![]() Top: Men of the South – Seán Keating’s documentary portrayal of the North Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army. Here is ‘Men of the South’, dating from 1921 when there was a ceasefire in the Irish War of Independence while the Anglo-Irish Treaty was being negotiated and out of which the Irish Free State was born. This is possibly because he is best known for his documentary work and, particularly, for his raw representations of the tempestuous years of Ireland’s struggle to gain independence. Yet you will also find terms such as ‘not great art’ applied to his work by critics and commentators. I am always surprised to find that Keating is under-appreciated: yes, he gets mentioned in books of art history, and is reasonably well represented in the state’s galleries. Seán Keating’s ‘Baptism of Christ’ mural in the Church of the Holy Spirit, Ballyroan I was delighted to find that these were painted by one of Ireland’s great artists working through the turbulent twentieth century – Seán Keating. What caught my eyes was not the array of windows by Murphy Devitt ( Finola has written extensively about this creative partnership), but two murals high on the walls of the crossing. ![]() This panel, which could be seen as an indoor rainbow, is in an impressively large church in Ballyroan, Rathfarnham Parish, County Dublin: it was built in 1967 to seat a thousand. Sometimes they seem to reflect the weather patterns: When the rain comes, we often find refuge in a church – especially if it helps Finola’s quest for new stained glass windows. But it wasn’t all black clouds and thunder and lightning: winter storms here in Ireland feature high winds and spectacles such as this rainbow (above) which seemed to hang in the sky over County Wicklow for hours. ![]() Storm Ciara was upon us as we headed over to the east coast – a mere few hops from Nead an Iolair.
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