Che Guevara Mural

Over the centuries, the island of Ireland has produced a great number of luminaries and inventors worthy of memorializing. It may then come as a shock, or at least a puzzling glance, to see the image of the rebel Che Guevara emblazoned on a wall in Kilkee ,a small coastal retreat on the county's West Coast. This indeed is the case and the backstory is worthy of an atypical  yarn the nation is known for spinning.

The year was 1961 and a local lad named Jim Fitzpatrick was working at the hotel bar of the Royal Marine when a group of men in army fatigues strutted in. The sixteen year old barman instantly recognized one of them from various news reels. To his surprise he correctly identified the man as Cuban Revolutionary Che Guevara (1928 - 1967). What he couldn't piece together is why he would be in this small sea side town in the west of Ireland.

The two men got to talking and it was divulged that this curious party was returning from a financial mission in Moscow when their plane had to land at the nearby Shannon Airport, due to weather conditions and refueling. As the conversation continued, both men discussed various subjects, including mutual like minded figures of the two country's revolutionary struggles. At one point Guevara admitted that he had Irish roots.  

Years later, towards the end of the 1960s, Fitzpatrick,( now a burgeoning artist) took it upon himself to paint the image of this iconic figure. He based the portrait on a photograph taken by Alberto Korda. This red and black image would soon go on to be embraced by the counter culture movement of the time. It became a symbol of the anti-establishment and would be printed on everything from posters to t-shirts to coffee mugs.