Inthe SALEROOMS

WHYTE’S

A SERIES of lots relating to the Troubles sold for thousands, rather than the expected hundreds, at Whyte’s Eclectic Collector Auction on May 5. Surprises included a Royal Ulster Constabulary riot helmet and gas mask, reputedly used in the battle of the Bogside (est €200 to €300). It sold for €3,200. A British Mk IV steel helmet, fitted with a Perspex visor for riot and crowd control in Northern Ireland, recovered from Raglan Street following the Falls Curfew riots in 1970

(est €100 to €150) fetched

€2,100. A Parachute Regiment red beret recovered from Leeson

Street,

Lower

Falls, in the aftermath of a riot (est.

€120 t0 €180) sold for €640, while two 1972 posters supporting a ‘No’ vote in the referendum on Ireland’s entry into the EEC sold for

€700 and €900 respectively. The posters depicted signatures from Long Kesh internees. A riot gun with case of twelve inert baton rounds (est. €500 to €700) fetched €1,500; while a British Army L1A1 7.62mm self-loading rifle, of a type used in Northern Ireland, (est. €600 to €800) sold for

€1,600. See whytes.ie.

BONHAMS

In the 1800s, the Irish boxer Dan Donnelly was famous for the extent of his reach. So much so, that his right arm was displayed in the Hideout pub, Kilcullen, for decades after his death. There’s another memorial of Donnelly coming up for auction in Bonhams’ Modern British and Irish Art Sale in London on June

13. Donnelly’s Hollow (inset) by Jack B is estimated to sell for between €340,000 and €570,000. The painting shows the natural amphitheatre at the Curragh, Co Kildare where Donnelly defeated the English champion, George Cooper, in

1815. The fight was seen as a victory against the British occupation and a memorial was erected at the site. The scene shows a group of visitors paying homage at the monument, and with Yeats himself standing on the hill looking down on it. Predictably, it’s a deliciously hauntingly work and Maev Kennedy described it for Bonhams Magazine as having: “the atmosphere of eavesdropping on a moment in the telling of some not quite audible story. The livid green grass suggests it has been pouring rain, a very plausible suggestion in the Irish midlands, while the ominous pink glow of the sky intimates more to come and probably thunder with it.” See bonhams.com.

ANTIQUE & VINTAGE FAIRS

Planned to coincide with the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, which takes place this weekend, the Lismore Opera Festival Fair will be held in Lismore Community Hall, Co Waterford, tomorow from 11am to 6pm (admission €3.50). On Sunday , the annual AVA Antique Fair at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dundalk, runs from

11am to 5pm (admission

€2). Expect the usual mix of the collectible and the curious with art, jewellery, porcelain, silver vintage, and oriental items.