I made a painting of the AMB in 1998 for my friend Sean Flynn and painted the smiling faces / portraits of 100 or so locals and / or visitors to the pub from photographs Sean gave me.
Sean was very very happy with the oil painting and hung it high on a wall of the public bar. He commissioned me to make other works including murals which have since been destroyed.
But it wasn’t just Sean who was happy, everyone whose face I painted was happy. All the faces were good likenesses and recognisable.
Sadly, over the years since I painted this piece many of the people who appear in it, including Sean himself, have departed from the land of the living.
In my view this painting is a valuable social and historical document depicting an Irish world which no longer exists. I tried to get the relevant Irish government department to purchase / save it but to no avail.
Unfortunately, this work of art no longer hangs high on a wall in the bar as Sean wanted, but was taken down and consigned to a damp back room.
So I have digitalised the only image I have to keep this piece of history alive.
Feel free to download, print, and copy this image and / or details from it in order to save it from extinction.
Thank you.
Peter Robinson
27/12/2020
peter robinson fine art 
Oh, I get it now!
So sorry to hear about your friends!
I am glad some of them are still around.
Beautiful artwork by the way!
You celebrate their life with your art!
God Bless, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Thanks Ryan. Yes, those days have gone I’m afraid. When I lived in the locality I got to know many people. I was a stranger, the sole Englishman, in their midst. Most of these guys were proud Irish Republicans. Yet for the most part they welcomed me into their midst and made me feel at home. Many have now sadly passed away. Many of them before their time. Yes, there were some great characters I got to know.