''My Four Green Fields'', is a

stained glass window Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

by Irish artist

Evie Hone Eva Sydney Hone RHA (22 April 1894 – 13 March 1955), usually known as Evie, was an Irish painter and stained glass artist.Nicola Gordon Bowe (May 2009)Hone, Eva Sydney (1894–1955) ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', online editio ...

. The window depicts the four provinces of Ireland and, though the composition is complex, emblems and symbols of the four provinces can be clearly seen. It was commissioned in 1939 by the

Irish Government The Government of Ireland ( ga, Rialtas na hÉireann) is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland. The Constitution of Ireland vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the , the head of government. The gover ...

's Department of Industry and Commerce for the Irish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Later, from 1960 to about 1983 the window prominently featured at the Head Office of the Irish national transport company, Córas Iompair Éireann on

O'Connell Street O'Connell Street () is a street in the centre of Dublin, Ireland, running north from the River Liffey. It connects the O'Connell Bridge to the south with Parnell Street to the north and is roughly split into two sections bisected by Henry S ...

. The window was then taken into storage by Abbey Glass in

Kilmainham Kilmainham (, meaning " St Maighneann's church") is a south inner suburb of Dublin, Ireland, south of the River Liffey and west of the city centre. It is in the city's Dublin 8 postal district. The area was once known as Kilmanum. History In t ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

at the request of the Irish

Office of Public Works The Office of Public Works (OPW) ( ga, Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí) (legally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland) is a major Irish Government agency, which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including hundreds of o ...

. In the 1980s, a decision was made to renovate

Government Buildings Government Buildings ( ga, Tithe an Rialtais) is a large Edwardian period, Edwardian building enclosing a quadrangle on Merrion Street in Dublin, Ireland, in which several key offices of the Government of Ireland are located. Among the offices o ...

in Dublin, the office of the

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the o ...

. The window was completely renovated, including dismantling the work, cleaning each piece of glass individually and then releading. The window was fitted into its current position, the main window in the entrance hall of Government Buildings. Since its installation at Government Buildings, the window, light streaming through it, has been the backdrop to many press conferences and meetings between Irish politicians and foreign dignitaries. The window formed the backdrop to

Bertie Ahern Bartholomew Patrick "Bertie" Ahern (born 12 September 1951) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1994 to 2008, Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997, Tánaiste a ...

's resignation speech in April 2008. Concerning ''My Four Green Fields'', the Tate Gallery in London has said:

References

{{British and Irish stained glass, state=collapsed Stained glass windows 1939 works