Collection: Irish Banknotes

Series A

In 1927, John Lavery agreed to assist the Irish Currency Commission in the design of the first Free State banknotes. Reworking a portrait of his wife Hazel of 1909, he cast her as Kathleen ni Houlihan, the mythical heroine of W.B. Yeats’s play of 1902, and placed her against a view of the lakes of Killarney. The artist later quoted W.T. Cosgrave, President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, as saying of the banknotes: ‘Every Irishman, not to mention the foreigner who visits Ireland, will carry one next to his heart’.

The reverse of each denomination features the head of a "River God" representing one of the rivers of Ireland taken from a keystone on the Custom House in Dublin sculpted by Edward Smyth

Series B was Legal Tender from 1976–1995, although not printed after May 1993.The theme chosen for these notes was history of Ireland, and each note featured the portrait of a person with this theme in mind from a particular era from historic to modern and complementing visual elements. The portrait of Lady Lavery painted by Sir John Lavery was retained from Series A, contained as a watermark in the unprinted space.