Ireland on Show

Ireland on Show analyses the impact of the display of art as a significant political and cultural feature in the make-up of nineteenth-century Ireland-and in how Ireland was viewed beyond its own shores, in particular in Great Britain and the United States. This study moves beyond museums, to address the range of art institutions in Irish cities that displayed art, from the Royal Hibernian Academy, founded in the 1820s, to Hugh Lane's Municipal Art Gallery, opened in Dublin in 1908. By highlighting the tension between unionist and nationalist viewpoints, Cullen uses the display of art to investigate the complexities of Irish cultural life before the founding of the Free State.