E.C. Talbot Press 1940s

I Can’t Help Laughing, John D. Sheridan, Talbot Press (1949). Cover design by E.C. (Eileen Coghlan)

Statue for a Square, Francis MacManus, Talbot Press (1945). Cover design by E.C. (Eileen Coghlan)

These two ‘forties covers from the Talbot Press are both signed E.C. After a bit of digging I was able to figure out that E.C. is Eileen Coghlan (1909-90) and thanks to Theo Snoddy’s excellent Dictionary of Irish Artists: 20th Century we have some biographical detail.

Coghlan was born in Kilbeggen, Co Westmeath and attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art for a short period. She spent the majority of her career working as a book illustrator, particularly children’s books and schoolbooks for Browne and Nolan, the Educational Company and later Folens.

Coughlan also illustrated/designed many covers for the the Talbot Press. Her jacket for I Can’t Help Laughing (I featured a later edition of the book in an earlier post) shows her lively drawing style which she put to good use in her children’s books. Her style has a nice cartoon feel and she contributed to Dublin Opinion as a cartoonist.

In 1944 she was living at 25 Bachelor’s Walk and won £3 from the Irish Red Cross for the design of a Tuberculosis awareness poster.

Roísín Daly

On the trail of another mystery, I now believe that Roísín Daly (the designer of the beautiful Prayers of Life cover which I posted recently) is in fact the maiden name of Roísín Hogan, the first Director of Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology.