Description

ST. MACDARA’S ISLAND.

This is a tiny island about a half-mile long, off the coast of Co.Galway. It was home to St. Macdara Connemara’s most respected saint, back in the sixth century. He built a one-room chapel here, with a dirt floor, walls of huge stones and a steep stone roof. In 1975 the church was restored and today it is considered one of the finest early Christian oratories in Ireland.
Jim Fitzpatrick;
“As St. Macdara who is included in a cartouche within the painting, is the patron saint of fishermen, the Galway Hookers lower their sails as they pass the cross on the island. Also, the fishermen on these boats do not fish on 16th July as it is the feast day of this saint. I tried to get a sense of excitement of the homecoming of the Hooker as it arrived into the bay and to include the scenic, religious and seafaring atmosphere of this small island.”

CityJet, the Irish airline, commissioned the internationally renowned artist, Jim Fitzpatrick, to create images that would reflect the mythology, history and natural environment of Ireland’s islands.
These remote islands, nearly as far west as one can get in Europe, are hidden gems and places of staggering natural beauty. In some cases, history and folklore are all that’s left today of some of the smaller islands. The once vibrant fishing communities are now deserted, a haunting landscape of roofless cottages and grass-covered potato ridges. The islands uniquely reveal to the resolute traveler a rare glimpse of Irish life over the centuries: bronze age settlements, promontory forts used by marauding Celtic tribes, small early Christian chapels, the rocky remains of Norman forts and the burial sites of islanders.
This collection includes paintings depicting the following islands: 
Bere, Clare, Rathlin, Tory, 
Skellig Michael & St. Macdara.