Original Sins (2022), by Hughie O'Donoghue

Six large canvases by Hughie O'Donoghue have joined our collection. 

A bespoke installation, this set of six large canvases was conceived in response to Daniel Maclise’s The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife, adjacent to which they were installed in the Gallery’s Shaw Room.

O’Donoghue has long been fascinated by the fugitive nature of history, and the ways in which it is layered, faceted and bound up with memory, both personal and public. In Original Sins he addresses  these complexities with reference to carefully chosen historical figures. The series features three men and three women, three Irish and three British, who have contributed in various ways and  contexts, and to differing degrees, to how Irish and British people see themselves.