Since the book started, Ireland has also changed. With lockdown, there has been a movement of people out of cities to new lives in the countryside – and particularly in small Irish towns. This is a natural process, but it brings huge opportunities to those towns at a key moment in their lives – the book is timely
in showing how an understanding of their architecture and urban design serves to support ways in which they might be carefully conserved and developed to provide homes for thousands of additional people. This is one of the key questions for Ireland now. If it is answered originally, it will be Ireland’s significant contribution to world culture for the next number of years.