At St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Co. Galway, the bodies of hundreds of infants born to unmarried mothers were dumped in a disused sewer. Now, thanks to the heroic efforts of one woman, they will be given a proper burial.

Capturing the immediacy of fighting and the writhing bodies of soldiers, as well as keeping narrative clarity, proved enormously difficult for painters depicting battles before the advent of photography. Michael Hall reveals how they rose to the challenge

ORTONA, ITALY 20-27 DECEMBER 1943

I found it quite disconcerting, drinking a pint with Queen Boudicca and her Iceni warriors lurking behind me. I was in the Odd One Out, a quirky pub in Colchester and was getting used to finding histo

After early profligate years in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, Francis Grant traded sporting scenes for portraits and climbed the ladder to become president of the Royal Academy. A forthcoming exhibition at Dickinson does justice to his drawing

In a John Behan bronze, collector Jacqueline O’Donovan, a child of the Irish diaspora, can sense the desperation of a starving people forced to flee their land