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Scéalaí (Story-Teller)
Oil Paint on Canvas, Paper With Alcohol Marker, Photo, Gold Leaf, Metallic Oil Pastel, Color Pencil
2026
4x3’10 ft

This work layers a story. The first layer is the beginning of the recreation of The First Council Meeting painting that hangs in the home of the President of Ireland, part of the Hyde Collection; this collection also holds a painting my great-uncle is part of.

The next layer references the prisoner ledger from Kilmainham Gaol. The names being referenced are women who were arrested during the Easter Rising at the Four Courts, where my great-grandfather fought. The only name that differs is Grace Griffin, who was imprisoned in Kilmainham and painted a mural of baby Jesus and Mary in her cell.

This work entwines and blurs stories of connection within the foundations of Ireland’s fight for independence with my own family story. It holds histories that are both public and personal, layered together so that they cannot be easily separated.

The work is abstracted to partly obscure these stories. They are not always clear to those who weren’t there, but they remain present, fading and shifting into the future.