Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 4 DECEMBER 2024

64 paint full time. For the first time in his life, O’Neill’s dream of traveling to Europe to see the painters he had admired for years in reproductions in art books looked possible. His subjects during this period are largely au- tobiographical or express his own feelings about life and those around him. Women typically appear wearing clothes from another time or place, a device employed to focus the viewer’s attention on the prevail- ing mood or atmosphere. O’Neill met his future wife, Eileen Lyle, the daughter of a Protestant dam- ask weaver in 1942 and after their marriage, they chose to live in Conlig, a Protestant village between Bangor and Newtownards in County Down, where O’Neill hoped the small local community would accept them knowing Eileen was a Protestant. In 1948 O’Neill’s planned three week sketching trip to Paris was extended to six months leaving Eileen alone to care for their child. But in the process of marrying O’Neill, Eileen had taken instruction in Catholicism and had to raise her child as a Catholic. Neither O’Neill or Eileen cared for religion but O’Neill’s mother was a devout Catholic and visits from a priest to their Conlig home did not go unnoticed. Patricia Forster said her father adored her mother but revealed her father’s prolonged absences from home and illness caused cracks in the marriage after he returned from Paris. O’Neill suffered from depression which caused him to turn to the numbing effects of alcohol. Patricia said in the context of the cultural differences in Belfast and the lack of understanding surrounding her father’s illness, there were long lasting consequences for the family. Exhibited in O’Neill’s 1949 exhibition, Doves and a Girl was painted not long after O’Neill’s return from Paris. This work belongs to a number of dignified portraits of Eileen which are emotionally charged reflecting the prevailing atmosphere in her life. Eileen’s sombre expression and the appearance of doves may symbolise O’Neill’s yearning for peace in the midst of the turmoil in their marriage or may point to Eileen’s heroic role as a mother protecting their child during O’Neill’s absence from home. In other iconic works from this period, The First Born and Birth in the Ulster Museum collection, the theme centres on Eileen and the powerful imagery of maternity. Karen Reihill, November, 2024