Irish Stained Glass: Where to See Harry Clarke's Work

Harry Clarke in Brief

Clarke was born in Dublin in 1889 and worked from an early age in his father's design studio, later studying at night at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. A 1914 scholarship allowed him to study medieval glass in England and Paris, and he visited Chartres Cathedral. He died in 1931, at 42, of tuberculosis.

His principal career was stained glass for churches and religious houses, beginning with the Honan Chapel windows in Cork, with further commissions in Britain, the United States and Australia. The National Gallery of Ireland records forty church commissions from the Honan onward and fifteen overseas. He also made a small number of secular works in glass, which are the ones most often encountered in gallery settings.

For a wider view of how Clarke sits among Irish painters of the period, the country's art-museum landscape is mapped in the guide to Irish artists. That context helps explain why a glass artist is treated as a central figure rather than a craft specialist.

Reading the Medium Up Close

Clarke's colour is the first thing to notice. His teacher's notes describe bright greens and rich reds combined with blues, purples and pinks to produce sparkling contrasts, and note that he would fire a single piece of glass repeatedly until the colour and quality were right. When you stand in front of a panel, look for these layered shifts rather than a flat field of colour.

Drawing is the second element. The same notes describe beautifully modelled, elongated figures in elaborately decorated settings, unusually detailed for a precise technical craft. In a gallery, that means paying attention to faces, hands and costume detail as much as to the overall composition, since the panels were designed to be read at close range.

Scale is the trade-off. Church windows are experienced from below and at distance, while gallery panels are shown near eye level, which reveals technique but removes the architectural setting. Both ways of seeing are valid, and the Dublin displays give you the close view that church visits rarely allow.

An Túr Gloine and the Revival Workshop

The revival in Irish stained glass was organised as much as inspired. Sarah Purser founded the stained-glass co-operative An Túr Gloine, the Tower of Glass, in 1903, aiming to raise standards in a field then dominated by imported glass of lesser quality. Edward Martyn organised its first major project, the decoration of Loughrea Cathedral.

A.E. Child managed the studio and taught the stained-glass course at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, which Clarke attended from 1904 to 1913. Child's studio employed Evie Hone, Wilhelmina Geddes and Michael Healy, so the workshop was a network of makers rather than a single artist's enterprise. Keeping Purser and Martyn's founding roles separate from Child's management clarifies who did what.

Clarke's mature work grew out of this environment, and the UCD essay on the Geneva Window treats his glass as part of the broader Irish Revival alongside literature and painting. If your interest extends to painters of the same generation, the page on Jack B. Yeats in Ireland offers a parallel career to compare.

The Honan Chapel as Breakthrough

The Honan Chapel in Cork is the commission that established Clarke's reputation. He designed and made eleven of the chapel's nineteen windows between 1915 and 1917, while still in his mid twenties. The Hiberno-Romanesque building, designed by James F. McMullin, was completed in 1916 on the grounds of what is now University College Cork.

The chapel stands on the campus of what is now University College Cork, within a working university. Because it is a place of worship rather than a gallery, current access arrangements are not guaranteed and should be checked with the university before you plan a visit; the Dublin collections remain the reliable way to study Clarke's glass at close range, with the Honan windows best understood as the commission that made his name.

National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks

The museum's Harry Clarke's Stained Glass display opened on 5 December 2024 and is a temporary exhibition running into 2027, not a permanent collection. Admission is free and no booking is required. It is at Collins Barracks, Benburb St, Dublin 7, D07 XKV4.

The display is a collaboration with Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, which is closed for redevelopment; three panels travelled to Dublin from Cork as a result. Bringing these works together in one room is the point, since the museum states they have not previously been shown in the same place. The Crawford's teaching notes are useful scholarly context but are not an invitation to visit its galleries while it is closed.

Seven panels are now listed for the room, after the April 2026 addition of Harlequin, a loan from Bruce Yates displayed publicly for the first time since 1979. The others span 1910 to about 1925 and include The Consecration of St. Mel, Bishop of Longford, by St. Patrick, The Meeting of St. Brendan with the Unhappy Judas, The Godhead Enthroned, The Unhappy Judas, A Meeting and Richard Mulcahy.

Glazed panels are best read at an angle, so move along the room and watch how the leading and colour change as the light shifts. The early works here, made before the Honan Chapel commission, show a young artist working out the techniques that later defined his church windows.

National Gallery of Ireland: The Stained-Glass Room

The National Gallery of Ireland holds Clarke glass in its permanent collection, and entry to the permanent collection is free, though some temporary exhibitions carry a charge. The Gallery states that The Song of the Mad Prince, made in 1917, is on display in Room 20. Other Clarke works may move for conservation, so check the Gallery's own listings before relying on a specific panel being visible.

The Gallery's acquisition release describes a series of miniature literary panels Clarke made between 1917 and 1922, set into bespoke cabinets, several of them designed by the Dublin furniture maker James Hicks. Five of these panels survive, and they are the forerunners of larger works such as The Eve of St Agnes and The Geneva Window. The cabinets matter: they show glass conceived as a collectable object rather than an architectural fixture.

One of the five, Titania Enchanting Bottom, is the only Clarke glass work inspired by Shakespeare, drawing on A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was added to the national collection with support from the Patrons of Irish Art, and the Gallery said it would go on display in Room 20 following conservation. Current display should be confirmed with the Gallery rather than assumed. If it is up, it makes a useful comparison with the museum's religious panels.

The Gallery's self-guided tour on Irish art can help you place Clarke and his contemporaries within the collection's rooms. The page on William Orpen in Ireland is another route into the same period for visitors who want to compare painters and glassmakers side by side.

Beyond Clarke: Evie Hone

Evie Hone, born in Dublin in 1894, offers a second way into Irish stained glass. The National Gallery's tour notes record that she studied in London and Paris and produced more than 150 stained-glass pieces. She converted to Catholicism in 1937, after which her work became more religious.

Her visual sources differ from Clarke's. The tour notes cite cubism, early Italian painting, French cathedrals and medieval Irish carvings, and her Saint Christopher subject shows how she translated narrative into glass. The tour script mentions rooms, but those references should be treated as a guide rather than a promise that a given work hangs there today.

Hone is also a reminder that Irish stained glass was a workshop achievement, not one artist's invention. Seeing her work alongside Clarke's makes that clear, and it widens the story beyond a single celebrated name.

Practical Visiting Decisions

The two Dublin displays are separate institutions with separate rules, not a combined ticket. At Collins Barracks the Clarke exhibition is free and needs no booking. At the National Gallery entry to the permanent collection is free, while some temporary exhibitions carry a charge.

The Gallery's published hours are Monday 11am to 5.30pm, Tuesday and Wednesday 9.15am to 5.30pm, Thursday 9.15am to 8.30pm, Friday and Saturday 9.15am to 5.30pm, and Sunday 11am to 5.30pm. It closes on 24–26 December and Good Friday, and entry to the galleries stops 15 minutes before closing. Closing begins about 40 minutes before the advertised time, starting with the upper floors, so plan the Clarke room early in your visit.

Short-notice closures can occur, and the Gallery advises checking its own channels before travelling. The museum's page gives no opening hours for Collins Barracks, so confirm them with the museum directly. If you want a broader list of comparable collections across the island, the guide to art museums in Ireland helps you plan further stops.

Plan Your Visit

The practical sequence is simple: choose the museum for the loaned panels and the free temporary display, then the Gallery for the permanent holdings and the literary miniatures. Confirm the Gallery's hours and any short-notice closure, and check the museum's opening times separately since they are not published on the exhibition page.

For context before or after, read around Clarke's generation, including the page on Harry Clarke stained glass, which gathers the artist's story in one place. That preparation makes the individual panels easier to read when you are standing in front of them.