AT THE MARINO CASINO
A Sporting Chance by Aidan Butler.
Aidan decided to utilise the various gaming traditions evident within a 400-metre radius of the Traffic Box, namely GAA motifs (St. Vincents and Parnell Park), gambling (Card Games, Dice, Backgammon motifs) at the Marino Casino, and Golf at Clontarf Golf Club. He used a scrolling design with colour repetition and patterns easily adapted to either new box shape. He also included a city skyline and the Casino itself. Note: As mentioned below the Marino Casino was not associated with gambling.
Aidan describes himself as follows: ‘I am a self- taught professional artist from Dublin 9, working and living in the Dublin area for many years. I’ve completed State Commissions, and I have many works in Corporate and private collections. I am also a designer of posters, book covers, and logos.’
The Casino at Marino is a small summer or pleasure house, located in Marino, Dublin, Ireland. Sometimes erroneously described as a folly, it was designed by Scottish architect William Chambers for James Caulfeild, the 1st Earl of Charlemont, starting in the late 1750s and finishing around 1775. It is a good example of Neo-Classical architecture, situated in the gardens of Marino House. Although proud of the design, Chambers was never able to visit the completed building, as he was constantly employed in England.
The name ‘Casino’ is the diminutive form of the 18th-century Italian word ‘Casa’ meaning ‘House’, thus ‘Little House’,[and is not used in the modern sense of “gambling establishment”. After his 9-year Grand Tour of Italy and Greece, Caulfield was taken with all things Italian, and decided to add a ‘little house’ to his estate, which he had already named after the town of Marino in Lazio.
