New book about stained glass pioneer Michael Healy

A new book about the reclusive Irish stained glass artist Michael Healy (1873-1941) goes on sale in October 2023 and is available with a pre-publication discount until 4 October 2023.

Written by stained glass authority, David Caron, the book tells the story of the man who was raised in a Dublin tenement and who, ahead of Harry Clarke, Wilhelmina Geddes and Evie Hone, established the bar for artistic and technical excellence in the exacting craft of stained glass.

Michael Healy worked at the world-renowned An Túr Gloine (Tower of Glass) studio for almost four decades.

Lavishly illustrated, the book charts Healy’s stained glass career and features images of all his major windows in Ireland and on three continents. These windows, according to David Caron, ‘convey everything from austere majesty to tender humanity, often revelling in beguiling narrative detail’.

In his spare time Healy surreptitiously recorded Dubliners going about their daily business, producing many, many hundreds of charming, rapidly executed pencil and watercolour images, which collectively form a homage to the citizens of the city he loved.

Author David Caron’s PhD research at Trinity College Dublin focused on Michael Healy and the stained glass artists of An Túr Gloine. He was one of the three original compilers of the Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass in 1988 and was editor and principal author of the revised and expanded edition in 2021. David regularly contributes articles on stained glass to the Irish Arts Review.

Book details: Hardback. 400 pages. Large Format; Full Colour. €55.00

Buy it from the publisher, Four Courts Press, via this link. The pre-publication discount is available until 4 October 2023.

Main image: Detail of the damned in ‘The Last Judgement’ window (1939–40), St Brendan’s Catholic Cathedral, Loughrea, Co Galway, Ireland. Photo: Jozef Vrtiel.