Kevin Sharkey

Sharkey was born in Dublin in St. Patrick's Mother and Baby Home on the Navan Road in 1961, but was brought up in Killybegs,[3] County Donegal. His birth father was a Nigerian student at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and his birth mother was of Irish descent.[4] With no state supports available for single parents, adoption was the societal norm. Kevin was adopted by the Sharkey family at a very young age. As a child he took part in Irish dancing, which won him 37 medals before the age of 12.[5] He was also a runner-up in the all Ireland Disco dancing championship at Zhivago nightclub at the age of 16.

Sharkey says his relationship with his adoptive parents was sometimes abusive, eventually resulting in him being put into foster care when aged 12. Sharkey was sent to live at St Joseph's Industrial School in Salthill, Galway, until he was 16, where he witnessed sexual abuse against young pupils by Christian Brothers staff.[6] He suffered physical abuse; the school was the subject of a police investigation in 1996, and a national scandal.[7]

However, it was during his stay at St. Joseph's that Sharkey discovered his passion for painting. Sharkey says that it provided him with a sense of escapism.[8] His art career began at the age of 30, when he experimented with oils on canvas and bright colours.

Sharkey has had many different career paths, including being a chef, a fisherman, a singer-songwriter and a TV presenter. He was Ireland's first ever bi-racial television presenter on a show called Megamix, and presented British television music show The Roxy from 1987.[9] He was also briefly a photographer and a model, photographed by David Bailey.[10]

Sharkey regularly collaborated with Irish rock band, The Boomtown Rats, and German disco group Boney M., writing lyrics and melodies for both.[11] He wrote the latter group's 1989 single Everybody Wants to Dance Like Josephine Baker.[12]

Sharkey had a small part in Father Ted where he played a priest named Father Shaft in two episodes. His most famous line, coming after a nun asked him what he thought of all the work being done in Africa by priests, was "Sure I wouldn't know, I'm from Donegal".[13] Sharkey was also a farmhand in the Irish TV series Celebrity Farm where he was the fourth farmhand to be evicted.[14] Sharkey's difficult relationship with the other celebrity contestants was the subject of news media attention. He refused to join cast members on a reunion show on RTÉ One's The Late Late Show, choosing to appear on the rival network, TV3's The Dunphy Show instead.[15][16]

Irish singer and songwriter Bob Geldof was the first person to buy a Sharkey painting,[17] with other collectors of his work including Charles Saatchi, Rosie Huntington Whitley, Michael Portillo, Courtney Love, Whitney Houston, Matt Lucas, and the President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins.[13]

Sharkey has been a full-time artist since 1992. He was described by Ireland's Sunday Independent as "A True Irish Legend" and by Sky News as "Pure Genius", he and his provocative canvas painting "You May Now Kiss the Groom", was also listed on CNN's "Monday's Intriguing people" in 2010 for its proposition of Gay Marriage.[18] His art is considered abstract, modern work, with bright, textured colours. His style is also regarded as stylistically diverse with many of his works being visually different from each other.

He has had exhibitions in Dublin, London, Ibiza, Amsterdam and New York City. In 2007 his What Colour Are Kisses? exhibition sold out completely within 48 hours. He has had gallery shows solely dedicated to his work in Dublin, Donegal, Mayo, Boyle, Ibiza and London's Mayfair. His painting Roisin raised €26,100 in 2008 for People in Need in the RTÉ Telethon.[9] His work has included, Samantha Mumba's bust and 'Moolah' (a life sized cow covered in €18,000 of real banknotes – during the height of Ireland's Celtic Tiger phenomenon). Sharkey paintings were also included in the music video of Estelle and Kanye West's 2008 hit single, American Boy[19]

His Public Enemy Number One exhibition was on a twelve date tour of the world (including New York, Tokyo, Rome and Rio de Janeiro).[20] The public figures featured in the exhibition included Jordan as Myra Hindley, Barack Obama wearing Ku Klux Klan robes (made from U.S. flags), the Pope marrying a gay couple, and Angelina Jolie & Madonna passing each other in a supermarket aisle pushing trolleys full of multi-racial children.[21]

In 2013, Sharkey filed a lawsuit against Octagon Films and Irish broadcast network RTÉ for unauthorized use of his artwork in Irish crime series "Love/Hate". He also filed for damages over the portrayal of his work being "liked by a dangerous killer and drug addict".[22][23] The case was eventually settled out of court in late 2014 [24]

In late 2005, Kevin Sharkey announced his intention to take the Irish State to the European Court of Human Rights in order to force the recognition of same-sex partnerships, specifically civil partnerships. Sharkey cited personal reasons for this, decrying the fact that if he were to marry his long-term male partner Ade Antigha in Spain (where the two were living at the time), the marriage would not be recognised by Irish law.[27] Ireland subsequently legalised civil partnerships (in 2011) and same-sex marriage (in 2015).

In September 2013, Sharkey joined Sinn Féin. He cited the "dedication" of its then deputy leader, Mary Lou McDonald TD as his reason for doing so.[10] Sharkey however left the party in 2016 because he felt he was just being used as a "poster boy".[28]

In May 2016, Sharkey voiced his opposition to Irish government spending on foreign aid, as well as the influx of immigration in Ireland.[3]

In March 2017, Sharkey denounced the Catholic Church's role in the Tuam foster home scandal, invoking his own negative experience of the Irish foster care system at the time, mentioning sexual abuse and the existence of unmarked graves of young boarders who had died at his school in Salthill, Galway.[29]

In the same month, Sharkey announced his opposition to current Irish immigration policy and the contentious atmosphere surrounding debate of the issue, declaring he intended to enter politics in order to open up dialogue.[30] In the months since he made several appearances on Irish television and radio speaking out against political correctness and the perceived prioritization of immigrant citizens over native born Irish when it came to public services.[31][32][33][34]

In March 2018, Sharkey announced his candidacy for the 2018 Irish Presidential Election, on an "Ireland First" platform.[35][1] He later withdrew from the race, calling it a "circus".[2]

Sharkey supports the death penalty saying he believed the death penalty would be an appropriate punishment for those who harm elderly people.[36][37]

Kevin Sharkey is openly bisexual having had several long-term relationships with members of both sexes. Between 1997 and 2008, he shared a home in Ibiza with his then boyfriend Ade Antigha, an ex-police sergeant from England and former manager of Sharkey.

In 2010, he was engaged to his girlfriend, Carmen Sant Angelo, an Italian art dealer.[38][39]

In the summer of 2016, struggling again with his finances, Sharkey briefly became homeless while living in Dublin.[9]

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