Little Republics: The Story of Bungalow Bliss

Bungalow Bliss, first published in 1971, was a book of house designsthat buyers could use to build a home for themselves affordably.It first appeared two years before Ireland was to join the EEC asa self-published catalogue by Jack Fitzsimons from his Kells ArtStudios in County Meath. He and his wife designed and collated itand printed it locally. Fitzsimons sold these books out of his car to newsagents, petrolgarages and bookshops. Over the course of thirty years, Fitzsimons sold over a quarter of amillion copies of his catalogue. The first edition contained twentydesigns - the final edition contained two hundred and sixty. This guidebook of how to build your own home radicallytransformed housing in Ireland. Now, for the first time, author andstructural engineer Adrian Duncan looks at the cultural impactthat Bungalow Bliss and the accessible bungalow design had on thehousing market, the Irish landscape, and on the individual familieswho made these bungalows their homes.