Patrick Ireland, 36, Dies; Created to Serve Peace
by Michael Kimmelman
The New York Times
May 22, 2008
Dublin “” On Tuesday evening, here on a grassy terrace behind the old Royal Hospital Kilmainham, with the sun still high in the sky and his heart full of joy, Brian O”Doherty attended his own wake.
After 36 years he put to rest his alter ego, Patrick Ireland.
Sometimes culture and politics intersect in subtle, serendipitous ways. In 1972 Mr. O”Doherty, an Irish-born artist who has lived in New York since the early “60s, wanted to do something to protest the events of Bloody Sunday “” that year on Jan. 30 “” when British soldiers killed 14 unarmed Irish civilians in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
He decided to stage a small ceremony here, a kind of performance, before 30 witnesses, at which he swore to sign all his artworks “Patrick Ireland” until “the British military presence is removed and all citizens granted their civil rights.”
It was a token gesture, and not many people noticed, but it was heartfelt. “I felt a great sense of impotence,” he said on Tuesday morning, sitting with his wife, Barbara Novak, an American art historian, over a full Irish breakfast. “The name at least became a reminder. Every work I did after that gained a political context for me and for anyone who may have wondered who Patrick Ireland was.” Continue reading “Artist Patrick O”Doherty’s Alter Ego Laid to Rest”
