A painting has been stolen from University College Dublin's buildings at Newman House on St Stephen's Green in Dublin, the Garda has confirmed.
The brother of Irish author Brian O'Nolan (Flann O'Brien), artist Mr Micheal O Nuallain, says the stolen work is a pastel sketch he drew of the author as part of a series of studies for a 1957 oil painting. However, the Garda was not in a position to confirm last night that this was the painting in question.
Mr O Nuallain presented the sketch, one of a series of three, to UCD last year for display in the restored Georgian building, where his brother was once a student. It is understood the Newman House theft took place last Thursday. While UCD could not confirm yesterday that a painting had been stolen, a spokeswoman confirmed there had been a theft from Newman House in recent days. She believed an "opportunist" visitor had removed an object.
A Garda spokeswoman confirmed the theft of a painting from Newman House was being investigated by the Garda at Harcourt Terrace in Dublin. No further details of the painting were available.
The spokeswoman said incidents of this nature were investigated by a specialist antiques unit based at Harcourt Terrace. If a picture of the stolen item was available, it would be circulated, along with a full report, to Garda stations throughout the State on the force's computerised PULSE system, the Garda said.
Born in Co Tyrone in 1911, Brian O'Nolan was better known as The Irish Times columnist Myles na Gopaleen, and also for his satirical novels written under the alias Flann O'Brien. He was the third child in a family of 12 children, of which Mr O Nuallain was the second-youngest. Brian O'Nolan died in 1966.