John Shinnors is one of Ireland’s most successful painters. He was born in Limerick in 1950 and has spent most of his life there. He attended the Limerick School of Art for 18 months where he was taught by its influential head, Jack Donovan. Shinnors subsequently taught there himself but for most of his life has made his living from his own work as an artist.

His big break came in 1984 when he won the GPA Emerging Artist award.

He’s a member of Aosdana and the RHA but is regarded as something of a maverick, and shuns the social circle of high art, preferring a pint in his local pub The Spotted Dog in Roxboro in Limerick.

He’s married to Catherine and they have two sons, Jonathan and Roger, and three grandchildren.

And these are John Shinnors Musical Heirlooms.