I agree that there are many unattractive buildings in the Irish countryside and I am not convinced of '...the perfect right of a homeowner to build whatsoever they choose on their own land'.

But its too simplistic to say 'old house good, modern house bad'. The mud cabins which many of our ancestors shared with their livestock were pretty unattractive too. And some of the 'great houses' of the ascendency were the "...hideous monuments, representing greed and a total absence of taste" of their time: commissioned by wealthy, young men bringing back fashionable ideas from the Grand Tour.