At home with Jim Fitzpatrick

Artist, illustrator, graphic designer, photographer – Jim Fitzpatrick is all of the above and much more to boot. Apart from being Ireland’s prime exponent of art inspired by Celtic Mythology he has also designed album covers for a range of Irish and international artists including Ash, Sinead O’Connor and The Darkness.

But the flame-haired Dubliner is undoubtedly best known for his iconic, Celtic-influenced Thin Lizzy album covers. He started his long association with the Dublin rock legends at the time of their Vagabonds Of The Western World album, which was released in 1973, and continued to work with the band through classics like Jailbreak, Johnny The Fox and Chinatown. To date he has produced over 250 Lizzy related pieces of art including posters, tour merchandise , t-shirts etc.
Home for Fitzpatrick for the past 18 years has been a seafront apartment located right on the beach at Sutton, near Howth in north County Dublin. “I’ve always wanted to live beside the sea,” he says. “Up to the age of five the family lived in Skerries but then we moved to Glasnevin, which is where I spent my early years. At the time I moved out here my marriage had ended and I was looking for a fresh start. These apartments went up and I thought ‘let’s go for it’.”
Fitzpatrick says he was also drawn to the historical and mystical history of the area
“Where I live was probably the earliest Christian settlement in Ireland,” he says. “The ruins of St Fintan’s church are here and on top of Howth Head there’s a dolmen which has a kind of a scary reputation. And then there’s the whole connection with Granuaile and Howth Castle.
“But most of all I like the village atmosphere that Howth and Sutton has to offer,” he adds. “I love big cities like New York and LA as well but around here people still say hello to each other in the shops and there’s a nice friendly feel to the place. It was actually a very posh place when I was a kid and there were these big houses and they had tea rooms up on the hill. It was very much a holiday place back then, a great place if you lived in the inner city and wanted to get out of town for some fresh air.”
Fittingly, the apartment is only a stone’s throw away from the one-time home of the late, great Phil Lynott. “I got to know and love this place through my association with Philip,” he says. “Myself and Phil used to walk on the beach and have these long conversations. I didn’t realise until long after he died that that we never repeated those conversations elsewhere. I’m great friends with his daughters Sarah and Kathleen. Kathleen is so like Phil it’s unreal. I introduced them to Justin from the Darkness at their gig in Dublin and he was thrilled to meet them. They now have a permanent invitation to any Darkness gig.”
Fitzpatrick clearly remembers his first meeting with Lynott in the early ’70s: “It was in Neary’s pub off Grafton street,” he recalls. “I was a fanatical admirer of bands like Skid Row and Granny’s Intentions in those days and I had done a psychedelic poster for a band called The Movement. I became aware of Lizzy through Skid Row although I knew Phil from seeing him around town – we used to walk up and down Grafton Street and nod to each other from opposite sides of the street. We were introduced and we got on like a house on fire right from the start. He gave me total free reign over the album designs which made things a lot easier for me.”
Music continues to play a big part in Fitzpatrick’s life and his CD collection is as varied as you might expect. “I listen to everything from Frank Sinatra and The Beach Boys to Link Wray and Roy Orbison. I’m just looking over at my collection right now and I can see Marvin Gaye, The Byrds, Led Zeppelin and Jeff Buckley, who I heard well before he died and became a fan of. And I’ve got records by The Thrills and Damien Rice who I think is unbelievably good. I remember hearing him for the first time and thinking ‘who the fuck is that?’
“I’m also a Marvel comics aficionado,” he adds. “I’m one of these people who knows more about comics than he should. I bought them as a kid and I even used to deal in them. I still have most of them up in the attic.”
From his home Fitzpatrick runs his own publishing company selling books, cards and calendars adorned with his artwork while he also sells works through his web-site (www.jimfitzpatrick.ie). He is currently working on the artwork for The Darkness DVD and is preparing for a trip to Russia where he plans to take some photographs
“My apartment is where I work, eat, live and breathe,” he says. “The big room at the front is my studio and it looks right out on the beach towards Ireland’s Eye and Lambay Island. It really is idyllic here. I’m doing a lot of paintings right now inspired by looking out of my windows.”

Photography by Cathal Dawson