Art Galleries in Ireland
GLEBE HOUSE & GALLERY
Glebe House and Glebe Gallery are located just outside the town of Letterkenny near Churchill. The English portrait and landscape painter Derek Hill lived and worked there from 1954 until he presented the house and his art collection to the Irish state in 1981. Hill's former studio has been converted into a modern gallery with changing exhibitions while his art collection is shown in his former home together with European and oriental furniture and William Morris wallpapers and fabrics. The collection includes works by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Louis le Brocquy, Graham Sutherland, Auguste Renoir, Jack Butler Yeats, Oskar Kokoshka, Patrick Swift and the naive Tory Island painter, James Dixon.
Glebe House and Gallery is well worth a visit by anyone who loves art.Access to the house is by guided tour only. Tours are limited to 15 people and last 45 minutes.
KING HOUSE GALLERIES & MUSEUM
King House is a magnificently restored Georgian mansion built around 1730 by Sir Henry King, 1st Baronet Kingston. The grand scale of the reception gallery, its original stone floor, tripartite windows and high vaulted ceilings, portray the impression that this 18th Century residence was built as a symbol of the status, wealth and power of the King family. After its first life as a home, King House was converted into a military barracks in the 19th century for the famous Connaught Rangers regiment. At the end of Civil War in 1923 the barracks passed into the control of the newly formed Irish Free State Army.
Following many years as a merchant’s store, King House was saved from demolition in the late 1980s and restored to its former Georgian style by Roscommon County Council.
In more recent years, King House has been a barracks for the Irish Army. Today, children and adults alike can explore this unique architectural treasure and enjoy a range of interactive presentations that offer an enchanting view of Ireland's heritage and culture.
The exhibitions tell the story of the house, its people and the surrounding locality in an entertaining and informative manner. They focus on the world of Gaelic Ireland, the dramatic episodes in the lives of the King family, the architecture, construction and restoration of the House and the military history associated with the property.
Facilities include coach and car parking, also children's worksheets. Rooms for hire and conference facilities are available. There is also an adjacent adventure playground and public park. King House, Lough Key Boat Tours and the Arigna Mining Experience have now come together to offer school tour packages of North Roscommon. This one day itinerary is flexible allowing your group or school to visit the 3 attractions in any order during the day and we can also customise the length of visit to suit your requirements.
NATIONAL GALLERY
The National Gallery of Ireland (Irish: Ghailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the Irish national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on Clare Street. It was founded in 1854 and opened its doors ten years later. The Gallery has an extensive, representative collection of Irish painting and is also notable for its Italian Baroque and Dutch masters painting. Entry to the gallery is free.
The Gallery was unlucky not to have been founded around an existing collection, but through diligent and skilful purchase, by the time it opened it had 125 paintings, in 1866 an annual purchase grant was established and by 1891 space was already limited. In 1897 the Dowager Countess of Milltown indicated her intention of donating the contents of Russborough House to the Gallery. This gift included about 200 hundred paintings and prompted construction from 1899 to 1903 of what is now called the Milltown Wing, designed by Thomas Newenham Deane.
At around this time Henry Vaughan left 31 watercolours by J.M.W. Turner with the requirement that they could only be exhibited in January, this to protect