The Sunday Times

Modern Ireland has thrown up few world-class figures the field of architecture. Eileen Gray, Kevin Roche and Peter Rice all made their marks far from these shores, but at the end of a golden, defining decade that has left the country brimming with perhaps more architectural talent than it has ever known — even in its Georgian heyday — Shane de Blacam is a homegrown genuine article.Mary McAleese, the president, acknowledged as much recently when presenting him with the triennial gold medal of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) for the library and information technology extension that has redefined the Bishopstown campus of Cork Institute of Technology (CIT). Speaking at the ceremony, the president extolled the "heart, imagination and genius" de Blacam and his team had brought to creating what she called the "great intimacy of a good library".