Padraig Marrinan

Padraig Marrinan (December 10, 1906 – October 25, 1975) was an Irish painter. Also know as PH Marrinan or Patrick H Marrinan, he was born in Belfast, Ireland. He contracted poliomyelitis at the age of five years and for several years, he could not walk. Virtually self-taught as an artist, he was privately educated as his ailment prevented public schooling.

He named William Orpen and John Lavery as influences and also claimed American comic strip artist, Bud Fisher as an important influence in his youth. His painting of a Belfast musician standing in a doorway, called "Ukelele Laddie" featured in a 1930 exhibition at the Ulster Academy of Arts and was praised by Hungarian artist, Philip de Laslo. In the 1934 exhibition, he won "Picture of the Year" for "The Apache".

Again, in 1950, he won "Picture of the Year" at the Royal Ulster Academy for his painting called "Tinkers". He held his first solo exhibition in 1951 at the Donegall Place Gallery, the paintings displayed there showing a change of direction for Marrinan. The theme was the legends of Ireland, painted with sweeping, colourful evocations of folklore figures.

His 1934 charcoal drawing of Robert Johnson, an Irish Fenian, is now placed in the National Gallery of Ireland. He was commissioned to paint portraits of Éamonn Ceannt and John F. Kennedy by the Republic of Ireland's Department of Defence and the County Clare association in London, respectively.

His ecclesiastical work includes "Our Lady of the Missions" and "The Madonna and Child of Loreto".

Literary portraits of Brian Friel, Padraic Fiach and Joseph Tomelty, as well as numerous portraits of his family and landscapes of Counties Clare, Antrim, Donegal and Kerry are held in private collections.

He married Phyllis Meyler in later life and lived in Omagh, County Tyrone, where he lived until his death.