Artist of the Revolution

Prior to his death on the front steps of Dublin's Liberty Hall during the 1916 Easter Rising, Ernest Kavanagh, an employee of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, had established himself as one of Ireland's most notorious political cartoonists. During the previous four years, using the initials 'E.K.', he regularly contributed hard-hitting cartoons to various labour, nationalist and suffrage newspapers. These cartoons saw him champion the rights of Ireland's working class, depict William Martin Murphy and the Dublin Metropolitan Police as murderous monsters during the 1913 Dublin Lockout, attack John Redmond and the British Empire for their recruitment of Irish soldiers during the First World War, and lend his support to the Irish suffragette movement in their effort to secure the vote for the women of Ireland. This collection of original Kavanagh cartoons provides us with a fascinating pictorial record of an Ireland filled with protest and social unrest during the First World War and in the lead-up to the 1916 Rising.