Tributes paid to Limerick lecturer who left her mark on a generation of artists
Ursula Walsh (also known as Ursula Brick), who has died aged 78 after a short illness, was a Senior Lecturer in Drawing and Painting at the Limerick College of Art and Design from 1969 to 2008.
She was born in Cork, one of four children to Eileen (née Field) and Tady Brick. She was christened Helen but she adopted her middle name of Ursula and from a very young age she was known by that name.
Her father, a Comandante in the Irish Army, was stationed at various barracks around Ireland throughout her childhood and adolescence until the family finally settled in Limerick.
For the last two years of Ursula’s secondary education, she attended the Presentation Secondary School in the city.
She entered the then Limerick School of Art in 1962 and graduated in 1967 with a First-Class Honours Art Teacher’s Certificate (the equivalent of a First-Class Honours Degree).
She taught in secondary schools in Ennis and Banagher before returning to the Limerick School of Art and subsequently became Senior Lecturer in Fine Art.
Ursula was scrupulously fair in all her dealings with students and colleagues and kept her own mind on the difficult decisions she occasionally faced within her teaching practice.
She had a staunch, ethical position on all the decisions she made. She held hard work, discipline and application in the highest esteem; talent or instinct were often secondary concerns.
In 1977, along with other artists from Limerick City, she co-founded the Exhibition of Visual Art, an open submission exhibition now known as eva International. It is considered Ireland’s premier contemporary art exhibition.
She was the first Chairperson and, in 1979, oversaw a new direction when EVA adopted a single and independent international adjudicator, a turning point in the visual arts in Ireland. In 2023, EVA International will celebrate its 40th anniversary.
She was the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) nominee to the Council for the Status of Women and subsequently served as a TUI representative on the Board of Governors when the School became part of the Limerick Regional Technical College.
She also coordinated the Erasmus exchange programme which allowed her to travel throughout Europe.
Ursula’s own artistic output was limited, committed as she was to her teaching profession. When she retired, she devoted much of her time to her elegant garden.
Although Ursula was born with dyslexia, a difficulty much misunderstood at the time and which presented certain challenges throughout her education.
In later life, with the arrival of new technology, often sending letters, emails and text messages using her unique vocabulary. Nothing deterred her in saying what she wanted to say, and, in time, this perceived limitation became a great strength.
Generosity was the cornerstone of Ursula’s life. In a final act of giving, she has donated her body to scientific research. A celebration of her life will be held in the Hunt Museum on Friday, July 28.
In 1978 Ursula married the artist Samuel Walsh and they lived for a time in Ballyneety, County Limerick, before moving to Clonlara, Co Clare.
She was predeceased by her brother Tim ‘Teddy’ Brick, former deputy city engineer for Dublin, and her nephew Dermot.
She is survived by her husband Samuel and their three children, Tady, Aoife, Esther; son-in-law Matthew; grandchildren Helena and Rupert; sisters Rita and Olive; sister-in-law Maeve; brother-in-law Gerry Boland, nephews and nieces; grand-nephews, grand-nieces and extended family; Helena’s mother Milena Martinović.
She will be remembered fondly and often by so many friends, artists, fellow gardeners, former colleagues and countless former students.