TradeNamesQuality Irish art has always been The Oriel Gallery's niche, writes Rose Doyle

The Oriel Gallery, at 17 Clare Street, has an elegantly laid-back way of imposing itself on a wandering eye. Does it more than ever these days with ubiquitous coffee shops highlighting the gallery's once-upon-a-time-in-Dublin look, the wood framed windows filled with fine Irish art and, overhead, Markey Robinson's distinctive, stained glass panels of sea, sky, white house gables and triangular figures.

Dublin, in 1968, was still finding its 20th century feet when Oliver Nulty hung his first show at 17 Clare Street; watercolours by Percy French and oils by George Russell; and threw open the doors of The Oriel Gallery.

The man, the location (round the corner from the National Gallery and down the road from Greene's Bookshop) and Nulty's determination to "exhibit, promote and sell quality Irish paintings" came together in a fine symmetry. The Oriel Gallery, these days in the enthusiastic care of Mark Nulty, son of Oliver, still sells fine paintings.

"It's a way of life," Mark Nulty says. "I've been in the business more than 15 years and grew up around art and antiques, a lovely environment."

Mark Nulty loves the business of dealing in art, loves the gallery and its location, can't imagine doing anything else. The ground floor walls around him carry an exhibition by four Russian painters, some of the pictures starkly dramatic, others simply romantic.

"I buy what I like," he says. "I let emotion creep in to some extent, which is not supposed to be good for business but has served me well."

He talks about taste and styles and knowledge in the art world. He would talk like this all day, affably and in general about things close to his heart. Eventually, with some prodding, he talks about The Oriel Gallery's beginnings and history.

Number 17 Clare Street in 1835 was the home of one John Hart, surgeon. After him came the interesting Ms Susan Ker, court dressmaker, a tenant from 1842 to 1854 who shared for four years with ne'er-do-well Captain Thomas Blood. Respectability returned in 1869 and the building was rented by "members of the professions" until 1921. Between 1923-1938 the tenants were coal merchants. Dressmaker Ms M Hayden rented from 1938 to 1968, when the building's four floors became Oliver Nulty's for The Oriel Gallery.

"My father was a genuine character," Mark Nulty is unashamedly wistful.

Oliver Nulty died aged 84 in January 2005 at the end, his son assures, of a life well lived. "Very much the individual, he loved to wear a bow-tie, had great diction, was imposing and not at all class conscious. He loved Shakespeare, was a great observer of people and loved to listen. I was born the year he opened the gallery. He always specialised in the best of Irish art."

Oliver Nulty came to Dublin after a childhood in Drogheda where he'd been born, he notes in a memoir, "during the uncivil civil war". Only six months old when his mother died, he was cared for by two aunts, had a grandfather who was a fine art collector and was taught watercolour painting by Bea Orpen, daughter of Sir William Orpen RHA. Subsequently and unsurprisingly, he developed a love of antiques and, with a partner, opened an antique shop in Dundalk.

"The 1960s found him in London, a part of that city's world of antiques."

Always interested in visual art in one form or another, he was shocked to find virtually no Irish paintings for sale in London. "Fine Irish paintings were not wanted in Ireland," he observed, "and with few exceptions were not known abroad." He "hightailed it back to Dublin, determined to open a gallery, to exhibit, promote and sell quality Irish paintings".

The rest is interesting history, littered with the names of painters of note and their time who have shown in The Oriel Gallery. Alongside, like a social and political roll-call, trot the names of notables who opened their shows.

Artists exhibited by Oliver Nulty during the gallery's first 25 years include Jack Butler Yeats, Paul Henry, Roderic O'Connor and Louis le Brocquy. Notables opening shows included Sir Peter Ustinov, Jack Lynch and Ciaran MacMathuna.

Oliver Nulty took chances. In 1986 The Oriel Gallery put on "100 Years of Irish Art" exhibition in Geneva, showing the likes of William Orpen, Sir John Lavery and Roderic O'Connor. It was a howling success in Switzerland, "proudly announced on the main boulevards of Geneva", according to Oliver Nulty, "acclaimed by the Swiss daily newspapers and television. But ignored in Ireland."

A 1991 exhibition of "Irish Women Avant-Garde Painters" in Clare Street got plenty of home attention with then president Mary Robinson doing the opening honours for a show which included Mainie Jellet, Evie Hone, Mary Swanzy and Nano Reid.

The gallery's interest in and list of contemporary and abstract work by painters such as Patrick Collins, Colin Middleton, Arthur Armstrong and others grew all the while. And always there was Oliver Nulty's special relationship with the painter Markey Robinson.

Nulty first met Robinson in the artist's attic studio/flat in Lyle Street, Belfast in 1953 and bought a painting from him. He thought Robinson "the greatest phenomenon amongst contemporary Irish artists" and, years later in Dublin, dissuaded him from emigrating to the US when he promised to promote, sell and export his paintings. Loyal and admiring of Robinson through the years, Oliver Nulty sold thousands of his paintings.

His son, Mark, wouldn't trade the life of the gallery, the selling and viewing of paintings, meeting artists, buyers and lovers of art for any other. "My father saw a niche in the market in 1968, a need to promote fine Irish art, and it took off. He was the one who saw something unique in Markey Robinson's work when no one else would have him. We still show his work. Percy French and Paul Henry have been big for the gallery and are among my earlier memories."

He began working with his father in his later teens, in 1988, says it was "inevitable, I just gravitated to it". He sees himself as a gallery owner rather than "art dealer. But, though I may be the owner," he grins, "it's Liv Greene, who works here, who is the boss. She's a friend of the family, has been here for several years and is wonderful. I grew up in this world and met all of the painters when I was young and accepted it as the way life was. It's only when looking back you see the significance of people you met as a child.

"I was interested in Paul Henry's work as a child and painted a little, as a total amateur. I'm a businessman. I love Damien Hirst's work - he's iconic. And I love William Scott and Sean Scully and William Crozier and le Brocquy. The market is wide open now, growing and diverse, and there are a lot of modern painters who should be embraced."

He considers for a minute. "You can read as many books as you want on art, and I've read them all, but you really only learn from being in business.

"Oliver never sat me down and talked to me, I learned by observation. He always gave me my head. He died of old age, basically, but I miss not being able to report to him when I do a deal, being able to tell him I sold a good painting. There's no textbook for the art business, it's a surreal way of making a living. I'll still be learning when I'm 60! The market has opened up and I'm showing more mainland Europeans but 70 per cent of our work will always be Irish."

His daughter, Olivia, is eight and loves to paint and loves the gallery. "I'm conscious of the third generation but, of course, I can't think for her! You don't retire from this life and, hopefully, I'll be here as long as my father was. I'll retire when I'm in my pine overcoat!"