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41
Maurice MacGonigal PRHA HRA HRSA (1900-1979)
BRINGING HOME TURF
oil on board
signed lower right
19.5 by 23.25in. (49.53 by 59.06cm)
Provenance:
Collection of Tomás Ó Deirg (Thomas Derrig);
Thence by descent;
Whyte’s, 15 March 2010, lot 113;
Private collection
Derrig was born on 26 November 1897, in County Mayo. He was educated locally and at University
College Galway. During his time in college he organised a corps of the Irish Volunteers. After the 1916
Easter Rising he was arrested and imprisoned. After his release he graduated from college and became
headmaster in a technical college in Mayo. During the Irish War of Independence Derrig was interned at
the Curragh Camp. While there he was elected a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD) for Mayo North andWest. His
comrade in arms, Maurice MacGonigal, was interned in Ballykinlar Camp.
Derrig took the republican side during the Irish Civil War. He was later captured by the Irish Free State
army. While in custody of the Criminal Investigation Department he was severely injured, having an eye
shot out by CID detectives.
At the June 1927 general election he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD for Carlow’Kilkenny.
In Éamon de Valera’s first government in 1932 O Deirg was appointed Minister for Education.
From 1939 to 1943 he served as Minister for Lands. He was re-appointed to Education in 1943 until 1948.
Between 1951 and 1954 he became Minister for Lands again. He died on 19 November 1956.
€8,000-€10,000 (£7,270-£9,090 approx.)
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