ALONG with Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, Eileen Gray ranks among the architects and designers who have left a significant mark on the 20th century and defined modernity.

HOW many restoration projects for classic modernist houses are there in this country? Very few is the anecdotal answer. As a race we’re still in thrall to the Georgian — Victorian and Edwardian barely cut it — and our modern vernacular is a mash of simple farmhouse and country manor — all neo-Georgian, of course.

Who would have thought that one of the first people to design and make tubular steel furniture would be Irish — and a woman?