The role of pressure solution seam and joint assemblages in the formation of strike-slip and thrust faults in a compressive tectonic setting; The Variscan of south-western Ireland

► Contemporaneous orthogonal sets of solution seams and joints/veins form the initial assemblage in the Ross Sandstone, Ireland. ► Splays on sheared joints/veins and seams suggest a clockwise remote stress rotation during the Variscan. ► Prominent right-lateral strike-slip faults form by the linkage of en-echelon segments with broad damage zones at cross-fold orientation. ► Thrust faults initiate within shales and follow solution seams in sandstones or shale lenses within tilted sequences.