This article is from page 13 of the 2013-06-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
A CLARE artist will travel to the Kennedy Foundation in Boston with one of his three paintings of John F Kennedy’s visit to Ireland, just weeks after he sold a second for well over the asking price at auction and presented the third to the late American president’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy.
Michael Hanrahan, Lahinch, was inspired to paint the trilogy after reading Ryan Tubridy’s book on the 1963 presidential visit to Ireland.
Remembering his own sighting of John F Kennedy in Ireland, he wrote to Caroline Kennedy explaining that he was an artist in Clare, and a few weeks later he was sent archival images of Kennedy in Ireland from the Kennedy Foundation.
“I did three pictures, photographed them and sent the photos back to the foundation,” he said.
The foundation was impressed by the work and was particularly interest in the painting of Kennedy in Cork in 1963, so Mr Hanrahan offered it to them.
He will be flown by Aer Lingus to Boston in the coming weeks to present the painting to Tom Mc- Naught, CEO of the Kennedy Foundation, where the picture will be put on display.
Whytes Art auction then expressed interest in a second painting – Kennedy addressing the Dáil – and this was sold for € 2,500, with a guide of between € 1, 500 and € 2,000 on the piece. The buyer remains a mystery.
The third painting depicting John F Kennedy speaking at New Ross will be presented to Caroline Kennedy by New Ross Town Council when she visits Ireland to mark the 50th anniversary of the late president’s visit, on June 22.
Mr Hanrahan, a former bank manager, is no stranger to providing paintings to significant art collections.
His painting is the only one by a living Irish artist in the private collection of Queen Elizabeth II.
One of his paintings of Mary Mc Aleese is part of Aras an Uachtaran’s art collection, while another of his paintings of Barack Obama hangs in the White House following the American President’s visit to Ireland in 2011.