Mick O'Dea: Dedicated follower of independence-era fashion

The artist’s eye of Mick O’Dea has provided him with some interesting insights into how people looked in the 1916-23 period, writes Richard Fitzpatrick

ONE of the things Mick O’Dea noticed from spending the past ten years painting combatants during Ireland’s revolutionary years (1916-1923), which he based on old photos and newsreel stills, is that they were suckers for fashion. The way, for example, they used to let guns drop loosely in holsters by their thighs, an effect possibly taken from watching too many silent Western movies.