Famous pub painting could fetch €120,000

A HUMOUROUS painting paying homage to the best-known pubs around Dublin in the 1940s will be the toast of an auction house when it goes under the hammer this week.

A Bird Never Flew on One Wing, which hung in O’Brien’s Pub on Upper Leeson Street for more than 30 years, is expected to fetch up to €120,000 in the sale.

Depicting two archetypal Irish characters enjoying a drink after a day’s work, the painting features a backdrop of more than 50 Dublin pub names, including The Bailey, Shelbourne and the International.