05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Newly-acquired Jack B Yeats painting puts Bloody Sunday in the frame
ONE of the few overtly political works painted by Jack B Yeats has been acquired by the National Gallery of Ireland.
Though Singing The Dark Rosaleen, Croke Park (1921) does not explicitly reference the shootings at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday in November 1920, the sombre tone evokes the tragedy.
On that day, during a Gaelic football match between Dublin and Tipperary, Auxiliaries of the RIC opened fire on spectators, killing 14 civilians, including Tipperary footballer Michael Hogan, and injuring 60 others. The painting is a deeply personal response by Yeats to this event.
Sketchbooks in the gallery's Yeats archive contain multiple depictions of hurling matches at Croke Park and indicate his familiarity with the setting.
The painting was stolen in the Dunsany Castle robbery in 1990, subsequently returned to the Plunkett family in 1995, sold at Sotheby's for £500,000 and bought by Ben Dunne.
The Mary and Ben Dunne Collection was sold by Gormley's in 2022, and the painting was purchased by the National Gallery last year with government support and a contribution from a private donor.
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