‘I became immersed in the excitement of the business while still a schoolgirl’

Sell-off of paintings has raises €7m for stately home

Of the Beit paintings controversially earmarked for auction, three avoided the hammer

‘I’m secretly a bit of a petrol-head so a Lotto windfall might mean a vintage Jaguar’

Life’s Work: George Stacpoole, antiques dealer in Adare, Co Limerick, and president of IADA

Businessman’s cat head sells for €1,000 while tables go for €145,000 in Mealy’s auction

Deputy Fine Gael leader will include large collection of cars in sale of contents of Offaly mansion

The former ‘Riverdance’ dancer’s paintings – which sell for up to €340,000 – are the inspiration for a new afternoon tea in a Dublin hotel

‘You never know what the next telephone call or meeting might bring’

‘I don’t have the time to paint any more. Now I just finger-paint with my three-year-old daughter’

‘Francis Bacon’s studio in the Dublin City Gallery is my favourite work of art’

“After the hammer fell there was a huge burst of thunder and lightning outside”

‘My advice is to buy now because prices are ridiculously low but things are beginning to rise’

Hegarty and his wife specialise in the sale of Irish furniture, silver, glass and paintings

Life’s Work: Christine Ryall, now Ireland consultant to Christie’s, escaped to West Germany with her family as a girl

John Donohoe, bookseller, Athlone, Co Westmeath

James Gorry, a Dublin picture restorer and art dealer, shares his wisdom

“I eventually found the money hidden underneath my own bathroom’s shower tray”

‘You never know what will turn up – or where’

‘Objects connect you to a moment in history’

‘Victorian art is undervalued because it has been out of fashion since the 1990s’

“I have a distinct memory of the intrigue I felt – aged about nine – attending a country house sale with my mother”

‘People are buying jewellery to wear and not to be left in the safe or bedside locker’

‘The soprano Maria Callas walked into the shop one day . . . and started to sing’

‘Buy what you love, not necessarily what the market dictates’

Singer’s ancestor fled Ireland for the US in the 18th-century after assault, paper shows

Image shows one of the future leaders of the Easter Rising in the Cape of Good Hope

‘Nine times out of 10 your first instinct about a picture is the right one’

‘I source, restore, market and sell items from Ireland and abroad and the hunt is always the best part’

Chorley’s auctioneers says map will go under the hammer with estimate of £1,500-£2,000

Decorations awarded posthumously to patriots’ Thomas Clarke and Joseph Plunkett

Seán T O’Kelly’s medals among items that failed to sell at the New York event

Large Rising collection to be auctioned including medals awarded to Seán T O’Kelly

‘Business’ by Yeats takes top lot in RDS art auction in Dublin

Kerry economist’s 18-century essay now one of the world’s most collectible rare books

Carbine reputedly used at Battle of the Boyne to be auctioned

Christie’s auctioneers will sell paintings by John Atkinson Grimshaw in London

Dancer is offering 25 pictures for sale as part of new Firedance exhibition in London

This 17-bed Georgian mansion in Kilkenny has been partially renovated and could make a plush private residence or a country house hotel