Michael Flaherty was born in Cloghane, Brandon Co. Kerry. Michael Flaherty’s true vocation to painting came out of curiosity. He attended school at Killarney, then graduated with a BA in UCC and a H. Dip in Maynooth in 1974. He never really wanted to teach so he took a year out lived in Inniscarra and came to drawing almost out of boredom. He states that he basically found a pencil, “I thought this was it – it was like discovering language”. He took night classes at the Crawford and benefited from his teacher John Burke. He then applied to Sligo School of Art and was accepted on enthusiasm alone. Where he was guided by John O’Leary,  bringing forth his own natural style. 

Michael has a “remarkably assured technique” and is “incredibly fresh”. “He captures very quickly scenes which he’s very familiar with. He is uninhibited in his use of paint, working in layers of thick, painterly impasto to the third dimensional. His use of colour is bold, vibrant, daring and unconventional. His response is the depiction of a scene, or an object or an animal as filtered through his imagination, hence the colours are heightened, making the scene more intense and the sense of movement more vital”. Greenlane Gallery.