In celebration of  Yeats day June 13th , the Hamilton Gallery opens this exhibition of more than 100 small sized works in the town of Sligo , the place the poet WB Yeats called his childhood and spiritual home. 

To mark the 100^th Anniversary of the end of 1^st World War Hamilton Gallery has chosen W B Yeats poem ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’ as the catalyst for its Invited Artists Exhibition 2018.  The poem addresses the dichotomy that existed and still exists around the Irish response to The Great War 1914 -1918.  And of course it is relevant to many families whose loved ones have served or are serving other nations which is more likely now in our globalized world. 

Opening reception at the Hamilton Gallery Sligo  , Yeats Day June 13th 2018 

Other related works: 

I have made a number of works relating to this particular poem over the years because of its personal significance. A large oil titled Lonely Impulse of Delight was exhibited in  IRISH WAVE  2015 exhibition at Dong Yue Art Musuem, Beijing, March 2015. 

This work is based on the poem an “Irish Airman Foresees his Death”. The poem was written to honour the memory of Lady Gregory’s son Robert Gregory who died as a pilot in World War 1. There are two aircraft, the sopwith pup in the upper right represents Robert Gregory and the Black Hawk UH60 in the bottom left represents my bother Donie, Donal Cunningham CW2 (pilot), although not in combat, he died in service to the aviation section of the US army August 1995. Donie was born in Ithaca upstate New York, grew up in Carlow Ireland in our large family and later claimed US citizenship where he joined the US army to become a Black Hawk helicopter test pilot . 

Later in October 2015   a smaller work  with different cloud formations was exhibited at the  Leyden Gallery, London, for the exhibition ‘Sailing to Byzantium’. 

He was the boldest most daring of siblings and very adventurous.  He is missed to this day by all his family . May he Rest In Peace. 

I am very honoured to be showing with so many renowned Irish artists, some of whom I got to know over the years on social media and others I have worked with before (thank you Patty Hudak) .

Sincere thanks to director of the gallery Martina Hamilton and to Ailbhe for all your hard work and patience .

The exhibition continues  till November 24  2018. 

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death

Many thanks to Prof Fu Hao for his  Chinese translation of this poem included on the Chinese language version of this blog.