Post Celtic Tiger landscapes in paintings by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin

International audienceGazing at Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin’s paintings representing the statues and monuments of some of Ireland’s most famous national heroes is more than a tour of Dublin’s well-known memorial sites – it is a walk through time. This chapter focuses mainly on “Young Ireland vs Old Ireland”, “Larkin’s Despair” and “The Rise and Fall of James Connolly”. The title of the three paintings strongly insists on the political treatment of the subject matter. However it will also take into account other paintings by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin that represent statues of politicians who played a key role in the making of the Republic of Ireland, in so far as they might create meaningful correspondences with the three above mentioned.Viewed together, the paintings form a coherent series, representing sculptures of national heroes juxtaposed with other monuments in landscapes of contemporary Dublin. But the imposing presence of built space around the statues reveals a chasm separating the statues from the ideals they first aimed at commemorating; just as it questions their place and meaning in contemporary Ireland and the recent rapid changes of the country. And yet, just as the vanishing lines in the paintings lead to slits of deep blue sky overlooking the Dublin landscapes, the paintings transform the separating chasm between past glory and contemporary changes into a space open to the possibilities that the future might offer. In implicitly questioning the meaning of heroic figures, symbols and commemoration, it addresses the representation of political space and public spaces. Thus doing, it reveals a paradoxical contiguity between past and present, while enticing the viewer to gaze at the statues with the eyes of a contemporary, aware of today’s excesses and dead-ends. As Avery Gordon remarks: ‘the ghost is primarily a symptom of what is missing. It gives notice not only to itself but to what it represents. What it represents is usually a loss, sometimes of life, sometimes of a path not taken. From a certain vantage point the ghost also simultaneously represents a future possibility, a hope ’. Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin’s paintings make the viewer re-evaluate today’s perspectives for the future with the knowledge gained, not only from historical facts and events, but also from the symbolic force of sculpture