Micheál Ó Nualláin

Micheál Ó Nualláin moved to Dublin with his family as a child and started drawing at an early age. Already at the age of nine, he received a scholarship for the National College of Art, but was only able to take advantage of it after his school years. After graduating in 1952, he traveled throughout Europe. While in Madrid, he was arrested for making fun of the head of state Franco in a bar.

Later Ó Nualláin became an art teacher at a technical school in Tuam, Co. Galway. After his marriage, the family lived in Dublin again, where he reformed the training of art teachers as an inspector of the state cultural department. As an artist, he painted portraits of well-known personalities, but also designed numerous posters; among them Soccer, which he submitted in 1952 while still a student.

In 1971, Ó Nualláin had an exhibition in Toronto, Canada together with Jack Yeats. Under his alias “Kilroy” he drew caricatures for several daily newspapers. Among his portraits was that of his brother Brian O’Nolan (1911-1966), a well-known writer. This portrait later appeared on a postage stamp.

Interested in natural science, Micheál Ó Nualláin also filed several patents and promoted an unrealized project to protect the west of Ireland from too much rain.