Norah McGuinness HRHA

Norah McGuinness was a landscape painter, designer and illustrator born in Derry. Despite what her family thought, she entered the Dublin Metropolitan school of Art where she first won a scholarship for three years. In 1923 she won a medal from the Royal Dublin Society, in 1924 she won a medal for her drawings entered in the Tailteann competition and then after she held her first exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy, she furthered her education at Chelsea Polytechnic for several months.

After McGuinness’s exhibition at the Victor Waddington Gallery on 1949, the Dublin Magazine said, ‘at its best the work of Norah McGuinness is forthright, spontaneous and dramatic...'

In1957, Norah was elected an honorary member of the Royal Hibernian Academy but then resigned in 1969. In 1968, a retrospective exhibition was held at Trinity College Dublin where she showed over one hundred pieces of art.