SILENT TESTIMONY: Troubles paintings go on display at National Portrait Gallery
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SILENT TESTIMONY: Troubles paintings go on display at National Portrait Gallery

A SERIES of portraits of people affected by the Troubles in Northern Ireland are now on display at the National Portrait Gallery.

The paintings, by Belfast artist Colin Davidson, are part of the Silent Testimony exhibition, which runs at the gallery in Trafalgar Square until February 2025.

Flo O’Riordan’s 13-year-old son, Sean was shot dead in Belfast in 1972

Previously shown at the Irish Arts Center in New York, at the Ulster Museum in Belfast and at Stormont, the exhibit features 18 large scale portraits of real people who have lives have been impacted by the Troubles.

“It is a true privilege to see ‘Silent Testimony’ installed at the National Portrait Gallery,” Davidson said.

“This exhibition is not only my personal response to the lived legacy of the Troubles, but a comment on the fallout of all conflicts,” he explained.

John Gallagher, whose father, John (29) was shot dead in Armagh in 1969

“These 18 people represent the many thousands who daily pay the price for everyone else’s peace.

“Silent Testimony is not about the past it is about right now, what is left behind. I continue to be indebted to my sitters and their families for entrusting me with their stories.”

Silent Testimony runs at the National Portrait Gallery in London's Trafalgar Square until Febraury 2025. Admission is free.