On Thursday 24 February 1924, the inaugural meeting of the Society of the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland (FNCI) took place at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. Founded by the artist and cultural activist Sarah Purser (1848-1943), the stated purpose of the organization was ‘to secure works of art and objects of historic interest or importance for the national or public collections of Ireland by purchase, gift or bequest’. This was a critical time in Irish cultural life, being the first years of the Irish Free State, and Purser and her founder members were acutely aware of the limitations of the State to provide adequate funding for the acquisition of works of significance. The necessity to appeal to private benefactors was crucial, hence the founding of the society, the first voluntary society of its kind in Ireland, having the whole island of Ireland as its remit. Sarah Purser was a formidable woman, a member of the Church of Ireland intelligentsia. She and her brother, Sir Louis Claude Purser Griffith started the first structured teaching of art history in Ireland with the Purser Griffith lectures and prizes, alternating biannually between TCD and UCD.
Mark Ewart visits the studio of Allihies-based artist Rachel Parry who transforms natural matter into mesmerizing art.
Kim Haughton’s portraits, on view now at the National Museum Collins Barracks, reflect on Ireland’s multi-layered society at the end of the first century of this nation state, writes Stephanie McBride
