Cristín Leach

Art Critic

Cristín Leach is an art critic and cultural commentator, writing about art for The Sunday Times Ireland since 2003 and contributing to RTÉ TV, radio, and digital since 1998. She co-presented the award-winning RTÉ Lyric FM series Through the Canvas …

From Life to Line to Life: Cristín Leach on artist Angie Shanahan

During the rolling pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, Angie Shanahan and Bridget Flannery, artist friends since their 1980s Crawford Art College days, began what is best described as an immersive collaboration.

visual arts • 03 Sep

Under the scim: the magic in Kaye Maahs' Paintings

Kaye Maahs is a beautiful painter, rigorously and instinctively so.

visual arts • 08 Sep

Detail from Ag Fanacht - Waiting (2023) by Mary Fahy (Pics: Aleks Skibniewska)

The Spirit of the Place - on Mary Fahy's Brigid's Well paintings

At Liscannor near the cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland there is a holy well.

visual arts • 05 Jul

Eileen Walsh onstage in The Second Woman (Pics: Jed Niezgoda)

I am Woman: Eileen Walsh's 24-hour theatrical tour-de-force

Between 4pm on Saturday 14 June and 4pm on Sunday 15 June, Walsh spent 24 hours playing The Second Woman at Cork Opera House as part of Cork Midsummer Festival 2025. I watched her for sixteen of them.

Theatre • 17 Jun

Artist Louise Cherry pictured in her studio

Exercising the Ghosts: Cristín Leach on artist Louise Cherry

The artist Louise Cherry has a note on her studio wall that reads, "a need to make sense of the inexplicable".

visual arts • 22 Feb

Detail from James Arthur O'Connor's A Frost Piece (undated). from the National Gallery of Ireland Collection - Photo © National Gallery of Ireland

Let it snow - great snow scenes from Irish artists

Irish artists have captured some stunning snow scenes over the years, although the genre remains a minor category of Irish landscape art. Here are a selection of the best to be found in Irish public collections.

visual arts • 08 Jan

Debbie Godsell, detail from Protestors, 2024; photograph by Roland Paschoff, courtesy The Artist and Source Arts Centre.

Divided and Bound - artist Debbie Godsell's History Lesson

The thing about history is it has already happened. The thing about lessons is we are never done learning them.

visual arts • 12 Oct 24

Sign at the entrance to Souter's studio and cottage (Pic: John Nikolai)

Achill group launches Camille Souter cottage residency campaign

This month, The Heinrich Böll Association, which has run a residency at Dugort on the island since the 1990s, has launched a campaign to raise funds for the purchase and renovation of Souter's home.

visual arts • 12 Apr 24