There are some pictures by modern Irish artists that deserve considering here; the "Irish Impressionist" Walter Osborne (1859-1903) painted a superb Dublin scene of the 1880's St Patrick's Close which shows a boy playing a pennywhistle in the foreground.

Several later artists, such as Jack B. Yeats, Charles Lamb, Sean Keating and Paul Henry, were fascinated by the culture of rural Ireland, in particular the Irish speaking west, and they all painted scenes from Irish life which include some of folk singers, musicians and dancers.

My own favourite is one by Charles Lamb (1893-1964) "Dancing at a Northern Crossroads" 1920, which I can't find reproduced anywhere online. It shows two gaily dressed couples step dancing to a fiddler at a remote crossroads watched by another two gossipping couples sitting by a stone wall.

Jack Yeats drew a fine portrait of a traditional singer which he titled "Now Rise Up, Willie Reilly" - but again I don't think there is an online reproduction. Yeats' illustrations to Synge's sketches of the Aran Islands for the Manchester Guardian are well worth discovering.

Sean Keating painted a group of fishermen and women dancing on a Galway pier in the 1920's entitled "Dun Aengus".

Paul Henry painted some wonderful landscapes in Connemara and especially in Achill Island where this one The Watcher is set, depicting a girl in a bright red skirt gazing out on a stormy grey sea. (Follow the links from this for more paintings by Paul Henry).