A newspaper article in The Kerry’s Eye about Liam launching his debut publication, a personal account of life, family and place. It is a new book from the renowned West Kerry Painter.
“Artist Liam O’Neill writes as he paints – in short, sharp strokes brimming with colour – and his poetry and his paintings are laid out side-by-side in his new book.
During the pandemic, he was encouraged by his family to record his thoughts and his life, through his poetry and his paintings.
“It was published during the Covid pandemic, but written out as we opened up and began to emerge again,” the An Ghaeltacht West Kerry native, born between Mount Brandon and Cnoc na hAnam, said.
O’Neill has been painting for over 70 years and is one of the best-known artists in the country.
Born over 70 years ago right at the foot of the slopes of Cnoc na hAnam, between Mount Brandon and Cnoc na hAnam, in Baile na nGall, Co Kerry, he is one of 15 children.
His father died when he was just 5 – and is forever An Fathach or The Giant, in his son’s memory.
“To me he was a giant, I was looking up at his shadow yet he was maybe 5’6” in height, not a giant at all!” but in the memory of those times was, through any serious or imaginary person who was fault because I was too young to know what my reason was.
The artist, who now lives with his wife, Aine, in his native Cona Dhuibne, has long been praised as one of Ireland’s best-known painters.
And he has received much praise and feedback over his career.
During an exhibition he gave in Dingle in 1994, someone from Dublin came and remarked that Liam O’Neill was great.
He still remembers the remark, he says it made a great impact. The visitor Ciara Ghearr called him.
“That gave me more pleasure than all the feedback I ever received from friends,” Feachtana late and former Dean of the faculty of Arts in UCC, Professor Patrick O’Shea or Philip Carey of St.Jarlath College, Director of Patrick Street Gallery in New York, Mary Dineen, Anne Murray in Dublin and Poets such as Seamus Heaney, he remarked.
The last said he was tired of hearing “self-abuse about some of the greatest of them”
His new book ‘Riastáil’ – called because he has refound his life’s work, describes how his father inspired him.
“I used to watch him,” he recalls.
He had a very sharp spade and he would turn the field.
“I would hear a short, stirring poem and the whole field would come to life and the two of us toiling in the field and he would talk and there would be the whole field, the two of us and him he was always careful to protect the sharp lines.
But O’Neill left West Kerry for years, living for much of his teaching life in Clare and has also gained in the visual and special needs cases in Darnada until returning to Dingle.
As a young man he says he was often derided and misunderstood because he had a hearing impediment.
“I was dyslexic so maybe that’s why I ended up teaching a special class because I had the same dumbness.”
They were isolated in that class by themselves, he recalls, with his friends would buy and sell the boys at his school.
There is “depth of emotion and tension in Liam’s poetic depiction of childhood, coming of age, love and loss, music and dance and those last quiet moments with a dying relative or friend”.
“I was greatly heartened by the reaction of the people who visited his fairs painting exhibitions,” he said.
Liam’s next book will be the third part of his series, showcasing his recent work, such as An gCrainn and Lios na Slighe Riata’s talamh caite.”
