The search for the Lost Priory of the Knights Hospitaller Kilmainham.

Barry Kehoe has been researching the site of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, now the Irish Museum of Modern Art, for the last four years to determine the morphology of the river terrace that has been the location of an early Christian Monastery, a Viking stronghold, a substantial military defensive complex of the Knights Hospitaller and finally an army pensioners hospital.

His research of the Kilmainham site brought IMMA, the OPW and Dublin City Council Archaeology together as key stakeholders in the development of an illustration project to reconstruct the landscape of Kilmainham in the year 1340 when the Hospitaller Priory was at the peak of its power. Barry will give a talk on his research into the Royal Hospital Grounds, the Priory illustration project and in particular the difficulty of locating the Lost Priory of St John.

Barry Kehoe is an Independent Curator, Historian and Art Writer. He works in the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Visitor Engagement and facilitates talks, tours and workshops for the museum’s various education programmes.

In 2020 Barry took on a role of IMMA - Heritage Researcher and Historian and has delivered major heritage projects for the IMMA and the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, such as the Heritage Council funded audio podcast series IMMA Past Futures in 2022 and he played a key role in developing the Dublin City Council Archaeology illustration Project with illustrator Stephen Conlin to reconstruct the lost Priory of the Knights Hospitaller Kilmainham in 2021. He was also instrumental in getting a geophysical Survey completed of Bully's Acre Cemetery in 2022 that revealed traces of early monastic settlement at the Royal Hospital. In 2023 he developed a digital activation project funded by the Heritage Council to create a suite of Web pages for IMMA relating to the history of the site of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

Barry holds a BA in English and History (UCC); an MA in Drama and Theatre Studies (UCD); a higher Diploma in Arts Administration (UCD); A Certificate in Journalism (City and Guilds) ; A Certificate in Drawing and Visual Investigation (NCAD); and an MA in Visual Culture - Art in the Contemporary World (NCAD).

Barry has written for various visual art publications and art galleries including the Visual Artists Ireland (VAI)- News Sheet, Art in the Contemporary World (ACW) Blog, Critical Bastards zine, the NCAD Gallery, the MART Gallery, the Oonagh Young Gallery, the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery and the IMMA Blog.

He was a delegate at the Former West Congress run by BAK - basis voor actuele kunst, in Berlin in 2013 and was a selected writer for the inaugural Iran/Ireland Art Critical Writing Exchange between Kooshk Artist Residency Tehran and IMMA Artist Residency Programme in 2015. Barry Curated the first exhibition in Ireland of the acclaimed German Artists Nina Fischer and Maroan El Sani at the MART Gallery, Rathmines in 2014. Barry has been a curatorial researcher and advisor for several art projects and artists both independently and for the IMMA.

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