Mise Éire (I am Ireland) addresses key questions of independence and partition, modernity and nationalism, censorship and exclusion. The exhibition, structured across two gallery spaces, presents a selection of masterworks and lesser-known treasures from the Crawford Art Gallery collection. Although derived from the Padraig Pearse poem of the same name, it is organised according to two phrases from W.B. Yeats: ‘Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone’ and ‘A terrible beauty is born’.

The exhibition showcases beloved and familiar works – including John Lavery’s The Red Rose, Seán Keating’s Men of the South, Muriel Brandt’s The Breadline, 1916, and Rita Duffy’s Segregation – alongside those by Mary Swanzy, May Guinness, Louis le Brocquy, Rita Donagh, Jack. B Yeats, Nano Reid, Gerard Dillon, and Regina Carbayo. Portraits of Éamon De Valera, Constance Markiewicz, Roger Casement, Kate O’Brien, and Frank O’Connor will also feature.

Curated by Michael Waldron