Dramatic oil painting crowded with people, with a man in armour and a woman at centre being married by a priest.
Daniel Maclise (1806-1870), The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife, c.1854. Photo © National Gallery of Ireland

Special event

Friends Fortnight 2025: The Marriage of Strongbow & Aoife - An Accidental Icon? with Dr. Philip MacEvansoneya

25 February 13.00 - 14.00

Location
Lecture Theatre
Admission

Friends exclusive event.

Free, book a ticket online now.

The subject of this monumental work by Daniel Maclise is the marriage at Waterford in 1170 of the Norman military adventurer Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow, and Aoife, the daughter of Dermot McMurrough, King of Leinster. The union has often been described as representing the formal establishment of a Norman foothold in Ireland. Conceived for the decoration of the Palace of Westminster, the painting is an ambiguous representation of the victorious Normans and the vanquished Irish. Strongbow places his foot upon a fallen Celtic cross, King Dermot looks on in alarm, and an elderly musician slumps on his harp.

Dr Philip MacEvansoneya will discuss how the painting arrived in the National Gallery of Ireland in 1879, and some of the different interpretations of the painting since its effective reintroduction to the Gallery in 1966.

See all our Friends Fortnight events here.

This is an exclusive event for members of the Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland. 

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