Copy of the [Cork] Weekly Herald for Saturday 16 May 1895, with an article (p. 6) entitled “St Colman’s Cathedral, Queenstown. A poem in art. Rapid progress towards completion.” With 2 photographs: front exterior view, and view of high altar from a scaffold near the top of the main arch. • Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Electrical Engineering, General Inventions and Industries, Edinburgh, 1890. With associated material including a plan of the building and grounds. • Collins Pocket Diary for 1900. 10cms x 7.5cms Contains notes for many days up to 5 June, mainly re progress on the Cathedral and irrigation works. An important record of the work being done. • Three Notebooks for the years 1879, 1892 and 1893, containing diary entries, descriptions and sketches, and inscriptions on monuments in graveyards. • “Manuscript notes of Brash on Petrie’s Round Towers not yet published.” In envelope addressed to Doran. The dating and function of Irish round towers has been hotly debated for avery long time. Thefirst scholar towriteauthoritatively on the matter was George Petrie, whose 1833 essay Origin and uses of the Irish round towers was awarded a prize by the Royal Irish Academy. In 1875 the Cork architect and archaeologist Richard Rolt Brash (1817-1876) produced The ecclesiastical architecture of Ireland, to the close of the twelfth century, with text accompanied by 54 plates. Brash accepted Petrie’s analysis on the whole, but denied that the towers had any ecclesiastical function. This manuscript is in Brash’s handwriting and may have been sent to Doran for his opinion, or perhaps to proof-read. 703. THE CHARLES DORAN ARCHIVE Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934