Athea Carnegie Library

Detached four-bay single-storey Carnegie library, dated 1917, having ashlar limestone break-front porch to front (east). Hipped slate roof with roughcast rendered chimneystack with oversailing red brick cornice, timber clad eaves and uPVC rainwater goods. Roughcast rendered walls with rendered plinth. Tooled limestone date plaque to front elevation. Ashlar tooled limestone to porch continuing as quoins to south elevation. Square-headed window openings having tooled limestone sills, raised render reveals and six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed door opening having chamfered reveals to porch, tooled limestone step and timber battened door. Recent render ramp to approach with galvanised-steel railing. Rendered and recent concrete enclosing walls with rendered piers and wrought-iron gate. Located on slope to the southern end of Athea.

Located with the modestly sized town of Athea, this attractive building is immediately recognisable as a Carnegie Library with a well executed ashlar limestone porch and attractive glazed timber door. The building retains much of its original form and fabric including rare limestone sills, timber sash windows and a fine slate roof. The building forms part of a concentration of Carnegie Libraries within south County Limerick and is part of a larger group of over six hundred libraries within Ireland and Britain which were funded by a Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Influenced by the Arts and Crafts style, the building was designed by architect Richard Caulfield Orpen who is often associated with the development of the bungalow design within this country. Still in use as a library to the local school, this attests to the importance of this library to the local community.