Artwork by Yeats from 1902 speaks to our 21st-century world

In this poignant work Yeats sides with the poor and the oppressed

The Ballad Singers' Children by Jack B. Yeats at Fonsie Mealy.

Among the highlights of a sale with something for everyone by Fonsie Mealy in Castlecomer next Wednesday week is an artwork by Jack B Yeats which focuses the mind on people with little or nothing.

The Ballad Singers' Children depicts the children of an itinerant singer left to fend for themselves in a makeshift tent while their parent tries to make a living at a race meeting nearby. A barefoot girl, the eldest of the three, looks out at a torrential downpour from a shelter made of tarpaulin spread over branches. The oil on board of a not untypical scene from the west of Ireland in the opening years of the 20th century speaks to our 21st-century world with its growing numbers of dispossessed refugees.