Remembering RIAI Honorary Member Christine Casey

The RIAI is deeply saddened by the death of Christine Casey, HonMRIAI, a Professor of Architectural History at Trinity College Dublin. We extend our heartfelt condolences to her family, friends, colleagues and students. 

With a warm and engaging personality, Christine Casey was a passionate advocate for greater understanding of our architectural heritage and craftsmanship. She inspired not only architects but also a wider audience through her research, publications and talks. She was a guiding light and a great friend to many RIAI members whose work focuses on conservation and restoration. The RIAI was honoured to have Christine as a member.

Christine Casey was regarded as a European expert on the relationship between architecture and decoration, and on the role of craftsmanship in architectural production. In December 2025, she published her latest book – Architecture and Artifice, The Crafted Surface in Eighteenth-Century Building Practice. 

Earlier publications had focused on Decorative plasterwork in Ireland and Europe (with Conor Lucey, 2012); Making magnificence: architects, stuccatori and the eighteenth-century interior (2017); and Enriching architecture: craft and its conservation in Anglo-Irish building production, 1660-1760 (with Melanie Hayes, 2023). 

She was an expert on Dublin architecture, having published the comprehensive guide The Buildings of Ireland, Dublin in 2005.  This was followed by The eighteenth-century Dublin town house  (edited with Patrick Wyse Jackson, 2010) and The Museum Building of Trinity College Dublin (2019).

Christine was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and served as a trustee, board and committee member on national organisations for architectural heritage including the Alfred Beit Trust, the Castletown Foundation, the Heritage Council, the Irish Architectural Archive and the Irish Georgian Society.

Funeral arrangements
Reposing in Dixons Funeral Home, Maxwell Row, Bridge Street, Dundalk (Eircode A91 PV07) on Thursday afternoon between 3 o’clock and 7 o’clock. Removal from her residence on Friday morning at 10.40, arriving for Funeral Mass at 11 o’clock in St. Colmcille’s Church, Togher, Eircode A92 K8KK, which can be viewed here.