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Gillian Bowler Appreciation
During the drab, grey seventies and eighties, Gillian Bowler was the woman who brought the sunshine to Ire-
land, and who brought the Irish to the sunshine. And she had the image to sell it.....sassy, chic, humorous, clever
and one of the most glamorous figures of her time. Gillian Bowler set the travel trade on its head with her
provocative advertising campaigns and her chatty informative brochures.
She became successful, sought after and a friend to the powerful. Charlie Haughey would cancel a cabinet
meeting to have lunch with her, and Hugh Leonard would go weak at the ‘bon mots’ at the prospect of an early
evening drink. It was easy to forget that she suffered from permanent ill health, and couldn’t be too far from a
dialysis machine.
And, she didn’t actually enjoy the limelight...she avoided, where possible, gallery launches and first nights, pre-
ferring to be at home with her partner and husband, Harry Sydner. Harry was not attracted to the social aspects
of their common careers. Low key and down to earth, he, like Gill, eagerly anticipated quiet weekends in their
beautiful art filled home in Wexford. Animals, mainly dogs, featured in their home life. Gillian, in fact, adopted
and looked after three abused donkeys in Wexford.
I had the pleasure, and the honour, to be on a number of government appointed boards with Gill....the Royal
Hospital Kilmainham for five years, IMMA for another five years and the first Tourism Task Force. She chaired
each one. And we saw close up how savvy and clever this woman was. She didn’t try to make an impression, she
was just herself, and, of course we all grew to admire and love her. And she was tough, fools were not suffered
gladly. She was brilliant company socially and she loved art. She was a pretty fair artist herself by the way, but
privately. It’s not generally known, but her grandfather, Easton Taylor, was a Royal Portrait painter.
From the late seventies she began to collect and support many Irish artists, Louis le Brocquy, Barrie Cooke, Basil
Blackshaw, T.P Flanagan, Patrick Collins, Stephen McKenna, Rowan Gillespie and others. Her house in Donny-
brook was chock a block with them. And books. She was a voracious and knowledgeable reader, and Harry has
donated most of her valuable books to various institutions around the country.
But it’s the image she created that most of us will remember and cherish....the long dark hair, that beautiful full
smile, the permanent sunglasses on her head, her exquisite sartorial taste and her humorous sense of derring
do. A bright, vivacious meteor of light and colour.
Mike Murphy, May 2017
Friend and fellow board member