Episode 5 - 1916

Episode 5 features an extract from the essay ‘On Fire’ in Chapter 5 of the book, which tells some of the story of the burning of Academy House during the Easter Rising of 1916. It focuses on the role of the Keeper, Joseph Malachy Kavanagh, in saving the President’s chain, the RHA’s Royal Charter and the minutes books as the 500 paintings hanging in the annual show and the building burnt to the ground. Narrated by the author Cristín Leach.

Episode 5

Episode 4 - 1893

Episode 4 is an extract from Chapter 4 of the book entitled ‘They Will Not Mix’. It is a short story based on two photographs which are housed in the National Gallery of Ireland Collection, sent by the painter Walter Osborne to his sister Violet in Canada in 1893. Narrated by the author Cristín Leach, with voice performance by Rachel Andrews

Episode 4

Episode 3 - 1857

Episode 3 is set in 1857 and features extract from Chapter 3 of the book, entitled ‘In the Evenings, by Gaslight’. This is a story told in a series of unanswered questions which focus on the fallout that emerged when two competing sets of President, Secretary and Keeper wrestled for control of the RHA and its income and debts, as their increasingly embittered divisions played out in letters to the daily newspapers and a commissioned report to government. Narrated by the author Cristín Leach.

Episode 3

Episode 2 - 1845

Based on Chapter 2 of the book, ‘A Penny for Them’, Episode 2 is set in 1845 and takes a diary format, subtitled “some thoughts in the mind of artist and archaeologist George Petrie”. Born on 1 January 1790, Vice President of the Royal Irish Academy and Secretary of the Royal Hibernian Academy, Petrie has just turned 55. He is about to release a new book which includes what will become a seminal essay on Irish round towers. Narrated by the author Cristín Leach, with voice performance by Lorcan Mac Muiris.

Episode 2

Episode 1 - 1826

Based on Chapter 1 of the book, set in 1826, this is a work of historical fiction, which shares its title with the book, ‘From Ten till Dusk’. Episode 1 features an extract from the story, which imagines RHA President Francis Johnston and his wife as they sit together at breakfast on Eccles Street in Dublin, one morning after the opening of the first RHA annual exhibition on Lower Abbey Street. Narrated by the author Cristín Leach, with voice performances by Lorcan Mac Muiris and Oonagh Montague.

Episode 1

The Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts was founded in 1823. From Ten till Dusk – The Audio Series, contains extracts from, and new audio essays based on, the book From Ten till Dusk, A Portrait of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts in 12 Stories by Cristín Leach. 

The book was commissioned and published by the RHA in 2023 on the occasion of its 200th anniversary, with thanks to the RHA and the sponsors: IPUT Real Estate, Dublin; The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and The Arts Council. 

This audio series was written and produced by Cristín Leach; co-producer and audio editor Lorcan Mac Muiris; with performances by Lorcan Mac Muiris, Oonagh Montague and Rachel Andrews, and narration by Cristín Leach.

Introduction

Artist Glenn Fitzgerald discusses the thematic development of his exhibition LUCKY CHARMS with Mark O’Gorman, curator of visual arts at The Complex, Dublin.

Glenn Fitzgerald in conversation w/ Mark O'Gorman

David Smith discusses his show, Gaussian Blur with curator Davey Moor, 12 Feb, 2025.
This body of work reflects an internal picture of lived, remembered, and imagined experience. Influenced by zen, ink painting, abstraction, and photography, these are records of unfixed and fluid experience.  While the works usually take the form of landscape, the driving concept is the transient nature of the physical world and our slippery perceptions of it.

Introduction

RHA

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