Making My Mark

There wasn't much in the way of art education for Shankill Road youngsters when James MacIntyre was growing up in Belfast. Times were hard, and the emphasis for boys was on getting into a trade, not messing about with pencils and crayons. However James was born with a real talent, a talent that somehow, by sheer instinct and stubbornness, he developed into a profession. He had his first show when he was only 18 and soon was a respected member of the group of artists which included Gerard Dillon, Dan O'Neill and Arthur Armstrong. This is James MacIntyre's story of those early years - his own portrait of the artist as a boy and young man. Written simply and directly, it presents a picture of Belfast in the 1930s and 1940s, and an account of his struggle for artistic fulfilment against all the odds.