THEO SNODDY:THEO SNODDY, who has died aged 85, was the former art critic of the Belfast News Letter newspaper and the author of Dictionary of Irish Artists: 20th century. The book was a successor to, and complemented, Walter Strickland's Dictionary of Irish Artists, which was published in 1913.
Essentially a work of reference and first published in 1996, the dictionary eschews personal opinion, although quotations from contemporary reviews are frequently given. In order to limit his scope, Snoddy did not include any living artists.
Understandably, his definition of who qualified as Irish was flexible; "being born in Ireland and leaving in childhood, never to return," he wrote in his introduction, "was not conducive to inclusion". Equally, he did include artists such as Paul Nietsche, who was born in Kiev but spent the last 25 years of his life in Ireland.
All the major Irish artists are represented as well as many whose names will be known only to specialists. "No attempt was made to select the 'professional' in preference to the 'amateur'," wrote Snoddy, and part of the interest of a dictionary such as this lies in discovering hitherto unknown names. After a generous biographical entry, the author helpfully included details of how each artist signed his or her name, examples of where work may be seen in public collections and bibliographical information.
The book was well received. Brian Fallon wrote in The Irish Times: "This looks like becoming the standard work of its kind . . . I shall guard my copy carefully and shall stubbornly refuse to lend it out."
The Times Literary Supplement described it as a "classic", praising its "formidable research". Declan McGonagle wrote of the second edition, published in 2002 with 100 additional entries, that it is "not only informative, but also, curiously for a dictionary, a good read".
Theo Snoddy was born in 1922 in Lurgan, Co Armagh, one of the three children of John Snoddy, a shipyard worker, and his wife Emily. He attended Cooke Elementary Primary School and Friends' School, Lisburn. He joined the staff of the News Letter at the age of 15, retiring in 1977 as purchasing manager.
His interest in the visual arts stemmed from regular visits with his parents to the Ulster Museum, Belfast, where he later took his own children.
For 30 years he was the News Letter's art critic, reviewing exhibitions across Ireland. In the 1960s and 1970s he was the paper's hockey correspondent.
He met his wife Betty in 1951; their first date was at the Royal Opera House, Belfast.
He was also art adviser to Ulster Television and with Mike McCann purchased works for the company's art collection, the largest of its kind in Northern Ireland.
There are over 200 artworks in the collection and the artists represented include; FE McWilliam, Basil Blackshaw, Carolyn Mulholland, Neil Shawcross, Colin Middleton, Rita Duffy, Diarmuid Delargy, Jack Pakenham and Simon McWilliams.
Snoddy was involved with building the collection for 15 years, and work from it has been shown in exhibitions in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
His other interests included bowls, and he was the founding editor and publisher of The Bowler.
A founder member and first captain of Friends' School Old Boys, a top Irish hockey club of the 1960s, he also enjoyed watching his sons play rugby.
A former chairman of the board of governors of Friends' School, Lisburn, he always maintained close ties with the school. In 1951 with two school friends he travelled 1,700 miles in 13 days across Europe as a pillion passenger on a motorcycle. He was also a lifetime member of the Linen Hall Library, Belfast.
From a Quaker family, he worshipped at the Friends' meeting house in south Belfast. His newspaper of choice was The Irish Times which he read at the local library in Finaghy near where he lived.
He is survived by his wife Betty and sons Alan, Michael, Stephen and Paul and daughter Sheila.
His eldest son Alan was an Irish League and World Cup football referee; Paul, an architect, is working for the 2012 Olympics, and Stephen is director of the New Art Gallery, Walsall.
Theodore (Theo) John Snoddy: born November 30th, 1922 died June 12th, 2008