Hughie O’Donoghue: Why I paired Michael Collins with Suffragette activist Emily Davison

The artist's dual identity feeds into his current exhibition at the National Gallery 

Hughie O’Donoghue in his studio with works from Original Sins, the exhibition at the National Gallery. Picture: Anthony Hobbs

Hughie O’Donoghue is an artist known for the breadth of his subject matter and the epic scale of his paintings. Born in Manchester of Irish parents, he settled in Co Kilkenny in the 1980s, producing series of work on subjects as diverse as the Crucifixion, bog bodies, and his father’s experiences in the British Army in World War II.

 More recently, he has divided his time between homes in London and north Mayo, where, growing up, he holidayed with his mother’s family each year.