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- Inventor Carl Richard Nyberg, 1858
- Architect George Coppinger Ashlin, 1837
- King of Great Britain and Ireland George I, 1660
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George Coppinger Ashlin (28 May 1837 – 10 December 1921) was an Irish architect, particularly noted for his work on churches and cathedrals. He had an early association with leading architect E.W. Pugin.
Ashlin was born on 28 May 1837, in a house named “Carrigrenane” in Little Island, Co Cork. He received his early education at the Collège de St Servais, Liège. While at St Mary's College, Oscott (1851 – 55), with which Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was strongly associated, he studied drawing and perspective and developed an interest in architecture. Between 1856 and 1860 he was articled to E.W. Pugin and in 1858 he entered the Royal Academy Schools, London.
He married Pugin's sister Mary Pugin (1844 - 1933) in 1867. When E.W. Pugin received
the commission for SS Peter and Paul, Cork, in 1859, he made Ashlin a
partner with responsibility for their Irish work until late 1868. In
1861 he opened their office called Pugin & Ashlin at 90 St. Stephen's Green. Their
practice was primarily ecclesiastical, the remodelling (1869) of
Enniscorthy Castle for Isaac Newton Wallop (1825 – 91), 5th Earl of Portsmouth, being one of their few domestic projects. They worked on some 25 religious buildings including the Augustinian church of SS Augustine and John,
Thomas Street, Dublin which was commissioned in 1860 and opened in
1874. It is in a style inspired by French architecture and is one of
their most successful designs. The site drops towards the river, so
that while the entrance is at street level, the nave and chancel are
raised considerably above the surrounding streets, a dramatic effect
enhanced by the soaring spire. Their churches in the countryside, mainly in counties Wexford, Cork and County Kerry, are simpler, with straightforward Latin cross plans, good quality stonework and simple bellcotes. The church at
Lady’s Island, Co. Wexford adjoins the parish of Tagoat, the church of
which was designed by Augustus Welby Pugin in 1846. By far the most important commission undertaken in Ireland by Pugin and Ashlin was the building of Cobh Cathedral (1869 - 1919) which was realization of the ideal gothic church advocated by Adolphe Napoleon Didron in his Annales Archéologique. The
partnership broke up in 1870 and Ashlin practised on his own. During
this time he designed a number of churches, including St. Mary
Magdalen’s Dominican Church in Drogheda.
