Sir, – Pavee Point wish to express our sadness at the passing of the artist Louis le Brocquy. His celebrated “Tinker Series” documented the life of Travellers in the 1940s and illustrated his insight into the position of Travellers as marginalised in society – a position he also found himself in from time to time.
His support for Travellers went beyond painting and Louis kindly gave us permission to publish his Tinker Series in calendar format in 2006. He went even further in showing his support and solidarity by agreeing to speak at the launch held in the National Gallery to celebrate Traveller Focus Week that year. He was an unassuming man and at the launch was particularly interested in the work of a Traveller tinsmith present, acknowledging his talents as an artist too. He also personally wrote after the event to thank a Traveller woman who presented him with a bunch of paper flowers.
In the calendar, Molly and Missy Collins were quoted as saying: “There’ll be loads of Travellers out there that won’t recognise what they see in the pictures until they look at them right and see what’s in them and be proud of our past and recognise what Travellers went through to survive as part of Ireland . . . May the light of heaven be on the ones (Travellers) who are dead and gone.”
As the Travellers say: May the light of heaven be on Louis le Brocquy. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – A few years ago, I told Louis le Brocquy that in 1912/13, Cathal Brugha, Éamonn Ceannt, Seán MacDermott and Padraig Ó Caoimh, my grandfather, went to rifle practice every Sunday morning at the Greenmount Oil Refinery in Harold’s Cross, the le Brocquy family business. On Sunday, August 31st, 1913, during the Dublin Lockout, there was a competition with cash prizes which Cathal Brugha won. According to my grandfather, he “made a bloody bulls-eye every time. He was a dead shot”.
Louis had never heard about these activities, “But,” he said, “you know, my father was an excellent shot too. He never shot anyone, of course, as he was a pacifist”. – Yours, etc,