Born: September 9th, 1944
Died: June 24th, 2023
Ursula Walsh (also known as Ursula Brick), who has died aged 78 after a short illness, was a senior lecturer in drawing and painting at the Limerick College of Art and Design from 1969 to 2008.
She was born in Cork, one of four children to Eileen (née Field) and Tady Brick. Though she was christened Helen Ursula Karen, her mother thought that Helen was too big a name for a little girl so from a very young age she was known as Ursula. Her father, a comandante in the Irish Army, was stationed at various barracks around Ireland throughout her childhood and adolescence until the family finally settled in Limerick. These early nomadic years probably went some way to explaining her independent spirit and her ability to make the most of any situation. For the last two years of Walsh’s secondary education, she attended the Presentation Secondary School in the city. She entered the then Limerick School of Art in 1962 and graduated in 1967 with a First-Class Honours Art Teacher’s Certificate (the equivalent of a First-Class Honours Degree). She taught in secondary schools in Ennis and Banagher before returning to the Limerick School of Art and subsequently became senior lecturer in fine art.
Art schools in the 1960s were unique in their employment of female teachers, allowing them to hold positions of responsibility at a time when the wider workforce in Ireland was predominantly male and the Marriage Bar was still in place. This greater gender equality in the art teaching profession enabled Walsh to pursue a long and fruitful career that made a difference to many future creative people in this country.
In 1977, along with other artists from Limerick city, she co-founded the Exhibition of Visual Art, an open submission exhibition now known as EVA International
Walsh was scrupulously fair in all her dealings with students and colleagues and kept her own counsel on the difficult decisions she occasionally faced within her teaching practice. There was an ethical backbone to her that overrode all other considerations. She held hard work, discipline and application in the highest esteem; talent or instinct were often secondary concerns.
In 1977, along with other artists from Limerick city, she co-founded the Exhibition of Visual Art, an open submission exhibition now known as EVA International. It is considered Ireland’s premier contemporary art exhibition. She was the first chairperson and, in 1979, oversaw a new direction when EVA adopted a single and independent international adjudicator, a turning point in the visual arts in Ireland. In 2023, EVA International will celebrate its 40th anniversary.
She was the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) nominee to the Council for the Status of Women and subsequently served as a TUI representative on the board of governors when the school became part of the Limerick Regional Technical College. Towards the end of her career, she co-ordinated the Erasmus exchange programme which necessitated her to travel throughout Europe.
Walsh’s own artistic output was limited, committed as she was to her teaching profession. When she retired, she devoted much of her time to her elegant garden.
In 1978 she married the artist Samuel Walsh and they lived for a time in Ballyneety, Co Limerick, before moving to Cloonlara, Co Clare
Walsh was born with dyslexia, a difficulty much misunderstood at the time and which presented certain challenges throughout her education. In later life, with the arrival of new technology, she dealt with this in amusing and surprising ways, often sending letters, emails and text messages in which the intended word had been replaced by a more appropriate misspelling. Nothing deterred her from saying what she wanted to, and, in time, this perceived limitation became a great strength.
Generosity was the cornerstone of Walsh’s life — in her lecturing and her teaching, her family and her friendships. In a final act of giving, she donated her body to scientific research.
In 1978 she married the artist Samuel Walsh and they lived for a time in Ballyneety, Co Limerick, before moving to Cloonlara, Co Clare. She was predeceased by her brother Tim “Teddy” Brick, former deputy city engineer for Dublin, and her nephew Dermot. She is survived by her husband, Samuel, and their three children, Tady, Aoife, Esther, son-in-law Matthew, grandchildren Helena and Rupert, sisters Rita and Olive, sister-in-law Maeve, nephews and nieces, grandnephews, grand-nieces and extended family, and Helena’s mother Milena Martinović. She will be remembered fondly and often by so many friends, artists, fellow gardeners, former colleagues and countless former students.