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54
55 Gerard Dillon
Men in a Bar
Watercolour 11.5 x 10cm
56 George Campbell RHA (1917 - 1979)
Study of man in bar
Ink and wash, 12.5 x17.5cm, Signed
When he wasn’t going on sketching trips around the North West with O’Neill in the late
1940s, Dillon was making frequent visits to Connemara in preparation for his first solo show
with Waddington in November 1950. It is likely that Dillon introduced Campbell to Kate
O’Brien and Carmel and Pádraic Faherty, the owners of Connolly’s Bar, Roundstone. By
1950, writer Kate O’Brien was already a friend to and supporter of both artists.
80
O’Brien’s
support for the Republican cause in Spain
81
and Campbell’s experience living in Malaga
during Franco’s
82
reign in the 1950s would have led to many discussions in O’Brien’s house,
‘The Fort’, that overlooked Roundstone Bay.
80
In a letter from Kate O’Brien to George Campbell, O’Brien explains that due to her illness, she hadn’t had
time to choose works from the ‘wonderful selection of drawings’ George had sent her. Letter dated 30
October 1950.
81
Franco banned Kate O’Brien from travelling to Spain for twenty years following the publication of her novel,
That Lady
, 1937.
82
From a military background, General Franco was the dictator of Spain from 1939-1975.
fig.79: George and Madge Campbell with
friends, Carmel and Pádraic Faherty, and
Pat and Donal Foley outside Connolly’s Bar,
Roundstone
fig.80: Kate O’Brien