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109
George Collie RHA (1904-1975)
PORTRAIT OF COMMANDANT ROBERT BONFIELD, 4th BATTALION, DUBLIN BRIGADE, I.R.A.
(1903-1923)
oil on board
signed lower left
24 x 16in. (60.96 x 40.64cm)
This posthumous portrait of Robert ‘Bobby’ Bonfield is based on a photograph taken by Keogh’s Bros. Ltd.,
Dublin. Based on the artist’s suffix, the portrait must date to post-1942 when Collie was elected a full member
of the RHA. The portrait shows Bonfield, a native of Ranelagh, dressed in the colours of St Kevin’s hurling
club. St. Kevin’s was established by Irish language enthusiasts and would have sourced its early members from
Synge Street Christian Brothers School and the surrounding areas of the South Circular Road, Rathmines and
Portobello.
Robert ‘Bobby’ Bonfield was a dental student studying in his third year at UCD when he was killed. He was
the Quarter Master and Acting O/C of the 4th Battalion, 1st Dublin Brigade of the IRA and has been de-
scribed as an ‘Anti-Treaty guerrilla’. On Wednesday 20 December 1922 Bonfield went to James Dwyer’s spirit
grocery at 5 Rathmines Terrace and shot him dead. James (Seamus) Dwyer was a Sinn Fein and IRA activist
and pro-Treaty politician. Three months later on 30 March 1923 Bobby Bonfield was killed by undercover
Free State forces in revenge for the shooting of Dwyer. Bonfield’s body was discovered near the Red Cow,
Clondalkin. He is commemorated by a small memorial on the Naas Road.
For further reading see:
www.theirishstory.com€3,000-€5,000 (£2,360-£3,940 approx.)
Large Image & Place Bid Lot 109