Against a backdrop of political uncertainty regarding Home Rule, and with soon-to-be-armed volunteers appearing on Irish streets, North and South, the Battle of Clontarf was presented as a definitive victory for a native Irish force over a foreign aggressor. The Irish Volunteer and Clontarf The first edition of the Irish Volunteer appeared on 7 February … Read more
The year 1914 saw the beginning of the painting of the murals depicting the history of the city within the rotunda of Dublin’s City Hall, the work of students of the Metropolitan School of Art, under the guidance of James Ward. Alderman Thomas Kelly, leader of Sinn Féin on Dublin Corporation, had been instrumental in … Read more
History painting—the most important, albeit conservative, manner of European painting—was occasionally subverted in Ireland for anti-establishment purposes. James Barry’s St Patrick Baptizing the King of Cashel (1763), Daniel Maclise’s Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife (1854) and John Mulvany’s Battle of Aughrim (1885) all show the inherent versatility of the genre in presenting alternative views of … Read more
Born in Dromore, Co. Down, Hugh Frazer studied in the Dublin Society Schools in 1812 and exhibited regularly with the Society of Artists and the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA). In 1830 he was elected an Associate of the RHA, then a member in 1837, becoming professor of painting from 1839 to 1853. Frazer painted in … Read more
The mythologising of Brian Boru began within a generation or two of his death at Clontarf. Cogadh Gáedhel re Gallaibh, an early twelfth-century O’Brienite propagandist tract, first articulated a vision of Brian as belonging to a long line of universal heroic leaders and kings, combining the military prowess of Alexander, the wisdom of Solomon, the … Read more