{{Short description|Irish architectural historian (born 1959)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}} {{Infobox historian | name = Judith Hill | birth_name = Judith Alison Hill | image = JudithAHill.jpg | alt = | caption = Hill in 2019 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1959|10|df=y|30}} | honorific_suffix = | other_names = | known_for = | education = North London Collegiate School | alma_mater = University of Cambridge (MA), Trinity College Dublin (PhD) }}

'''Judith Alison Hill''' (born 30 October 1959) is an Irish architectural historian, built heritage consultant and author, best known for her biography of Anglo-Irish dramatist and folklorist Lady Gregory.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hennessy |first=Caroline |title=Lady Gregory: An Irish Life by Judith Hill |newspaper=RTÉ |url=https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/book-reviews/2005/1230/445619-ladygregory/ |date=30 December 2005 |access-date=30 December 2005 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Education== Hill was born in London and educated at North London Collegiate School. She graduated from Girton College, Cambridge in 1982 with a BA in the History of Art and from Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brooks University) in 1989 with a diploma in architecture. She was awarded a PhD in Architectural History by Trinity College Dublin with a thesis on the Gothic revival in post-Union Ireland.<ref name=phd>{{cite thesis|degree=PhD|url=http://stella.catalogue.tcd.ie|title=Perceptions and uses of Gothic in Irish domestic and ecclesiastical architecture, 1800–1815|first= Judith Alison|last=Hill|year=2016|publisher=Trinity College Dublin|oclc=}}</ref>

==Career== Hill moved to Ireland in 1989. After completing ''The Building of Limerick'' (1991), Hill developed a business as a built heritage consultant. She published ''Irish Public Sculpture'' in 1998. This was followed by two biographies, ''Lady Gregory: An Irish Life'' (2005) on the Anglo-Irish dramatist, folklorist, theatre manager and leader of the Irish Literary Revival, and ''In Search of Islands: A Life of Conor O’Brien'' (2009), on the Anglo-Irish architect, author, mountaineer and pioneering sailor.

Hill has published widely on art and architectural history, and appeared on Irish TV and radio, most recently in the two-part RTÉ documentary on Lady Gregory starring Miriam Margolyes and Lynn Ruane. She is currently visiting research fellow, Trinity College Dublin. She is a contributor on art and architecture to the Irish Arts Review<ref>{{cite news |last=Hill |first=Judith |title=The conservation of Irish houses |newspaper=Irish Arts Review |url=https://www.irishartsreview.com/articles/the-conservation-of-irish-houses-1984-2004/ |date=1 September 2004 |access-date=1 September 2004 |issn=0791-3540 |language=en-GB}}</ref> and Country Life (magazine).<ref>{{cite news |last=Hill |first=Judith |title=Pot-walloping Palladianism |newspaper=Country Life |url=https://www.countrylife.co.uk/publication/country-life/country-life-june-15-2016 |date=15 June 2004 |access-date=15 June 2016 |issn=0045-8856 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Critical reception of ''Lady Gregory: An Irish Life''== In The Times Literary Supplement, Declan Kiberd wrote: "Judith Hill, a noted architectural historian with a deep feeling for the houses in which this story is enacted, does very well in raising Gregory's profile as a cultural revivalist, but she also makes a spirited case for her as a folk artist. Her book, at once judicious and warm, is a nuanced portrait of her subject's role in the invention of modern Ireland, a role which Gregory herself discharged with a similar blend of discretion and feeling. [Augusta Gregory's] time has come – and in this impressive and affecting study Judith Hill does Lady Gregory justice."<ref>{{cite news |last=Kiberd |first=Declan |title=Judith Hill on Lady Gregory |newspaper=The Times Literary Supplement |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/authors/declan-kiberd |date=3 March 2006 |access-date=3 March 2006 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

In Books Ireland, Robert Greacen wrote: "Judith Hill, in this well-researched and lucidly written biography ... reveals the passionate woman behind the cold, sombre mask. In short it brings to vivid life the story of a remarkable Irishwoman who, in a farewell note to Yeats, could truly say, “I have had a full life.”<ref>{{cite news |last=Greacen |first=Robert |title=Coole Lady |newspaper=Books Ireland |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20624165 |date=1 December 2005 |jstor=20624165 |access-date=1 December 2005 |issn=0376-6039 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Publications==

Books:

*''The Building of Limerick'', 1991, Mercier Press, Cork and Dublin. *''Irish Public Sculpture: A History'', 1998, Four Courts Press, Dublin. *''Lady Gregory: An Irish Life'', 2005, recent reprint 2023, Sutton Publishing, Stroud. *''In Search Of Islands: A Life Of Conor O'Brien'', 2009, The Collins Press, Cork. *''An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of Limerick City'' (Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dublin, 2008). *''An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of County Limerick'' (Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dublin, 2011). *''Gothic: Building Castles In Post-Union Ireland'', 2026, Four Courts Press, Dublin.

Selected articles and chapters in books:

*"Finding a voice: Augusta Gregory, Raftery, and Cultural Nationalism, 1899–1900", ''Irish University Review'', 34:1 (2004), 21–36. *"Lady Gregory’" in David Holdeman and Ben Levitas (eds), ''W.B. Yeats in context'' (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010), pp 129–138 *"Gothic in Post-Union Ireland: the uses of the past in Adare, Co. Limerick", in Terence Dooley and Christopher Ridgeway (eds), ''Irish Country Houses, Past, Present and Future'', (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2011), pp 58–89 *"Architecture in the aftermath of Union: building the Viceregal Chapel in Dublin Castle, 1801–1815", Architectural History (journal), Vol. 60 (2017), 183–217

== References == {{Reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Judith A.}} Category:Living people Category:1959 births Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Category:Alumni of Oxford Brookes University Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Category:Irish architectural historians Category:People educated at North London Collegiate School