Picking the best - Ireland in the picture

Anthologies and shortlists that celebrate the taste of a nation at any given moment in time are subjective, and are usually as celebrated for what they omit as for the works they include and therefore endorse.

Over the next few weeks, RTÉ will give us all an opportunity to name our favourite Irish painting. This may not be the most pressing issue facing any of us but it could well be a rewarding and enriching exercise. It is an opportunity to focus on just some of the beauty all around us and bask in its lasting, empowering glow.

Reaching a decision, as an individual, as a group or a class, would be as good a way as any to wallow in the positive, the achievements all around us we so take for granted. Why not? After all, these paintings are no more than the story of Ireland.