Cork In 50 Artworks, No 17: Portrait of Dónal Cam O’Sullivan Beare

There's a debate around whether the exiled Cork chieftain actually posed for the portrait, but it did help keep his memory alive in both Spain and Ireland

Portrait of Dónal Cam O'Sullivan Beare, possibly brought from Spain to Ireland by gardaí on a pilgrimage. 

The 17th century portrait of Cork man Dónal Cam O’Sullivan Beare, which hangs at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, has done much to preserve the memory of the rebel leader, who spent his last years in exile in Madrid.

“The painting is the earliest known portrait of an Irish chieftain,” says Rev Dr John-Paul Sheridan, the Director of Education Programmes at St Patrick’s. “When I was a student at Maynooth, from 1983 – 86, it hung in the Lay Professors’ Dining Room. But the portrait was restored in 1999, and it became the centerpiece of the Salamanca Archives exhibition in the college.”