Cork In 50 Artworks, No 34: Portrait of Fidel Castro, by Bill Griffin 

The former oilman was part of a Cork group who planned to go to Cuba with Michael D Higgins and present the painting to Castro in person 
Cork In 50 Artworks, No 34: Portrait of Fidel Castro, by Bill Griffin 

Bill Griffin in 2005 with his portrait of Fidel Castro. Picture: Maurice O'Mahony

Few artists have had as colourful a life as Bill Griffin. A native of Cork, where he grew up on Barrett’s Terrace in Blarney St, he has lived in Allihies, on the Beara peninsula in West Cork, for many years.

 He specialises in figurative painting, so it was not entirely surprising that he was the artist selected when the Cork-based Thomas Francis Meagher Society decided to commission a portrait of the revolutionary leader and late president of Cuba, Fidel Castro, back in 2005.

“The Society was a sort of social club, they’d get together to have banter and drink,” he says. “The idea was that about 25 of us would fly out to Cuba. Michael D Higgins was supposed to lead our little delegation, though he wasn’t the president yet at that stage.” 

 Griffin, formerly a globetrotting oil consultant, had actually seen Castro in person one time. “I was on my way to the airport in Havana, and he passed by in the front seat of a jeep. But it wasn’t like I’d got to meet him or anything.” 

 As it happens, Griffin was no stranger to meetings with heads of state, having previously made the acquaintance of both Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi when both were at the height of their power and fame. “I was running Bula Resources in Iraq when I met Saddam. It was just before the US invasion, and Albert Reynolds rang me to say the bombers were on their way, and I should get out of the country. I got onto a local man who’d acted as my guide, and he brought me to the house of a mutual acquaintance, where I met Saddam. But we just had a drink, to be honest.

“I had more chat with Gaddafi the time I met him, in Libya. But he wanted to talk politics, and I didn’t know that much about it.” 

 Whatever about Hussein and Gaddafi, Griffin had a lot of admiration for Castro. “He was very anxious to keep Cuba independent from the United States. It was very corrupt when the United States was in there. There was a lot of Mafia involvement. But he had a hard time dealing with embargoes and the like.”

Griffin with his friend Charlie Bird in Allihies in summer, 2021. Picture: Brian Cronin
Griffin with his friend Charlie Bird in Allihies in summer, 2021. Picture: Brian Cronin

 Griffin’s hope was that, once he, Michael D Higgins and the various representatives of the Thomas Francis Meagher Society got to Cuba, Castro would agree to pose for the portrait, which the artist would produce in his unique style, using his fingers to manipulate the paint. Alas, the opportunity never came to pass.

“The Thomas Francis Meagher Society had another project on the go at the same time. They were going to commission a bust of Tom Barry. It was supposed to be based on some drawings that the artist Willie Harrington did of Barry in a pub on Oliver Plunkett St. Barry used to be in there the whole time, arguing with the likes of Donncha Ó Murchú, who taught at the North Mon.

“But some of the Society thought Barry was a great hero, while more of them thought he was a murdering bastard. So they all fell out in the end, which is why the trip to Cuba never happened.”

 Undaunted, Griffin pressed ahead, completing a portrait of Castro that he hoped to present to him one day. But that never happened either; the Cuban leader died in 2016, and the portrait is still in Griffin’s studio.

 “It’s only ever been shown in public once,” he says. “I was going to fly out to Cuba last year with my partner, Deirdre. I was thinking of donating the painting to a museum of art out there. But then the pandemic happened, so I’ve put that off for the time being as well.” 

At 74, Griffin is still working away as busily as ever, and hopes to present an exhibition of his paintings in Dublin next year. Since abandoning his career as an oilman in 1999, he has had dozens of exhibitions all over the world. The most recent was on his doorstep, at Allihies Community Hall last summer. On that occasion, the show was opened by an old friend, the former RTÉ reporter Charlie Bird.

 “I met Charlie years ago, when he asked my help to get him a visa to fly into Iraq. But the Yanks had come in at that stage, and it was too dangerous. Though he got in afterwards alright.”

 In Allihies, Cork filmmaker Brian Cronin was present to record Griffin and Bird chatting about old times, for a documentary on the artist he is currently readying for its premiere in January 2022.

“I’ve painted a portrait of Charlie as well,” says Griffin. “With a bird on his shoulder. I know his health isn’t great, but I hope to present it to him when we meet in the new year.” 

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