Daniel Corkery, native son of Cork, was a poet, playwright, novelist, critic and nationalist, perhaps best known for his book 'The Hidden Ireland' (1924), his classic study of literature in the Irish language. He was also a talented water-colourist; and in all things he was a teacher. Long before he took up his post as a professor of English at University College Cork, he was a master at the Cork school attended by a young Frank O'Connor. Later, when he himself became a great man of letters, O'Connor related how it was schoolmaster Corkery's custom to sneak out at six o'clock on summer mornings to paint unobserved. One day on his way to school, passing the spot where he had been painting a few hours earlier, what should Corkery find but a small boy with a can of water, studying the view and trying to capture it on paper with a wetted finger.
The National Collection contains only a handful of Corkery's paintings: others are in private hands. One notable private collection belongs to the Cronin family of Douglas, Cork.
Daniel Corkery spent much of his leisure time in and around the parish of Inchigeelagh. |
