Playwright’s paintings offered for charity auction
Howard Lake | 24 July 2018 | News
An auction of paintings belonging to the late Irish playwright Brian Friel and his wife is expected to raise €100,000 for a homelessness charity.
The paintings from the collection built up by Brian Friel and his wife Anne will be sold in September in Dublin in a sale of Irish art. The auction will take place at Adam’s auctioneers on St Stephen’s Green, and the funds raised will be donated to the Peter McVerry Trust.
“We very much appreciate Anne’s very generous support and kindness in donating this collection of paintings,” Fr McVerry of the eponymous Trust told the Irish Times.
“Proceeds from the sale of the art will greatly help us to provide our services to the growing numbers of people experiencing homelessness,” he added.
Amongst the paintings is Basil Blackshaw’s Three Sisters, which was the image used on the cover of the programme of Friel’s translation of Chekhov’s play which premiered at Derry’s Guildhall in September 1981.
In 2016 the Trust had an income of €16 million, of which €6.5 million came from fundraising. The charity raises 43% of its income from individuals and continues to add new donors from its annual insert in the Irish Times.
Image: Three Sisters (translated by Brian Friel) programme cover, 1981. Includes Basil Blackshaw’s Three Sisters painting. Source: Field Day
Advertisement
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.