Michael Healy, Stained-Glass Artist, Illustrator and Painter, Is Born in Dublin

Michael Healy (14 November 1873 – 22 September 1941) was an Irish stained glass artist, one of a small number which included Wilhelmina Geddes, Evie Hone, and Harry Clarke, who achieved international recognition for their work in this medium in the first half of the 20th century. He also achieved some distinction as an illustrator and cartoonist early on in his artistic career, and as an ongoing recorder (in rapid pencil and watercolour impressions) of Dublin street characters going about their daily business. Healy also occasionally painted in oil, both portraits and landscapes, exhibiting a small number of the latter during his lifetime.

The official start of Michael Healy’s stained glass career coincided with the opening of An Túr Gloine in January 1903, and for the first two years he executed, or assisted in the execution of, a total of thirteen stained glass windows; in the case of the majority of these he assisted in the painting (often working alongside Catherine O’Brien) of windows which had been designed by Sarah Purser, Alfred E. Child, or Beatrice Elvery. The first two windows designed and painted entirely by Healy, Simeon (1904) and St John (1904), demonstrate his finely honed drawing ability and his natural affinity for the craft that would ensure he would soon eclipse his teacher (Alfred E. Child) and his peers.