An extensive article on the DeValera Library & Súil Art Gallery by architect Luke Reilly was published in Architecture Ireland 341 May 2025.
In a learned and insightful critique of the project entitled “Building Belonging”, Reilly draws not only on the project’s architectural merits, but sets it in its socio-historic context drawing on the history of Ennis, the county town in which the DeValera is situated.
Luke Reilly comments….
…“And then, you look through the trees and are greeted; the building waves at you. The new library and art gallery arrive in sight with a composed sweep. A civic cap to the park. An emblem of modernity for the people of Ennis. An essential intervention to this underutilised backland, a gentle yet powerful insertion into the town’s urban realm.……
….Its (the building’s) surface curves with the precision of a plasterer’s hand….
…..Each design decision orbits around one idea : inclusion. It is from this clarity that the project draws its strength. Here is a building content with its civic duties, and all the more powerful for it. A place for learning, for pause, for public life”
Architecture Ireland is the journal of the RIAI, the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. It is a platform for the dissemination, discussion, and critique of architectural culture and practice in Ireland, and is Ireland’s leading publication on architecture.
Architecture Ireland 341
The full project details can be found here
