"IT'S A PAINTING I have mixed feelings about," Mayo TD Beverley Flynn said last night in the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar.
And the title of this impression of flowers by her father, former EU Commissioner Pádraig Flynn? A momentary pause . . . "The Trial", the artist's daughter said to roars of laughter.
So this was how her dad spent those seven weeks when she was in court, defending her reputation in a failed libel action against RTÉ. And a radiant Ms Flynn, now Fianna Fáil again, had a story to tell for every single one of the 30 paintings on show in her father's first art exhibition.
As several hundred people crammed into the building to congratulate father and daughter, Ms Flynn recalled how her dad had trained at school under the late Frank Hourican (RHA).
Some of the work, including a self-portrait in pencil, dated back to the late 1940s and 1950s. It was after he successfully secured the hand of her mother, Dorothy, that Mr Flynn put down the brush and pad, but never quite lost his artistic flair, she said.
Seven years ago, he sent a Christmas card to former taoiseach, the late Charles Haughey, with his impression of the historic clapper bridge in Louisburgh.
Last night Mr Flynn recalled how over a claret in the Kinsealy library with CJH and government secretary Pádraig Ó hUiginn, Mr Haughey asked "did you paint that, Flynn", climbed a ladder in his library, and fished out a book. Haughey located the relevant photo of the same type of bridge. "Not bad," he said.
The painting is now in Beverley's home.
Mr Flynn's exhibition continues in the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, for one week.
"And I'm proud to be here," proclaimed his daughter Beverley, "hanging Pádraig Flynn! I'm sure there's many others would love to do the same!"
