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Artist Daniel O'Neill's work returns home with new Belfast retrospective

Daniel O'Neill – Figure in Snow
Daniel O'Neill – Figure in Snow Daniel O'Neill – Figure in Snow

THE work of the late west Belfast artist Daniel O'Neill is currently being exhibited in his home city for the first time in 35 years.

The career-spanning retrospective Daniel O'Neill – Coming Home opened at Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich last week. Running until August 14, it includes a full range of O'Neill's work from the 1940s up until his untimely death in 1974.

Born in west Belfast, Daniel O'Neill had little orthodox art training but was lucky to be taken up by the Victor Waddington Galleries in 1945, where he exhibited for many years to critical acclaim.

Indeed, O'Neill was selected to participate in over 20 overseas exhibitions of Irish Art which toured Britain, Europe and the USA, intended to showcase the very best of Irish art abroad.

He also held solo exhibitions in Dublin, Belfast and Montreal up until his death in March 1974 at the age of 54.

Having initially opened in Dublin at The Farmleigh Gallery in March, the new exhibition has been curated by art historian Karen Reihill who published a monograph on Dan O'Neill to mark the centenary of his birth in 2020.

All of the paintings have been borrowed from private collections, allowing the public access to works which are not normally available to view. Admission is free, see culturlann.ie for further information.