At first glance, the painting ‘On the Run, War of Independence’ by Sean Keating appears to depict a volunteer checking his mobile phone.

Just weeks ago, The Menu remedied a grave ill of his own contrivance and returned to Belfast after an absence of two decades and more. 

The boom buyers have vanished and lovers of more expensive Irish art can no longer afford it.

IN the heady days of the late 1990s when Irish art was new to the international market it seemed as if you could sell anything once it was from an Irish artist. It is not like that now.