Description

CLARE ISLAND.

This fertile island, which is five miles long and three miles wide, is in Clew Bay. off Co. Mayo, on the west coast. It is the home of the oldest fossil in Ireland – a sponger dating back five million years discovered in the townland of Ballytoughey Mor.
Clare Island is an archaeological treasure with cooking sites and old tombs dating back five thousand years as well as Cashel and beehive huts and field systems dating back to the Iron Age.
It is also thought that Grace O’Malley (Grainne  Mhaille), was buried on the island and her Castle is still there to this day.
The large population, which lived off the fertile land, has dwindled over the years. It is estimated that over 150 people now live on the island.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
“I just had to paint Clare Island, the main headquarters of the famous Irish pirate Grace O’Malley. I live in Howth Co. Dublin and she is closely associated with this town as well. I felt I knew Clare Island in advance, having read so much about Grace. She is, after all, the most famous of the great Irish warrior queens. She was so respected that when she took the liberty of sailing up the Thames in full warrior dress, she impressed Elizabeth, Queen of England who subsequently befriended her.”

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.