As an exhibition which documents two centuries of Irish social life, it ran the risk of attempting to be authoritative about a subject impossible to document simply through paintings. The paintings themselves could have become of secondary importance to this aim of elucidating historical matters.

And there was the possibility that mediocre paintings might have been included for their content rather than artistic merit.

Thankfully, however, under the curatorship of Brendan Rooney, this is not the case. The result is instead a rather daring, engaging exhibition, which addresses these challenges head on. The show comprises a quirky mix of thoughtfully selected works, with masterpieces by famous Irish painters alongside little-known gems. And because it is arranged thematically rather than chronologically, there is a rare opportunity to see works from the 18th century hanging opposite 20thcentury paintings. While this offers many fascinating insights into the past, it is not intended to be of purely historical interest;

indeed, the artistic licence of the painters, their social background and the intended audience are all considered as significant factors in how the subject matter is represented.

The theme is in itself quite an unusual choice: rather than an overview of a particular artist, genre or period, the focus on Irish leisure pursuits spans a cross-section of time, styles and approaches to painting, featuring more than 80 works from the mid-18th century to the mid-20th century by about 50 artists. The exhibition is divided into several sections:

music and dance; sport; ritual and religion; light entertainment; sun, sea and symbolism; clubs, pubs and parties; and fairs, markets, parades and calendar customs.

Considering the contemporary popularity of "clubs, pubs and parties", this section is the most disappointing, with little insight into Irish drinking traditions. Even The Limerick Hell Fire Club, with its promising title, ends up being a dull assemblage of bewigged figures sitting stiffly round a table.

Much more lively and engaging is the section on music and dance.

A grand 18th-century ball at Dublin castle can be contrasted with Elizabeth Rivers' 1935 Interval in the Ceilidhe, in which men in caps and a crowd of women are squeezed into a cramped, firelit room. Many of the paintings in this section demonstrate how painters romanticised the Irish as simple, rural peasant-folk: Trevor Thomas Fowler's idealised painting of rosy-cheeked children dancing at the crossroads, painted around 1840, gives no indication of the hardship of poverty, while Charles Lamb's 1920 Dancing at a Northern Crossroads, presents an almost heroic, stoic depiction of a similar scene.

The section on sport features several masterpieces, such as Sean Keating's The Tipperary Hurler. Jack B Yeats's famous The Liffey Swim is included of course, as is his wonderful Degas-esque horseracing painting, Before the Start.

"Ritual and religion" affords a fascinating insight into religious customs, including Maria Spilsbury Taylor's rather bizarre 1815 painting of a wedding dance featuring uninvited guests dressed up in straw costumes and William Willes' Famine-inspired The Mock Funeral, in which those about to emigrate are given a funeral procession. Another masterful Yeats painting, An Island Funeral, depicts a funeral party travelling by boat, probably from the Great Blasket, to the mainland for the burial.

Considering the unpredictability of the Irish weather, "sun, sea and symbolism" is a rather unusual section. Harry Kernoff 's curious Forty Foot, Sandycove has a Mediterranean crispness of colour, while Louis Le Brocquy's A Picnic depicts three strangely isolated and interiorised figures sitting around an empty picnic blanket.

The section on fairs and parades features paintings bustling with activity. Erskine Nicol's panoramic vision of Donnybrook Fair is full of characters and incident, while Muriel Brandt's Procession Day focuses on a group of boys climbing up a College Greenlamppost.

The only major failing of A Time and a Place is its admission price.

We've so many social distractions these days, I wonder how many people will part with 10?