Colm Ó Briain, Director of the Arts Council

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Martyn Turner , British, b.1948

Title

Date1983

MediumInk and graphite on card

Dimensions

64 × 52 cm

SignedLower centre: Martyn Turner JUNE1983

Credit LinePresented, The Ó Briain Family, 2021

Object numberNGI.2021.71

DescriptionThis cartoon has all the hallmarks of Martyn Turner’s work: wry humour, the ability to capture and exaggerate a likeness and, through a few cameos, to create a narrative or context around the main subject. Never published, this large-scale ink drawing depicts Colm Ó Briain, an important figure in Ireland’s cultural life, alongside some of the characters who were part of his professional life in the early 1980s. The figure at top left is Michael D. Higgins, then Chairman of the Labour Party, alluded to in the title of the book on the shelf below ‘The Thoughts of Chairman Michael D.’. The figure hanging in the tree at top right is Paul Funge, artist and activist who set up the Gorey Arts Festival in the 1970s. At lower right, Taoiseach Charles Haughey is shown with his arm around a rather alarmed-looking artist. Haughey took credit for the creation of Aosdána, which is represented here by a porticoed building with flag bearing the torc that new members (Saoi) of the association receive on their investiture. The cartoon was commissioned by the sitter’s staff at the Arts Council and was presented to him as a gift when he was leaving the organisation to take up the role of General Secretary of the Labour Party. As the first full-time Director of the Arts Council, one of Ó Briain‘s main achievements was the establishment of Aosdána, an association set up to honour artists. Later Ó Briain became Special Advisor to Michael D. Higgins, when he was appointed Ireland’s first Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht (1993-97).