20 by 17.50in. (50.8 by 44.5cm)

Title: PORTRAIT OF REV. FR. PATRICK O'MARA S.J. (1875-1969)
Note: Reverend Patrick O'Mara S.J. was born in Limerick in 1875, the son of Stephen O'Mara, Mayor of Limerick from 1921 to 1923. After being educated at C.B.S. Limerick and Clongowes Wood College he entered the Jesuit novitiate of St. Stanislaus College, Tullamore and was ordained in 1908. During the First World War he followed in the footsteps of many Jesuits and served with the Army Chaplaincy Department on the Western Front. For his gallantry during the German Spring Offensive of 1918 he was awarded the Military Order of Christ by the Portuguese government for the bravery he showed burying bodies under heavy fire. At the end of the war he returned to Ireland where he worked on missions throughout the country until 1927 when he was appointed as a priest to St. Francis Xavier's, Gardiner Street, Dublin. He stayed here until his death on 23 March 1969. Father O'Mara is buried in the Jesuit plot of Glasnevin Cemetery Dublin alongside other famous Jesuits such as Titanic photographer Father Francis Browne.

charcoal and pastel on buff coloured paper

signed lower right