Michael Healy was born on the 14th November 1873 at 40 Bishop Street, Dublin. In March 1897 he enrolled at the Metropolitan School of Art where he studied until 1898 when he joined the RHA school. In 1898 Healy also began to work as an illustrator for the Irish Rosary and whilst there became very friendly with the editor Father Glendon, OP. Father Glendon encouraged Healy to go to Florence to further his studies and accordingly Healy left for Florence in the Autumn of 1899. Healy stayed in Florence for eighteen months working in the studio of de Bacci-Ventui (a Florentine painter) and studying in the life school of the R. Istituto di Belle Arte.

On his return to Ireland in May 1901 Healy took a job in the Dominican College at Newbridge as an art teacher. This was not a position that he held for long as he found the teaching of small boys very tiresome and frustrating.

In 1903 Sarah Purser, Edward Marytn, T.P. Gill etc. founded the studio An Tur Gloine (The Tower of Glass) whose purpose was to improve the quality of stained glass in Ireland. Healy was the first recruit to this studio and by 1904 he produced his first complete window, The St. Simeon window for Loughrea Cathedral. From this period onwards Healy's interest in painting decreased (he did though exhibit with the RHA from 1912-1914) and stained glass became his passion. He became so prolific in the art of stained glass that he is now regarded as one of Irelands greatest artists in this medium.

Between 1906-1911 Healy spent time in Enniskillen designing and producing windows for the Convent of Mercy on Belmore Street. It is not known exactly how he came to be commissioned in c. 1908 to paint the Nativity in St Michael's but it is possible that this commission arose as a result of the time he had already spent working in Enniskillen. The Nativity appears to be unique in that it is the only known oil mural in a Church by Healy.

The Nativity has been noted to show the painters indebtedness to his observation of early Renaissance painting in Florence, this is without doubt. The style, detail, humanism, serenity and harmony of the painting all have their basis in Renaissance painting but with the colouring Healy appears to have developed a totally new means of expression using colours that are more often associated with the stained glass with which he was by then so passionate. The reds, blues and purples in The Nativity almost having a jewel like quality which can normally be associated with stained glass.

Healy died on Monday 22nd September 1941 in Mercers Hospital after a short illness.

Charles Russell was the second son of the Scottish artist John Russell and was born in Dumbarton on 4th February 1852. In 1874, when he was 22 and already a fully trained artist, Russell (Charles) left Scotland for Dublin where he found employment as a painter of portraits from photographs for Chancellor of Sackville Street. Russell persisted in this profession for roughly ten years and then in 1885 he began to work for himself as a portrait painter.

Russell began to exhibit works with the RHA (Royal Hibernian Academy) in 1869 (before moving to Dublin). On the 8th June 1891 he was elected an Associate of the Academy and on the 18th January 1893 he became a full member. Between 1869 and 1910 Russell exhibited nearly 100 paintings with the RHA, these being both portraits and landscapes and painted in oil and watercolour.

Throughout the 1880's Russell was a member of the Dublin Sketching Club. Through the club he met Frederick Vodrey, a glass and china dealer, who gave him the opportunity to model, fire and decorate ceramics. Many of Russells pieces were exhibited during the mid 1880's e.g. he had celtic ornamented pieces in the Dublin Artisans Exhibition of 1885 and this aspect of his artistic talent has lead him to be seen as one of the most enthusiasic and pioneering figures of the Arts and Crafts movement in Ireland.

By the end of the 19th Century Russell had come to find that his real artistic passion lay within portraiture and from this date he concentrated almost exclusively within this field. In 1900 he made one of his few sojournments into Church art, painting in situ a series of didactic paintings for St Michael's Roman Catholic Church in Enniskillen: The Transfiguration, The Sermon on the Mount, Magdalene at the Feet of Our Lord and The Baptism in Jordan.

These paintings are unusual in that although they are instructive there is no aesthetic subordination to meaning as is common in this type of work. From their conception these paintings have been highly regarded, writers in The Irish Builder on 1st November 1900 commenting on the 'pleasure that is derived from their viewing' and on how 'The colour is rich and telling, whilst the general grouping and strong Eastern character is devotional and appropriate.' More recently Dr Michael Wynne from the National Gallery of Ireland has noted that these 'Charles Russell murals are of the highest quality and can only be related to the religious works of the Pre-Raphaelites in England or the Nazarenes in Rome.'

Russell died on the 12th December 1910 at his home at Prince Edward Terrace in Blackrock.