Roderick O’Donnell

Roderick O'Donnell is an architectural historian, freelance writer and lecturer. O'Donnell has published extensively on the works of the English architects, Augustus Pugin (1812-1852) and his son and successor Edward Welby Pugin (1834-1875).

Education and working life O'Donnell, who studied at the University of Cambridge, has Master of Arts and Ph.D degrees.

From 1975 to 1978, he worked as a research assistant in Dublin for the Pevsner Architectural Guides 'Buildings of Ireland' series. From 1982, O'Donnell worked as an inspector at English Heritage and the public bodies that preceded it. He has given talks and lectures, for example, on Augustus Pugin at the University of Malta, and contributed to a book about Buckfast Abbey.

Some photographs, attributed to O'Donnell, are in the Conway Library at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Publications

Selected books as author and contributor

The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture and an Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture, A.W. Pugin with an Introduction by Roderick O'Donnell, Gracewing Publishing, 2003: British Library General Reference Section YC.2004.a.1318 The Present State of Ecclesiastical Architecture in England and some Remarks Relative to Architecture and Decoration, A.W. Pugin with an Introduction by Roderick O' Donnell, Gracewing Publishing, 2004. British Library General Reference Section YC.2005.a.2721 The Pugins and the Catholic Midlands, Roderick O'Donnell, Gracewing Publishing, 2002. British Library General Reference Section YC.2003.a.1018 Roderick O'Donnell, Pugin as a Church Architect in Paul Atterbury and Clive Wainwright (eds) Pugin: A Gothic Passion, Yale University Press, c.1994. British Library General Reference Section LB.31.b.9848 Roderick O'Donnell, The Pugins in Ireland, in Paul Atterbury (ed) A. W. N. Pugin: Master of the Gothic Revival, Yale University Press.c.1995. British Library General Reference Section YC.1996.c.4 Roderick O'Donnell, Pugin's church in Cambridge, architectural sources and influences [and] Dunn and Hansom's church in Cambridge in Nicholas Rogers (ed) Catholics in Cambridge, 2003.British Library General Reference Section YC.2004.a.3203 Roderick O'Donnell, E W Pugin, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Lawrence Goldman (ed) vol 45, pp 525-6, 2001-2004.British Library General Reference Section YC.2009.b.1128 Roderick O'Donnell, The Pugins and Belmont Abbey Church and Monastery, History and Architecture, in Belmont Abbey, celebrating one hundred and fifty years, Andrew Berry (ed), 2012. British Library General Reference Catalogue Section YC.2013.a.15488 Roderick O'Donnell, AW Pugin at Ushaw, in Treasures of Ushaw College, Durham's Hidden Gem, James Kelly (ed), 2015. British Library General Reference Catalogue Section YKL.2016.b.4752 Roderick O'Donnell, The Abbey church as first imagined and first built from Pugin to Dunn and Hansom, in Downside Abbey church an architectural history, Aidan Bellenger (ed), 2011. British Library General Reference Catalogue Section LC.31.b.10815 Roderick O'Donnell,'FA Walters, archaeologist and architect, and the recreation of the monastic past’ in Buckfast Abbey: History, Art and Architecture, Peter Beacham, (ed) 2017. British Library General Reference Catalogue Section LC.31.b.10815 Roderick O'Donnell,'An apology for the Revival: the architecture of the Catholic Revival in Britain and Ireland' in 'Gothic revival:religion, architecture and style in western Europe 1815-1915', Jan de Maeyer (ed) 2000.British Library General Reference Collection m02/35118. Roderick O'Donnell [with Tessa Murdoch],'Baroque Revival in a cold climate', Introduction to Mark Sagona and Adrian Gatt,'Ecleticism and the Baroque Revival in the Decorative Arts in Malta,2024,https://www.midseabooks.com/shop/maltas-architecture/art/eclecticism-and-the-baroque-revival-in-the-decorative-arts-in-malta-the-context-for-abramo-gatt-1863-1944/

Selected articles

Extra Illustrations of Pugin Buildings in T.H. King's 'Les Vrais Principes by Roderick O Donnell, Architectural History: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. VOL 44; 2001, 57-63. British Library General Reference Section, Journal ISSN: 0066-622X A number of scholarly articles on ecclesiastic history, art and architecture in the journals Architectural History and The Burlington Magazine.