Hector McDonnell is one of Ireland’s leading artists, exhibiting in New York and Hong Kong, as well as in Ireland, England, Germany and France, with museum retrospectives in Belfast and Darmstadt. He has illustrated several books of Irish ballads, most notably Ireland’s Other Poetry and the prizewinning The Night Before Larry Was Stretched. His original passion, however, was for history and archaeology, ignited by an excavation on the island of Kythera in Greece, sketching reconstructions of decorated Minoan pottery on site. He has since published several books of drawings and etchings, including A Journey to Tsaparang and A Chinese Journey.
He is also author of The Wild Geese of the Antrim MacDonnells (1996), and an illustrated series, The Holy Hills and Sacred Places of Ireland, The Irish Round Towers and St Patrick. Ireland’s Other History was conceived soon after Lilliput’s publication of Ireland’s Other Poetry in 2007.