Albrecht Dürer: first superstar of northern European art

Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) was the first superstar of northern European art. Vasari’s Lives of the artists (1568) describes Dürer as a ‘truly great painter and creator of the most beautiful […]

James Barry (1741–1806): ‘The Great Historical Painter’

James Barry remains the most ambitious, controversial and important painter that Ireland has produced. He was also a neo-classical painter of major international significance, although not often given his due […]

A case of thoughtless vandalism

The apparently imminent closure of the Mountjoy prison complex on Dublin’s North Circular Road has raised a number of well-publicised issues. Do we need another prison? Is the site at […]

Recycling the dustbin of Irish history: the radical challenge of ‘folk memory’

‘At Lincoln Cathedral there is a beautiful painted window, which was made by an apprentice out of the pieces of glass which had been rejected by his master.’ With this […]

John Francis O’Reilly: the “flighty boy”

Shortly after 2am on Thursday 16 October 1943, Volunteer John Blake, at Loop Head lookout post, reported to the air message centre at Limerick that an aircraft of unknown nationality […]