| "It was the evening of a warm, calm, dry summers day. I was standing in the entrance to the International Hotel in Kenmare Place in Killarney town. All day horse drawn jaunting cars were along the road plying for hire. At this time in the evening there was a very strong odour." |
| Years later Niall Toibin remembered the evening graphically. 'Standing in front of me was an American with a wide rimmed stetson and a very big cigar. Taking in the scene in front of him and blowing out a large cloud of smoke, he declared to nobody in particular---- |
| ‘They can say what they God damn like but this is no one-horse town.’ |
| Patrick Cahill's impressionist paintings focus on horse drawn jaunting cars, traps and wagons in different parts of Killarney town. As well there are aspects of horse racing in Killarney and on Rossbeigh strand, pictures from the olde machinery rally in Killarney and paintings of scenic Killarney, Killorglin and Dingle. |
| Cahill's impressionist treatment gives his pictures a warmth and intimacy that suggest an earlier era - although all of the paintings in this exhibition are based on what the artist saw in the past year. One of Killarney's attractions is the way it retains the aura of earlier times and integrates with that the best facilities and amenities of today. |
| Patrick Cahill captures a wide-eyed urban visitor's first impression of Killarney, seeing only the horse drawn transport - integrating naturally with church, hotel, street, national park. One man leading two big horses, other horses with their heads in feed bags, a jarvey waiting patiently. |
| Horse racing on the beach at Rossbeigh is said to have inspired the races featured by Synge in 'The Playboy'. Cahill shows horses being walked in the falling tide and others with jockeys up being lead to race. The focus in his paintings of Killarney Races is on punters, bookies, parade ring and crowd. |
| In rural Ireland the horse was gradually replaced by traction engines. Cahill painted these at the 25th - and last - Olde Machinery Rally in Killarney. These pictures might be a tribute to the wonderful work of Brendan Griffin who was the inspiration and organiser of the rally over the years. |
| There is a feel of Paris' left bank in Patrick Cahill pictures of Main Street in Killarney - one of a wet day and another in sunshine. Killorglin's stone bridge shows building for millennia and Bridge Street suggests another era. 'Old Wreck, Dingle' shows the weather was not always so clement. |
| - Frank Lewis |
