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This work by Jack B. Yeats – Bachelor’s Walk, In Memory – has just become part of the national collection at the National Gallery of Ireland purchased with special support of the Government of Ireland and key contributions from several donors. The painting depicts an incident in Dublin city centre in 1914 in which a detachment of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators. Three people were killed (a fourth later died) and over 35 were injured. Earlier that day soldiers and officers of the Dublin Metropolitan Police and Royal Irish Constabulary had intercepted Volunteers and members of Na Fianna transporting a consignment of rifles and ammunition that had arrived at Howth earlier on board the yacht The Asgard.  The artist did not witness the event but visited the following day and based the painting on a sketch he produced on the spot. He noted ‘a bullet hole in shop window’ and recorded that ‘a few paces further towards O’Connell bridge flower girls had thrown flowers’. The painting was not seen publicly until 1922, when it featured alongside other works by Yeats at the ‘Exposition d’Art Irlandais’ in Paris. It has been on long-term loan to the Gallery for the past twelve years.

There is to be a celebration of Jack B. Yeats at the National Gallery of Ireland next year. Jack B. Yeats: Painting & Memory which opens on September 4, 2021, exhibits the work of one of Ireland’s pre-eminent artists drawn from public and private collections in Ireland and abroad. The show will explore the role of memory in Yeats’ life and work. Memories of childhood in Sligo, observations of humanity and his reflections on life and loss feature in many of Yeats’ oil paintings.