Monday, May 29 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of assinnated US President John JF Kennedy.
To coincide with this, Clare artist Michael Hanrahan unveils the final four paintings from a series of nine paintings he painted in 2013. They will be on view at 6pm at his gallery on Main Street, Ennistymon.
Michael wrote to Caroline Kennedy back in 2013 requesting images of the historic visit of the President to Ireland in 1963. The Kennedy Library sent him archival photos of the visit and he was able to base the paintings from these images.
The Kennedy Library selected the painting of ‘JFK in Cork’ and Aer Lingus flew Michael and the painting to Boston where the painting was presented to Tom McNaught Chief Executive of the Kennedy Foundation in the private Kennedy room.
In 2013 the painting of JFK speaking in New Ross was presented to Caroline Kennedy in New Ross during the 50th anniversary celebrations of the visit to Ireland. Two of the series were sold at auction at Whytes Art auction house in Dublin and the final one was bought by a collector in London.
It is Michael’s wish that the final four paintings would be kept and displayed together for historical reasons.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.