Women’s portraits in 230-year-old academy for first time

Women’s portraits have been hung on the walls of the country’s leading academic body for the first time — 230 years after its foundation.

The members of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), founded in 1785, are the top scholars in their respective disciplines. However, while women were only legally entitled to be members after a 1919 act of parliament, it was another 30 years before the academy elected the first females.

Four of the five portraits unveiled this week are of those first four female RIA members, as depicted by artist Vera Klute. Their relatives were present when the artworks were revealed, along with the subjects of a fifth painting, in which Blaise Smith portrays eight of today’s top Irish female scientists.