A friend of mine in Tralee gave me a copy of the Capuchin Annual 1945 - 46, which contains a very interesting article about Michael George Brennan, entitled, The Boy From Castlebar.
He was a brother of Louis, the inventor. He was a noted artist. He was born in 1839. As a child he was a gifted caricaturist and in 1854 he was offered a place at the Art School of the Royal Dublin Society. Lady Louisa, daughter of the Earl of Litchfield, of Kilronan Castle Roscommon, became his patron and he went to The Royal Academy in London. In 1859. His brother Pat left for Australia the same year. In London, he contracted typhus and later TB. He returned to Mayo to convalesce but the dampness did not help and in 1861 he moved to Italy. ‘To this Roman period belong the twenty paintings on which the fame of Michael John Brennan rests.’ He spent the summers on Capri and exhibited regularly at the RA and other shows. He died while visiting Algiers with Lady Louisa in 1871. ‘The world has forgotten the boy from Castlebar who painted beautiful pictures and died in a foreign land. But the books make mention of his brother Louis, who inherited his fathers bent. He was honored by Britain fifty years ago for his inventions. But Michael the artist rests under the noble column raised to his memory by Lady Louisa, in far Algiers.’