Spirit of Revolution: Ireland from below 1917-1923, John Cunningham and Terry Dunne (Four Courts Press, €24.95 / £21.95) The cover of this book is graced by a 1934 watercolour by Harry Kernoff, entitled Liberty Hall, Dublin, night: the street is scattered with a selection of typical working class Dubliners, a social group with which…
This year marks the centenary of ‘Fund for the National Collections of Ireland’, which may well be for many readers a little known organisation. But nevertheless it is an important body working for the preservation of the arts in Ireland and the records of the past. Recently Dr John Turpin outlined the history of the…
Margaret Anne Suggs is a professional illustrator. Some readers will already be familiar with her work as the illustrator of the ‘Pigín of Howth’ stories by Kathleen Watkins, and also Holy Shocking Saints with Sine Quinn. However, this new book seems to be a very personal project. She tells us that she has long held…
At a recent press conference Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, speaking about the Vatican’s Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (as discussed last week in these pages), went out of his way to remind the reporters of the international arts press that it is 60 years since Pier…
It is often said that, in the West at least, this is an age which does not value religion. But one class of people certainly do: the leading auctioneers of the world, in Europe and North America, who are quite prepared to sell off civilisation’s most important relics for whatever they can get. At…
The codex now for sale was once a part of the Bodmer Hoard, some of the items of which are now in the Chester Beatty library in Dublin. A visit to the Chester Beatty Library in the precincts of Dublin Castle will reveal not only one of Ireland’s finest museums, but also a…
This is the year of the regular biannual art exhibition in Venice bears the title ‘Foreigners Everywhere’. Opened on April 20 it runs until November 24. This year sees a return to the original post-war format of national pavilions. The result has been an increase of interest from many new countries outside Europe, especially in…
The Hidden Ireland by Daniel Corkery (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, Oregon, $35.00 / €33.50 / £26.00; other editions widely available on line) This a reissue of a book by an established writer and patriot which was written a century ago, back in 1924, and issued in Dublin by an Irish publisher. It is a cultural landmark…
Speculative Minds in Georgian Ireland: Novelty, Experiment and Widening Horizons Toby Barnard and Alison FitzGerald (Four Courts Press, €50.00 / £45.95) Looking back on the Ireland of the 18th Century it appears at first glance to be settled picture, but on closer examination is turns out to be something of a jigsaw puzzle, with a multitude…
The big summer exhibition at the Ulster Museum in Belfast this year will be the exhibition of two important Caravaggio’s together for the first time in centuries. One is from the National Gallery in London, The Supper at Emmaus (1601); the other is lent by the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, the now…