Lusk, Co. Dublin, 1943: Architectural Drawings and Watercolours of Traditional Houses

County Dublin, Lusk - watercolour perspective of a thatched house

Painted by John E. Burke in 1943. Watercolour paper, pencil, watercolours. Height 259mm, Width 368mm.

Features of the house include a semi-hipped thatched roof, a short-external porch, a red brick chimney and corrugated roof addition and water collection barrel.  At the gable of the house, a man is seated on a kitchen chair. Another man and a small dog with a collar stand beside the seated man. The brightness of the thatch suggests it is wheat straw.  However, it is more likely that such a house was thatched in oat straw, as oaten thatch replace wheat in this area in the late 19th century.  Today it is difficult to source straw for thatching as the older, longer  varieties of straw have been replaced with new varieties grown only for their grain.  Corrugated roofing was replacing thatchfrom the 1930s.